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The Pilgrim’s Progress

Opera · 1951

In Bedford Gaol, John Bunyan reads from his book as Pilgrim appears in a vision. Pilgrim sets out for the Celestial City, loses his burden at the Cross, and is welcomed at the House Beautiful. He receives armor, defeats Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation, resists the temptations of Vanity Fair, and escapes imprisonment with the Key of Promise. After declining to travel with the comfort-seeking By-Ends, Pilgrim visits the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains. A Celestial Messenger directs him across the River of Death to the Celestial City. The epilogue returns to Bunyan in prison.

The Pirates of Penzance

Opera · 1879

Frederic celebrates the end of his apprenticeship to a band of kind-hearted pirates and falls in love with Mabel, daughter of Major-General Stanley. He learns that, because he was born on 29 February, his indenture binds him to the pirates until his twenty-first birthday, which is decades away. Frederic returns to the pirates, who capture Stanley and his daughters, but the Sergeant of Police makes them surrender in Queen Victoria’s name. Ruth reveals that the pirates are noblemen who have gone wrong, and the families reconcile.

The Public

Opera · 2015

Theatre director Enrique is confronted by his former lover Gonzalo, who urges him to abandon his safe artistic choices and acknowledge their love. As characters cross a folding screen, the opera moves through a memory of their relationship and a radical staging of Romeo and Juliet, where a boy cast as Juliet sparks a revolution over freedom and convention. Gonzalo becomes the victim of the audience’s fury. Back in his office, Enrique accepts his love for Gonzalo as a magician appears and Gonzalo’s mother arrives to claim her son’s body.

The Rake’s Progress

Opera · 1951

Tom Rakewell rejects steady work and leaves Anne Trulove for London with Nick Shadow, who tells him that he has inherited a fortune. Tom enters a brothel, then follows Shadow’s advice to marry Baba the Turk. Bored with his marriage, he wishes for a way to turn stones into bread; Shadow produces a sham machine and encourages Tom to market it. The scheme fails, and Tom is ruined. In a graveyard, Shadow demands Tom’s soul, but Tom wins their card game with Anne’s help. Shadow condemns him to madness. In Bedlam, Tom believes he is Adonis. Anne visits and sings to him, then leaves; Tom dies.

The Rape of Lucretia

Opera · 1946

The Male and Female Choruses frame the story of a Rome ruled by Tarquinius Superbus. After other soldiers discover their wives’ infidelity, Junius goads the king’s son Tarquinius into testing Lucretia’s chastity. Tarquinius rides to her home and rapes her while she sleeps. The next morning, Lucretia sends for her husband Collatinus and tells him of the assault. She stabs herself and dies. Junius plans to use the crime to foment rebellion, while the choruses end the work with a prayer.

The Red Line

Opera · 1978

In 1907 in Kainuu, poor crofter Topi and his wife Riika struggle to feed their family. They learn about an election and hope it will improve their lives. Topi dreams of failing to obtain help, then goes to the village to exchange birds for grain. An agitator explains social democracy, and the villagers vote. Topi works at a logging camp while Riika waits anxiously. Their children die from malnutrition. News arrives that ordinary people have won the election, but the promise of better food and health comes too late. A bear awakens and kills Topi; Riika finds him dead with a red line of blood on his throat.

The Saracen

Opera · 1899

In early fifteenth-century France, Count Savoisy’s marriage to Bérengère is dissolved by papal decree so he can marry again and provide an heir. Saracen Yaqoub, a former prisoner, is tried for killing Raymond and pardoned by King Charles VII. The king neglects the war to go hunting, until Agnès Sorel confronts him and he calls his court to battle. In Act IV, Bérengère urges Yaqoub to kill Savoisy before he marries Isabelle. After Savoisy is stabbed, Bérengère takes poison and dies, leaving Yaqoub in despair.

The Sinbadventurers

Opera · 2015

Children Lotte, Kalle and Lily sail a raft toward the open sea but are rescued by pirates, who demand their help freeing their captain from the man-eater Caesar Knochenschmalz. Lotte offers Caesar tofu and is declared his bride. On a magical island, sorceress Cindy transforms the travelers into animals until Kalle persuades her to reverse the spell; Caesar then falls in love with Cindy, and the children sail home. Comic and tragic interludes recount Wilhelm II and Bismarck’s plot over Heligoland and the destruction of Rungholt.

The Snow Maiden: A Spring Fairy Tale

Opera · 1882

The Snow Maiden, daughter of Spring Beauty and Grandfather Frost, longs to live among people. Her parents allow her to be adopted by Bobyl-Bakula and his wife. She is enchanted by Lel’s songs, while Kupava’s wedding to Mizgir is disrupted when Mizgir becomes enamored of the Snow Maiden. The Tsar offers a reward to whoever wins her love. She ultimately falls in love with Mizgir, but her mother warns her to avoid the sun. When she appears with Mizgir at the celebration of Yarilo’s Day, sunlight melts her. Mizgir drowns himself, and the Tsar tells the people that the Snow Maiden’s death ends their long winter.

The Snow Queen

Opera · 1992

A hobgoblin’s mirror shatters, scattering fragments that make Kay cold-hearted. The Snow Queen abducts him, and his sister Gerda sets out to rescue him. After captivity in a witch’s garden, Gerda receives a golden coach from a prince and princess, is captured by robbers, and continues north with help from a reindeer. At the Snow Queen’s palace, Gerda sings the lullaby she and Kay shared; the ice splinter in his heart melts, and they return home. The Snow Queen remains alone and laments.

The Sorcerer

Opera · 1877

Alexis Pointdextre, engaged to Aline Sangazure, wants love to unite people across social ranks. He hires John Wellington Wells, a family sorcerer, to make a potion that causes everyone who drinks it to fall in love with the first person of the opposite sex they see. Villagers awaken to comically mismatched attractions, including Aline’s sudden love for the vicar, Dr Daly. The spell can be broken only if Alexis or Wells gives his life. Wells sacrifices himself to Ahrimanes, freeing the villagers to pair according to their true feelings.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan

Opera · 1900

Saltan chooses Militrisa as his bride and goes to war. Her jealous sisters and Babarikha replace the message telling him of the birth of his son, so he orders mother and child sealed in a barrel and cast into the sea. They reach the island of Buyan, where Gvidon rescues a Swan-Bird. She creates a city and helps Gvidon visit his father disguised as a bumblebee. After hearing sailors describe the island’s wonders, Saltan travels there. The Swan-Bird reveals herself as a princess, and Saltan is reunited with his wife and son.

The Threepenny Opera

Opera · 1928

In Victorian London, gangster Macheath secretly marries Polly Peachum, angering her father, the city’s beggar boss. Macheath’s friend, police chief Tiger Brown, initially protects him, but Peachum pressures Brown by threatening to disrupt Queen Victoria’s coronation parade with beggars. Macheath is arrested and sentenced to hang; in a deliberately comic reversal, a royal messenger pardons him and grants him a title, castle, and pension.

The Tsar’s Bride

Opera · 1899

In 1572, oprichnik Gryaznoy loves Marfa, who is betrothed to Lykov, and seeks a potion to make her love him. His former mistress Lyubasha obtains another potion from the Tsar’s physician, Bomelius. At a feast, Gryaznoy gives Marfa what he believes is a love potion, but Lyubasha has substituted poison. Ivan the Terrible chooses Marfa as his bride. She becomes gravely ill; Lykov is executed, and Gryaznoy learns that the potion killed Marfa. Lyubasha confesses, and Gryaznoy kills her. In her delirium, Marfa mistakes Gryaznoy for Lykov and dies.

The Violins of Saint-Jacques

Opera · 1966

A present-day Caribbean prologue recalls an island destroyed by a volcano during carnival. The main story takes place there during Mardi Gras in 1902: Sosthène returns from France and loves his cousin Berthe, while his sister Josephine secretly loves Marcel, the governor’s son. As a volcano threatens, Sosthène and Berthe try to stop Josephine and Marcel eloping; Berthe comes to love Sosthène. Marcel is revealed to be married, and Josephine is separated from him. The volcano erupts, leaving Berthe the only survivor to mourn those she loved.

The Visitors

Opera · 1957

During the Black Death, Lauretta, Elissa, Panfilo, and Dioneo shelter in a villa and pass the time by staging plays. A monk arrives and proposes a Biblical play; afterward he opens the door to strangers carrying the plague and dies. Two months later, sick and dying visitors fill the courtyard. Lauretta recovers and realizes she loves Panfilo, who has returned from the city. Elissa, who also loves him, forgives them after Dioneo falls gravely ill. At his request the group resumes the Cupid and Psyche play, ending with Venus’s forgiveness and the lovers’ triumph.

The White Horse Inn

Opera · 1930

At the White Horse Inn in St. Wolfgang, head waiter Leopold loves the resolute landlady Josepha, who hopes that her regular guest, lawyer Dr. Siedler, will propose to her. Siedler instead falls for Ottilie, whose father tries to arrange her marriage to his business rival’s son, Sigismund; Sigismund loves Klärchen. After Leopold quits and Josepha reconsiders his proposal, the couples find their matches, with Leopold becoming co-proprietor and a triple marriage in prospect.

The White-Haired Girl

Opera · 1945

In 1935, landlord Huang Shiren forces Yang Bailao to sell his daughter Xi’er to settle debts. After Huang abuses her, Xi’er escapes to the mountains and gives birth. She lives in the wilderness for three years, and her hair and skin turn white; villagers mistake her for a ghostly fairy maiden. Dachun, her fiancé, returns with the CCP military and rescues her. Huang is subjected to a struggle session, and his property is redistributed to the poor. Xi’er and Dachun reunite with the villagers.

The Yeomen of the Guard

Opera · 1888

At the Tower of London, Colonel Fairfax is sentenced to death and secretly marries Elsie before escaping with help from the Merylls. Fairfax disguises himself as Leonard Meryll and wins Elsie’s love, while the jester Jack Point hopes to marry her. After the real Leonard returns with Fairfax’s reprieve, Fairfax reveals his identity and reunites with Elsie. Phoebe and Dame Carruthers reluctantly agree to marry Wilfred and Sergeant Meryll, while the heartbroken Point collapses as the others celebrate.

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