3280 shows
Clear filtersOrpheus leads Eurydice out of the underworld under Hades’s condition that he not look back at her. Near the end of the corridor, he turns to make sure she is following, condemning her to return to the underworld. In a series of arias, Eurydice retreats down the corridor while Orpheus is left to return alone to the living world.
In Warsaw, the young nobleman Kazimierz loves the Countess, while Bronia, who is also in love with him, feels out of place among the Countess's salon guests. After a ball and a misunderstanding send Kazimierz away to war, the Countess recognizes his sincerity and seeks him out, but Kazimierz chooses Bronia, and they are joined at her grandfather's country manor.
An opera adaptation of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play The Critic, using much of its second and third acts. The opera’s plot is not summarized in the entry.
In Salem during the witch trials, Abigail Williams and other girls accuse townspeople of witchcraft. Abigail’s jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor drives her accusation against Elizabeth, and John Proctor is also condemned. He chooses hanging rather than recanting his beliefs.
A forester captures a young vixen, who later escapes and lives in the forest with a fox. After a poacher kills her, the forester encounters a young frog, continuing the opera’s cycle of life and renewal.
In a village, Bětuška loves the poor Jeník, but her father Martin wants her to marry the wealthy Václav. The Prince offers Jeník a farm in exchange for an assignation with Bětuška; Veruna and the Princess foil the Prince and Jean with disguises and a trap, and the Prince grants the farm so Bětuška and Jeník can marry.
Miranda’s aunt wants her to marry her foppish cousin, Monsieur, but Miranda loves Gerard. When Miranda’s father discovers Gerard in her bedroom, Gerard pretends to be a dancing master. The aunt tests his dancing and Miranda’s maid tries to seduce Monsieur. Miranda and Gerard secretly marry, and her father approves.
Set in eighteenth-century France, the opera follows characters including Marquise de Merteuil, Vicomte de Valmont, Madame de Tourvel, Cécile de Volanges, and Chevalier de Danceny across scenes in chateaus, bedrooms, a wood, a pleasure pavilion, a convent, and Vincennes.
A Russian-language opera based on Boris Vasilyev’s novel The Dawns Here Are Quiet.
After choruses reflect on Palestinian and Jewish histories, the ship’s Captain recounts the hijacking of the Achille Lauro. Passengers and hijackers describe their experiences and motives. Leon Klinghoffer condemns the hijackers and is murdered offstage. After the hijackers surrender and the passengers disembark, the Captain tells Marilyn Klinghoffer of her husband’s death; she responds with grief and anger.
An opera by Otakar Ostrčil based on Karel Pippich’s drama about Vlasta, a leader of warriors in the Czech Maidens’ War legend. The plot is not summarized in the available record.
Against the 1825 Decembrist revolt, Prince Dimitri joins dissident officers while pursuing a love for Elena. The conspirators’ uprising in Senate Square is crushed, and Dimitri is wounded. Elena persuades Tsar Nicholas to let her accompany Dimitri into exile; other leaders face execution, and the exiles depart for Siberia singing a hymn to liberation.
In Surinam/Dutch Guiana, the local Anakawtas tribe, led by Queen Oanita and Casgan, attacks Dutch settlers defended by Captain Maurice and Major Van Pumpernickle. Oanita and Maurice fall in love, provoking Casgan. Casgan interrupts their meeting and captures Maurice, who refuses to betray his comrades. Oanita lets him escape, then faces execution by her enraged tribe. Maurice and his soldiers rescue her; Casgan is killed, and the lovers’ reunion restores peace between the settlers and the tribe.
In 15th-century London, a husband lives with a wife who has been unable to speak since birth. A surgeon gives her the ability to speak, but she becomes domineering. Exasperated, her husband calls for the Devil to take her. When the Devil arrives, he too cannot tolerate the wife, and he escapes with the husband.
New Hampshire farmer Jabez Stone sells his soul to Mr. Scratch in exchange for prosperity. When the devil comes to collect, Daniel Webster defends Stone in a trial before a jury of historical figures chosen by Scratch, and wins a not-guilty verdict.
At a village dance, Kate declares she would dance with the devil if necessary. A mysterious hunter, the devil Marbuel, dances with her and carries her to Hell. Jirka follows to rescue her and persuades Lucifer to let Kate return to Earth. Later, Jirka tells the Princess she must free the serfs or be taken to Hell. When Marbuel comes for her, Kate frightens him away. The Princess rewards Jirka and Kate, and the peasants celebrate their freedom.
The devil becomes fascinated with the young Alvare and appears in several forms, including Biondetta. As the supernatural figure grows more human, Biondetta is ultimately freed through her love for Alvare.
Jarek has sworn not to marry until his lord Vok does, while Vok has been unable to love since a past rejection. The demon Rarach exploits their hopes and the lovers’ oaths, but after Vok recognizes his former beloved’s daughter Hedvika and opens his heart to her, Rarach tries to flood the monastery by building a wall across the Vltava. Beneš breaks the demon’s power, and Vok and Hedvika as well as Jarek and Katuška can marry.
In Loudun, the prioress Jeanne’s visions and the nuns’ claims of possession are used to accuse Father Grandier of witchcraft. Grandier’s political conflict with authorities and private relationships fuel his prosecution; he is tortured and burned, and Jeanne eventually recognizes that her accusations arose from unrequited love.
Anne Frank records daily life in hiding with her family in Amsterdam from 1942 until their arrest in 1944. Through brief scenes drawn from her diary, she describes the people around her, small pleasures, her growing feelings for Peter, and the fear and loneliness of confinement.
In five continuous diary scenes set in St. Petersburg, clerk Popristchin becomes increasingly delusional: he imagines dogs are corresponding about his beloved Sophie, then believes himself to be King Ferdinand VIII of Spain, before ending in an asylum.
A group of humorists fools several dupes with a fabricated story about Blackbeard’s buried treasure. They stage a mock magical ritual and persuade the dupes to dig up a chest, which contains only bricks and stones. After Washball tries to betray the group to the king’s tax collector, the dupes confront their gullibility; Lucy and Meanwell marry, and the others resolve to reform.
The opera explores the seven virtues—prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope and charity—and cultural perceptions of disability.
Wealthy couple Iris and Jed are happily divorcing and host an elaborate party. Iris's sister Louise is secretly in love with Jed, while Toby is an aspiring artist hired as a waiter and Caroline, the couple's assistant, is pursued by loan sharks. By the end of the evening, the divorce has unsettled the characters' assumptions and sent them in unexpected directions.
In a totalitarian future, the Doctor tells a child the legend of a shepherd whose wife returned to a lake after he struck her three times, leaving healing powers to his descendants. A spreading disease afflicts anyone struck in the rain. The Doctor warns the Ruler, who suppresses the story; during a confrontation in the rain, the Doctor strikes and infects him. The Ruler seeks a cure at the lake, but the Doctor refuses. The sick crowd tramples the Doctor to death, and the Child orders the Ruler into the lake before becoming the new Doctor of Myddfai.
In Uppsala in 1647, professor Johan Bure and apothecary Simon Wolimhaus wager on when the world will end, putting innkeeper Klas Mugg’s home at risk. Klas’s daughter Elin loves the poor student Lars, who is arrested after confronting noble students. Captain Lennart Sporre persuades Klas to consent to their marriage and secretly sets fire to Wolimhaus’s kennel, invalidating the wager. Amid the ensuing confusion Lars escapes, and the arrival of Queen Kristina is mistaken for Doomsday. Lars is pardoned and marries Elin, while Sporre is united with Görvel; the prophets are confounded.
This three-act operetta has a satiric story concerning reincarnation and is based on the play The Road to Yesterday.
In 1848 Sonoma, residents carry conflicting memories and hopes as a troupe prepares Othello. Sam, an African American man, is initially denied entry to the performance; the incident sparks a confrontation with General Vallejo, followed by an apology and a communal reflection on the town’s dreams.
A German comic opera based on a play by Aristophanes. The available record does not identify the specific source play or provide a plot synopsis.
Laundress Catherine helps young Napoleon and shelters aristocrat Philippe during the French Revolution, while her fiancé Lefebvre advances in the army. Fifteen years later, Napoleon orders the Duchess of Dantzic to divorce Marshal Lefebvre, but her old unpaid laundry bill reminds him of her kindness; he relents and permits their adopted son Adhémar to marry Renée.
The widowed Duchess secretly marries her steward Antonio despite her brothers Ferdinand and the Cardinal forbidding her to remarry. They discover the marriage and imprison her. Their spy Bosola and Ferdinand ultimately kill each other in a duel.
In Seville, Don Ferdinand loves Donna Clara, whose father plans to send her to a convent. When Ferdinand asks her to elope, she refuses but later runs away alone. Ferdinand's sister Louisa loves Antonio, while their father Don Jerome intends her to marry the wealthy Isaac Mendoza.
Don Jerome plans to marry his daughter Luisa to Don Isaac, separating her from Don Antonio. Luisa trades clothes with her duenna so she can search for her lover, while the duenna pursues Isaac. Luisa finds Ferdinand’s runaway beloved Clara and persuades Isaac to bring Antonio to her. By the end, both couples marry and Don Jerome learns how he was deceived.
The roles include Channon, Leah, the Messenger, Rabbi Azrael, Meyer, Sender, Chennoch and Frade.
A three-act Yiddish-language opera adapted from S. Ansky’s play The Dybbuk.
The opera dramatizes the conception and construction of the Sydney Opera House. Construction begins before key architectural problems are resolved; after a change of government, political opposition and disputes over cost and schedule lead to the architect losing control and leaving the country. Two young artists see their future in the building, whose realized form stands alongside the unfulfilled larger vision.
Two-act opera featuring Boris Pasternak as narrator, based on his semi-autobiographical works The Last Summer and Spectorsky.
Irish patriot Terence O’Brian returns to a village whose people have been forced to adopt English customs. Professor Bunn, hired by the English to teach elocution, switches sides and helps the rebels frighten away soldiers by staging a fairy haunting. After a second ruse and several romantic complications, Bunn persuades the Lord Lieutenant to pardon the rebels, and the couples are united.
Brutus Jones, a former Pullman porter and escaped convict, has made himself a wealthy, brutal ruler of a West Indian island. As a revolt drives him into the jungle, visions of his past and a man he murdered overwhelm him; surrounded by pursuers, Jones kills himself with the silver bullet he had worn as protection.
An opera pasticcio combining Baroque music by several composers with a new text by Jeremy Sams. It brings together characters from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, including Prospero, Miranda, Ariel, Helena, Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander.
Flora, one of King Hildebrand’s three daughters, is fated to marry a pig who is actually a king under a spell. After a witch abducts him to marry her daughter, Flora enlists the North Wind, Moon, and Sun to find and free him, restoring him to human form.
Shchedrin's Russian-language concert opera is based on Nikolai Leskov's novel The Enchanted Wanderer. It was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for Lorin Maazel and later received its Russian premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre.
Innkeeper Nastasya, known as Kuma, is pursued by Prince Nikita and his son Yuriy. The devious Mamïrov spreads rumors about her and schemes against her and the prince’s family. Yuriy falls in love with Nastasya, and they plan to flee, unaware that Mamïrov has devised a plot with devastating consequences.
Regent Miloch and Minister of War Ozir scheme to remove Prince Ivan by persuading him to marry the opera singer Vivien Savary, a commoner, which would require him to abdicate. Vivien falls in love with Ivan and, with the secret-service chief Troute, helps thwart the scheme. The plotters are exposed, and Vivien is revealed to have royal ancestry, allowing her to marry Ivan without the crown being lost.
In wartime and postwar London, Sarah promises to end her affair with Maurice if he survives a bombing. When he does, she turns to religion, while Maurice resents her conversion and later hires a detective to investigate her after she returns to her husband, Henry.
In 1890s London, a society of bourgeois cats protects rats and raises the orphan mouse Louise. Lord Puff, his wife Minette, and Minette’s lover Tom are caught in a love triangle.
During a pogrom, a Jewish congregation hides overnight in a synagogue while the rabbi reads from the Torah. Each act re-enacts a biblical theme. The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the deportation of the people hiding in the synagogue converge, while a messianic voice offers hope of deliverance in Zion.
A one-act, seven-scene chamber opera about Arthur Stace, who chalked the word “Eternity” on Sydney walls and footpaths about 500,000 times over more than 35 years.
Prague landlord Matěj Brouček, drunk after an evening at a tavern, dreams of a more comfortable life on the Moon. He encounters avant-garde lunar artists, whose art and flower-scented meal displease him; after he is caught eating sausage, he flees on Pegasus and wakes in a barrel. In a second excursion, Brouček travels to Prague in 1420 during a Hussite siege. He convinces the rebels he is on their side but flees battle, is accused of treason, and sentenced to be burned in a beer barrel. He wakes back in his own time and boasts that he liberated Prague.
After a dinner party at the de Nobile mansion, the guests find themselves unable to leave. As hunger, thirst, illness, and conflict escalate, they debate sacrificing Edmundo. Leticia realizes they are trapped repeating the positions and actions of their arrival; changing one action lets the guests cross the threshold and reunite with the crowd outside.
At the Sorochyntsi fair, the peasant Gritsko wins the approval of Parasya’s father, Cherevik, to marry her, but her stepmother Khivrya blocks the match. A story about the devil searching for a red jacket spreads fear among the fairgoers, while Khivrya secretly entertains the priest’s son. With help from a Gypsy, Gritsko secures Cherevik’s renewed consent, and the people celebrate the wedding. Shebalin’s standard completion includes Gritsko’s dream of witches and devils.
During the celebration of Oberon’s birthday, Phoebus and the Four Seasons appear in a masque. Juno blesses the lovers, a lament is sung, and Chinese characters celebrate harmony before Hymen praises married life.
The opera adapts Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher.
Chris Judge Smith’s opera adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s story makes the House itself a vocal character sung by Roderick Usher. Poe’s unnamed narrator becomes Montresor, and the libretto hints at a romantic attachment between him and Madeline Usher.
Framed as a rehearsal, the work opens with Mr. Meanwell, Mr. Ballad and Mr. Modely arguing over English and Italian opera for a wedding, then calling in the players to begin Mr. Drama’s piece. The play mixes dialogue with ballad airs set to familiar tunes, turning to debates over taste and fashionable intrigues. In Act III, Sir Peevish Terrible convenes a mock court to try Harlequin before the company continues with songs and a concluding ensemble. The satire targets English drama, theatrical management and the vogue for Italian opera.
Renata tells the knight Ruprecht that she loved the angel Madiel as a child and later mistook Count Heinrich von Otterheim for the angel returned in human form. After Heinrich leaves her, she asks Ruprecht to help find him. Renata and Ruprecht seek magical aid, but Agrippa refuses to help. When Renata finds Heinrich and learns he never was her angel, she asks Ruprecht to avenge her; he is wounded in a duel. Later Renata decides to enter a convent. The nuns accuse her of demonic possession, and the Inquisitor condemns her to be burned.
In modern Lewes, Cora’s visit to the site of a former naval prison conjures Matts Olander, a Finnish prisoner held there during the Crimean War. Past and present overlap as Cora dates John, who longs for her great-grandmother Lily, while Lily loves Matts; the story explores love across time, language and distance.
Lila, a young girl, wants to become a firework-maker like her father and goes on adventures.
Emperor Qin orders the conquest of Yan so his childhood friend, musician Gao Jianli, can compose an anthem for the new empire. Jianli refuses after Qin’s army destroys his village, but agrees to write music after falling in love with Princess Yueyang. At the imperial inauguration, the dead princess and general reveal Qin’s crimes; Jianli, grieving and vengeful, presents the slaves’ song as the anthem.
In 1919, Shoeless Joe Jackson reluctantly joins a conspiracy to throw the World Series after his teammates frame it as a way to challenge miserly owner Charles Comiskey. Joe has second thoughts and urges the others to play to win, but gamblers threaten his wife Katie, and Lefty Williams agrees to lose the next game. A year later, rumors haunt the team. Joe confesses to Katie, who persuades him to tell the truth. The scandal breaks; the players are acquitted at trial but Commissioner Landis bans them for life. Years later, former catcher Ray Schalk tells reporter Ring Lardner that Joe manages a small store in South Carolina. In a flashback, Joe, aged and ashamed, avoids acknowledging his old teammate.
A chamber opera by Jason Kao Hwang with a libretto by Catherine Filloux.
During Japanese rule in Korea, Kkot-bun sells flowers to buy medicine for her sick mother and care for her blinded younger sister. After the landlord’s wife has the sister taken away and Kkot-bun is imprisoned, her brother returns from the revolutionary army and leads villagers in an uprising against the landlord.
Princess Laya returns to Hawaii disguised as a singer and finds the island under American rule, while her royalist supporters hope she will lead a resistance. When the governor orders her arrested, Captain Stone refuses and she signs away her claim to sovereignty to save him; after misunderstandings and a near suicide, the characters reunite in Monte Carlo, where Laya and Prince Lilo-Taro are brought together.
A two-act English-language opera adapted loosely from David Cronenberg’s 1986 science-fiction film, with roles for scientist Seth Brundle, journalist Veronica Quaife, editor Stathis Borans, and others.
A storm drives Norwegian captain Daland ashore, where he meets the cursed Flying Dutchman, condemned to sail until a faithful woman redeems him. Daland agrees to the Dutchman’s marriage to his daughter Senta in exchange for treasure. Senta, who has long been fascinated by the Dutchman’s story, pledges fidelity. When the Dutchman believes her former lover Erik has won her back, he departs; Senta throws herself into the sea and her sacrifice frees him.
A comic chamber opera built from Melvyn Bragg’s interview with artist Francis Bacon, filmed in 1985. The work features two speaking characters.
A Russian-language opera based on Ethel Voynich’s novel and set in Italy from 1834 to 1848.
Tutor Alexei loves Polina, the General’s ward, who is indebted to the Marquis. The General hopes to inherit money from his aunt Babulenka so he can marry Blanche. When Babulenka arrives alive and gambles away much of her fortune, the General’s hopes collapse. The Marquis tells Polina that he will forgive part of a debt in exchange for ending their relationship. Alexei wins repeatedly at roulette and offers Polina money, but she throws it back at him and leaves. He remains alone, fixated on his success at the tables.
In a Russian provincial inn, card sharp Icharjev meets three other gamblers. They decide to cheat the elderly estate owner Michail Glov through his son Alexander, who signs a bill for 200,000 rubles. The others pass the bill to Icharjev, take his cash, and leave on a pretext. Alexander then reveals that they were a gang of card sharps who have cheated Icharjev.
In 1806, Irish Catholic immigrants Dominic Daley and James Halligan await execution for a murder they may not have committed. Father Cheverus travels from Boston to comfort them despite believing them guilty, while Daley’s wife Finola challenges the case by revealing doubts about a witness’s testimony. The governor denies an appeal, and Cheverus ultimately delivers the execution oration after gaining the men’s trust.
In 16th-century Padua, Giovanni watches Dr. Rappaccini’s daughter Beatrice tend her father’s deadly garden and falls in love with her. Beatrice warns that her poisoned body makes her touch and kiss fatal. Giovanni takes an antidote from a family friend, then discovers that he too has become poisonous. Beatrice believes she cannot live without the toxins and dies after drinking the antidote; Giovanni takes it and survives.
At the afterlife court of Versailles, Beaumarchais stages an opera to comfort Marie Antoinette’s ghost and change her fate. Within his play, Figaro and the Almavivas struggle against Bégearss, who plots to arrest them during the French Revolution. Beaumarchais enters the story to rescue the Queen, but Marie Antoinette refuses to alter history. She is executed, while the Almavivas escape to America and Beaumarchais and the Queen are united in Paradise.
A giant attempts to kidnap Ustinya, who is rescued by her friends Sergeyev and Yegorov with a king’s help. Prokofiev’s mother describes an ending in which the giant defeats the king, though the source notes that this may refer to an earlier version.
Rautavaara adapts O. Henry’s Christmas story, relocating it from 1900 New York to his childhood neighborhood of Kallio in Helsinki during the 1930s. The entry does not describe the dramatic events.
On Christmas Eve, Della sells her hair to buy Jim a watch fob, while Jim sells his heirloom watch to buy her combs. Each gives up the possession that would have made the other’s gift useful, and the couple recognizes the love and sacrifice behind their presents.
Tsar Dodon fears invasion and asks an Astrologer for advice. The Astrologer gives him a magical Golden Cockerel, which alerts the Tsar to danger from the Tsaritsa of Shemakha. Dodon sends his sons to war, but they kill one another. He then leads the army himself and becomes enamored of the Tsaritsa, who encourages his marriage proposal. At the wedding, the Astrologer asks for the Tsaritsa as his reward. Dodon strikes him dead, and the cockerel pecks Dodon’s throat. The Tsaritsa and cockerel disappear.
A four-act, nine-scene Ukrainian opera based on Ivan Franko’s short story Zachar Berkut.
An opera based on Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, featuring Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka.
Venetian gondoliers Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri learn that one is heir to Barataria, but the Grand Inquisitor cannot identify which brother. They rule jointly while their new wives remain in Venice. The Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro reveal that their daughter Casilda was married in infancy to the lost prince, though she loves her father’s servant Luiz. The Inquisitor discovers that Luiz is the true heir and Casilda’s husband. The brothers surrender the crown and return to Venice with their wives.
An English-language two-act opera based on Jaroslav Hašek’s novel The Good Soldier Švejk.
A two-act opera-oratorio about the final weeks of Jesus’ life and Passion, viewed through Mary of Bethany, her sister Martha and brother Lazarus. Its scenes include the supper at Bethany, Passover, the arrest of the women, Golgotha, burial and an earthquake and recognition scene.
In the fictional duchy of Pfennig-Halbpfennig, theatrical manager Ernest Dummkopf and comedian Ludwig learn that a conspiracy plans to overthrow the Grand Duke. The notary explains a statutory-duel law under which a card draw makes the loser legally dead and transfers his position to the winner. Ludwig exploits the law to replace Grand Duke Rudolph, then finds himself bound to several women through betrothals. The notary eventually reveals that the ace is the lowest card, so the duel never made Ludwig duke. The law expires, and Rudolph marries the Princess of Monte Carlo, Ernest marries Julia, and Ludwig marries Lisa.
During the Dust Bowl, the dispossessed Joad family travels from Oklahoma to California seeking work. They encounter exploitation and hardship, lose family members along the way, and face flood and displacement; in the final scene, Rosasharn nurses a starving man with milk intended for her stillborn child.
Set in northern Georgia in 1919, the opera tells of the Lezgin Murtaz and Cossack Galina, who love each other amid conflict between Cossacks and mountain peoples. Murtaz supports the Bolsheviks and dies stopping a bullet aimed at the commissar by White officer Pomazov.
A two-act opera adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby.
During the Franco-Prussian War, a group of French travelers flee Rouen by coach. They initially scorn the prostitute Boule de Suif, but accept her food and friendship during the journey. Detained by Prussian soldiers, the group learns they can leave only if Boule sleeps with the commandant; they eventually pressure her into complying, then ostracize her again when the journey resumes.
In a Greek village, residents prepare a Passion play and are urged to live according to the roles they receive. When refugees arrive, Manolios and several villagers help them, while the village priest and elders see their influence threatened; Manolios is excommunicated and killed as the refugees seek shelter.
A Russian-language opera by Dmitry Smolsky based on a Belarusian novel by Uladzimir Karatkievich. The entry does not describe its plot.
In Spain, a child abducted by a Romani group grows into a leader. After rescuing a man from the Inquisition, he is arrested and faces execution; the man trying his case proves to be his long-lost father.
In a 22nd-century conference about the fallen Republic of Gilead, Professor Pieixoto presents a recording made by a former handmaid. Offred recalls her separation from her husband and daughter, indoctrination at the Red Centre, and assignment to Commander Fred’s household. She becomes close to Fred and begins an affair with Nick while sharing forbidden contact with fellow handmaid Ofglen and the resistance. After Serena Joy discovers the affair and the secret police arrest Offred, the conference frame returns; Pieixoto says her fate is unknown.
Brothers Stefan and Zbigniew vow to remain unmarried so they can serve their country, but at a manor they meet and fall in love with Hanna and Jadwiga. A jealous suitor hides in the house and invents a ghost story that drives the brothers away. Miecznik explains the manor’s supposed haunting, and the brothers are reunited with the women they love.
Lady Elinor loves Sir Palamede, unaware he is Lord William in disguise. William returns to reclaim Oakland Castle after an accusation falsely banished his family and allowed Edmund, now the Baron, to take the estate. Meanwhile, Baron’s son Edward loves Adela, and the couple join the household’s layered disguises; Adela pretends to be Elinor while Elinor presents herself as a lady-in-waiting. The Baron suspects a plot when William’s followers gather. In the tower, William finds his father’s armor and appears in it, prompting the Baron to believe the tower is haunted. As fighting breaks out, William is recognized as the rightful heir. He forgives the Baron, is reunited with Elinor, and Edward and Adela can stop pretending.
A three-act opera commissioned for the United States Bicentennial.
In sixteenth-century Russia, Anna seduces a merchant while she and her husband Antti are serfs in his household. The merchant’s wife discovers the affair and demands that the couple be killed. Antti binds the merchant and his wife and burns their house before escaping with Anna to Finland. At Olavinlinna castle, Anna is accused of burying her baby; Antti, disguised as an old man, testifies about their escape. They flee again, but are later caught in a rebellion against the royal castle. Antti and his group are killed, and Anna laments her husband.
Across one day in 1923, 1949 and 1999, Virginia Woolf struggles with illness and her novel, Laura Brown considers suicide while feeling trapped in domestic life, and Clarissa Vaughan prepares a party for her dying friend Richard. Laura chooses to live, while Richard dies by suicide. At the wake, Laura reunites with Clarissa, and the three women recognize their connection across time.
Set in Uyghur areas, this opera draws on Xinjiang folklore and celebrates Afanti, who curbs violent and greedy figures.
A one-act opera combining Franz Kafka’s A Hunger Artist with a revisionist take on Adam and Eve.
Russian dissident Lev arrives in the West after twenty years in prison and reunites with his wife Nadia and their son Yuri, who feels distant from him. Conflict between black and white crowds erupts into a riot, killing Olympion and Gayle and leaving Yuri gravely injured. After Yuri recovers in hospital, he stands and embraces his father.
Weinberg's Russian-language opera adapts Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot. The work is described as a four-act opera in ten scenes and received its world premiere in Mannheim in 2013.
The shadowy Dalua brings mortal king Eochaidh and faery princess Etain together, though Etain has lost her immortal memories. A year later, Etain’s immortal lover Midir arrives disguised as a harpist and awakens her origins with his song. She leaves with Midir, and Dalua touches the heartbroken Eochaidh, who collapses dead.
Jack Worthing and Algernon invent identities to escape social obligations and pursue Gwendolen and Cecily, who both believe they are engaged to Ernest. Their deceptions unravel, but Jack is discovered to be the baby once left in a handbag at Victoria Station. He learns that his real name is Ernest, making him an acceptable suitor to Gwendolen’s family.
During conflict between the Inca and Aztecs, Montezuma and Acacis become rivals for Orazia while Zempoalla seeks power and love. The intrigue ends with Zempoalla’s death and the revelation of Montezuma’s royal identity; a masque celebrates his marriage to Orazia.
A man outside a house and a woman inside watch and wait; he posts a letter as she swats a fly. Their scene repeats in increasingly complex variations, revealing their meeting at Lerna and the myth of Zeus’s seduction of Io, whom he changed into a heifer to hide from Hera. Hera’s gadfly drove Io across the world. In the present, the woman refuses the man and clings to domestic routine, while the ancient gods and the man continue to intrude, stripping away her settled life.
Fisherman Ilo and his wife Telea land on a deserted island, where a god orders Ilo to rebuild a ruined temple. Telea and another fisherman escape together; the god kills Ilo, then dies when no worshipper remains.
Bohuš returns to his Bohemian hometown in disguise with his wife Julie. His father, Count Vilém, disowns him, believing rumors that he is a Jacobin, and names his nephew Adolf as heir. Adolf and the Burgrave arrange Bohuš’s arrest, while they also try to force Terinka to marry the Burgrave instead of Jiří. Julie tells the Count that Bohuš was condemned by the Jacobins for supporting the Girondins. The Count pardons Bohuš and Jiří, denounces Adolf’s scheming, and reconciles with his son.
Four commedia dell’arte characters open the opera with a quartet. When they find there is no more music, the Dottore summons the Composer, who works out how the opera should proceed with help from a singer of tragic music and his father. The Composer sings the epilogue.
A one-act opera based on R. O. Blechman’s book The Juggler of Our Lady: A Medieval Legend.
During the California Gold Rush, Smiley boasts that his frog, Dan’l Webster, can beat any frog in Calaveras County and wagers $40. The Stranger pretends to find a competitor, but secretly feeds buckshot to his frog. Dan’l cannot jump, so the Stranger wins. When Smiley discovers the trick, the townspeople catch the Stranger, take back the money and drive him from town.
A chamber opera set during the 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino. Its roles include a Benedictine monk, a New Zealand soldier, a German officer and members of their families; the plot is not detailed in the available record.
A wicked stepmother murders her stepson and serves him to his unsuspecting father. After his sister buries his bones beneath a juniper tree, the boy returns as a singing bird, takes vengeance on the stepmother, and is restored to life with his family.
King Eadgar sends his henchman Aethelwold to assess Aelfrida, but Aethelwold falls in love with her, lies to the king, and marries her himself. When Eadgar visits, Aelfrida reveals her beauty rather than disguising it; Aethelwold dies by suicide, and the king orders his burial with honor.
Lukáš, a young widower, hopes to marry Vendulka, but she refuses to kiss him before their wedding because she fears disturbing the ghost of his late wife. Angered, Lukáš leaves and dances with other village girls, prompting Vendulka to flee. In a forest, smugglers and Vendulka’s aunt Martinka help reunite the unhappy couple. Lukáš apologizes to Vendulka and her father, and they finally kiss.
Mangus, a psychoanalyst, introduces a group of characters whose relationships and desires shift through a dreamlike maze. Thea and Faber are confronted with the behavior of their ward Flora and the arrival of Thea’s sister Denise, recently tortured. Mel and Dov’s affair begins to end. In the final act, Mangus stages The Tempest with the group; Mel and Denise leave together, Dov follows, Flora departs alone, and Thea and Faber reconcile.
Anthropology student Kitty travels to India seeking the world’s last savage. Her parents hire Abdul to pose as one; Kitty takes him to America, grows attached to him, and eventually chooses to live with him in a jungle cave.
A character called Ghost, representing the audience, invites Christ and his disciples to supper. The opera juxtaposes old and new, Jewish and Christian perspectives to question the Last Supper story’s meaning in a modern context, ending in the Garden of Olives.
On his deathbed during a winter storm, preacher Paavo Ruotsalainen relives his life in hallucinations. He remembers marrying Riitta, the harsh backwoods life and their baby’s death, his son Juhana’s murder, and Riitta’s death. He also relives being humiliated by church authorities and his exclusion from a university ceremony. Riitta and the blacksmith who first inspired his faith call him toward the island and Heaven’s gate. In his final moments, Paavo recognizes his family around him, settles his affairs and joins his family in singing his favorite hymn, believing he has overcome.
A one-act comic opera based on Nikolai Gogol’s fragmentary scene The Lawsuit. The listed characters are Pavel Petrovich Burdyukov, Khristophor Petrovich Burdyukov, and Alexander Ivanovich Proletov.
Tsar Nicholas I challenges Russian workmen to improve on a steel flea made by English craftsmen for his brother Alexander I. The Left-Hander attaches tiny horseshoes to the flea and is sent to England, where he declines offers to remain and marry an Englishwoman. On his return voyage a storm and a drunken English sailor imperil the ship. The Left-Hander reaches Saint Petersburg drunk, is arrested, and sends the Tsar a warning that cleaning muskets with brick dust will leave the Russian army unprepared for war. He dies; the flea sings a lullaby, and the opera ends with a burial rite.
Count Stackareff, secretly the bandit Black Lorenzo, awaits a ransom in his hunting lodge while his daughter Carmelita fears losing her lover Stephen if he discovers the truth. Stephen arrives on a mission to capture the bandit, and Stackareff escapes. Carmelita stabs Stephen when he breaks their promise to pursue her father; soldiers then shoot Carmelita after discovering the murder.
A Georgian-language opera about the 12th-century poet Shota Rustaveli.
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