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Clear filtersIn a Costa Brava town, night watchman Gaspar discovers a hidden ice rink where skater Nuria trains under the watch of social-services official Enric. Enric has diverted public money to build it and becomes obsessed with Nuria, while she is involved with businessman Remo; after Carmen is murdered on the rink, Enric is arrested for embezzlement but the final conversation reveals another killer.
An English-language two-act operetta by John Philip Sousa, based on Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand’s opera The Contrabandista. Its roles include smugglers, a kidnapped maiden and a queen of the smugglers.
The Tsaritsa’s eleven daughters, the Princess-Swans, accidentally hit her in the eyes with a snowball. She wishes for a son and for a whirlwind to sweep her daughters away; a blizzard follows, and the Snow Bogatyr appears. He promises to find his new sisters. In a forest, he defeats a three-headed dragon and rescues the Princess-Swans from a hut on hen’s legs, then leads them home.
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.
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.
Kay is struck by splinters from a magic mirror and taken to the Snow Queen’s palace. His friend Gerda searches for him, meeting a series of helpers before reaching the frozen kingdom. Her tears free Kay from the mirror’s spell, and the children return home together.
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.
A two-part chamber opera comprising The Sound of a Voice and Hotel of Dreams, composed by Philip Glass with libretto by David Henry Hwang. The stories are not described in the available account.
Dargomyzhsky sets Pushkin’s blank-verse play about Don Juan directly as an opera, retaining its text unchanged. The work consists principally of characters’ melodic recitative solos, with two small romances for Laura.
A satirical half-act opera that combines elements of Don Giovanni and Carmen. Its finale first parodies tragic operatic endings, then reveals the tragedy as a false ending and introduces a deus ex machina for an incongruous happy conclusion.
A four-act opera based on Boris Polevoy’s novel recounting the life of Soviet pilot Aleksey Maresyev.
At a bar on Christmas Eve, Estelle tells her silent friend Lisa that she knows Lisa loves her husband. Leaving, Estelle concludes that she is the stronger woman, though the composer’s account leaves the question open.
Dolly loves sailor Peter, but her uncle Captain Flint takes her to sea while seeking a more advantageous match. On Mocha, the Sultan buys Dolly from Flint. Peter rescues her, but Admiral Sneak captures and sells her to the Sultan; Dolly agrees to marry the Sultan in exchange for Peter’s freedom. She tricks the Sultan into marrying Isadora instead, and Dolly and Peter reunite.
A substantially rewritten version of Alfred Cellier’s comic opera. The 1887 revision changes characters and their relationships; the source does not provide a separate plot summary.
The opera follows baseball star Josh Gibson from his early days in Pittsburgh through his career in the Negro leagues and his eventual induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It portrays his athletic achievements alongside his grief after his wife’s death, alcoholism, and drug abuse.
A one-act opera based on Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, with a libretto that includes direct quotations from the novel.
Set at Pipestone Quarry, the opera centers on a love triangle between Sioux protagonist Ohiya, Winona, daughter of the chief, and Sweet Singer, a Shoshone man. Sweet Singer has traveled to Sioux lands after violating religious rules; Ohiya vows to win Winona’s affection. The Sun Dance ceremony is central to the story.
A five-scene opera based on the story of Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy.
Ageing Januarie marries young May despite warnings from his friend Justinus. May and Januarie’s servant Damyan become lovers; after a series of deceptions involving blindness and a pear tree, Januarie dies believing May’s child is his heir. The opera retells Chaucer’s tale in a seasonal cycle, with Pluto and Proserpina shaping the lovers’ fate.
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 opera is based on William Shakespeare's play of the same title. It was composed between 1938 and 1950, had a concert premiere in Cincinnati, and was later adapted into a shortened television version.
In Padua, Baptista refuses to let his younger daughter Bianca marry until her tempestuous elder sister Katarina is wed. Bianca’s suitors recruit Petruchio to court Katarina; despite an uneasy start, the pair fall in love and marry.
A monologue based on a 2006 letter in which composer Olav Anton Thommessen criticized his former student Marcus Paus for his tonal music. The work became part of a public debate about musical aesthetics in Norway.
Ben visits Lucy to propose before leaving on a trip, but her long telephone conversations repeatedly interrupt him. He leaves to catch his train without asking. From a telephone booth, he calls Lucy and makes his proposal; she accepts, and they sing a duet over the phone line.
Lee Hoiby’s three-act operatic adaptation of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
Prospero uses magic to wreck the ship carrying his usurping brother Antonio, King Alonso and their court onto the island where Prospero and Miranda live. He tests Ferdinand and Miranda’s love while Ariel guides and confuses the shipwrecked party. After Miranda and Ferdinand marry, Prospero reveals himself, forgives his brother, restores the court and releases Ariel.
Opera adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
Based on Gustave Flaubert’s novel The Temptation of Saint Anthony.
As she prepares to graduate from high school on her family’s Midwestern farm, Laurie Moss meets itinerant workers Top and Martin. Laurie and Martin fall in love at her graduation party, but her grandfather orders the workers to leave. Martin hesitates to run away with Laurie and departs with Top. Laurie decides to leave home on her own, despite her mother and sister’s pleas.
Two-act English-language opera inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Twelve Brothers. The cast includes King Hjarne, Queen Gertrude, Princess Lyra, and princes of Frohagord and Hauven; no plot summary appears in the entry.
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.
A dying soul travels through spiritual and emotional realms, from the moment of death and a vision of clear white light through peaceful and angry energies, encounters with demons and the Lord of Death, and the choice of a new home before entering life again.
A burlesque opera about a regiment nicknamed the Tigers.
Convicts Henry Cabell and Susannah Holmes are sentenced to transportation and fall in love while imprisoned. When their infant son is refused passage with Susannah to Australia, a guard appeals to Lord Sydney, who arranges for the family to reunite, marry, and travel together. Cabell later prospers in the colony.
Friends Shridaman and Nanda both fall in love with Sita; after Nanda helps Shridaman marry her, the two men behead themselves in a Kali temple. Kali revives them with their heads on the wrong bodies, and the resulting triangle ends with both men killing themselves and Sita joining their funeral pyre.
An opera by Charles Villiers Stanford based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of the same name. The entry does not summarize the plot.
On his 30th birthday, bank manager Josef K. is arrested for an unidentified crime. He searches the court system for answers, consults a lawyer and a painter, and hears a parable from a priest. On the eve of his 31st birthday, the guards take him away and execute him.
Paul Dessau’s first version of the opera, with a libretto by Bertolt Brecht, was presented under this title before being withdrawn and revised. The source identifies the work and its subsequent revision but supplies no plot summary.
Set in and around Washington, Illinois, the opera focuses on Mary Todd Lincoln’s 1875 trial, in which her sanity was evaluated. Flashbacks to her early life lead to the judgment that she is insane and her committal.
Awaiting execution in her prison cell, Joan recalls her meeting with the Dauphin, his coronation at Rheims, the breakdown of their relationship, and her trial and condemnation by Cauchon.
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.
A young governess takes charge of Miles and Flora at Bly, where she becomes convinced that the ghosts of former servants Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are trying to claim the children. Mrs. Grose and the children initially deny the apparitions. The governess discovers that Miles took a letter she wrote to his uncle; when she presses him to identify who urged him to do so, he names Quint and dies in her arms.
The operetta is based on Ilf and Petrov’s novel The Twelve Chairs. Shostakovich left it unfinished, and only a little of its music survives.
The widows Karolina and Anežka have contrasting temperaments: Karolina enjoys independence, while Anežka remains in mourning. Karolina schemes to bring Anežka and Ladislav together, but jealousy and romantic maneuvering complicate the plan before both widows and a second couple become engaged.
Three Scottish folk stories are woven together: a son is exposed as the thief of his father’s inheritance; a father lured into a fairy hill returns years later without aging; and his grown daughter defeats the Devil after a preacher protects her with a prayer.
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.
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.
A three-act chamber opera based on the Greek myth of Ariadne and adapted from a story by Henry James. The entry does not describe the operatic plot.
A scientist reflects on exploration, and a spacecraft crew crash-lands on an ice-age Earth. In 1492, Columbus sails west, while a later act in 2092 follows astronomers and archaeologists who rediscover crystals from the crashed spacecraft and launch a mission to its home planet. The epilogue shows Columbus dying in 1506, accompanied by Isabella.
A three-act Russian opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set in the mid-17th century in a city on the Volga and based on Ostrovsky’s play.
David Hertzberg’s English-language opera sets Aleister Crowley’s story The Wake World. The available text does not provide the plot.
In a 13th-century French farmhouse, Alison plans a secret meal with Father Philippe while her husband Louis is away. A hungry wandering scholar, Pierre, arrives; Philippe drives him off, but Pierre returns with Louis. Pierre’s story exposes the hidden food and the priest’s presence. Louis drives Philippe away, feeds Pierre, and sends Alison to the attic, following her with his cudgel.
Delilah seduces Samson and has his hair cut, stripping him of his strength. After God restores that strength, Samson brings down the Philistine temple, killing himself and those inside.
A three-act comic opera by Julian Edwards and Stanislaus Stange. The entry documents its Syracuse premiere and later Broadway production but does not describe the plot.
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.
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.
A two-act, six-scene English-language opera based on Henry James’s novel The Wings of the Dove.
Leontes suspects his pregnant wife Hermione of loving his friend Polixenes. Although an oracle declares Hermione innocent, their son Mamillius dies and Hermione is believed dead; Leontes orders their newborn daughter Perdita abandoned. Sixteen years later, Perdita and Polixenes’s son Florizel flee to Sicily. Leontes rediscovers his daughter, and Hermione’s statue comes to life and forgives him.
A children’s opera based on Roald Dahl’s 1983 novel The Witches, written for Gloppen Musikkfest with Tora Augestad in mind as the Grand High Witch.
During a drought in Egypt, the Persian magician Kibosh brings rain, but the resulting flood leads King Ptolemy to order him sealed in a tomb; the courtiers mistakenly seal the king in with him, and both later escape. Meanwhile, Cleopatra and her music teacher Ptarmigan fall in love, though they part as she awaits Mark Antony.
Cornish villagers lure ships onto rocks and plunder them, believing wrecking to be their livelihood. Fisherman Mark secretly lights warning beacons, while the preacher Pascoe’s wife Thirza despises the village’s violence and falls in love with Mark. The villagers suspect Pascoe, but Mark confesses and Thirza shares his guilt. They are chained in a cave and left to drown as the tide rises, choosing to die together.
Godofredo Alves discovers his wife Ludovina with his business partner Machado and throws her out. As he considers suicide or a duel, he confides in the personified Yellow Sofa; his friends decide on a less heroic solution, and Godofredo and Ludovina reconcile over his inability to wind the family clock.
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.
A four-act, seven-scene opera about the Young Guard youth resistance group in Krasnodon during the Second World War. The libretto condenses the source novel’s many events into selected episodes.
This one-act chamber opera dramatizes an episode from Daisy Bates’s life as an Irish-Australian welfare worker and anthropologist. Bates was affectionately called Kabbarli, meaning “grandmotherly person.”
At a zoo, apothecary Æsculapius Carboy fears he has accidentally poisoned his beloved Lætitia, while snack seller Eliza’s admirer Thomas eats all her wares to prove his devotion. Thomas is revealed as the Duke of Islington in disguise, and Carboy discovers Lætitia is unharmed. After Thomas settles her father’s objections, both couples are united.
At 76, Athanasius Kircher meets a boy who is the devil and is led with his patron Pope Innocent XI on a journey through ancient Egypt, China, and Babylon. Kircher’s fanciful theories collapse, and he recalls having mistakenly given his soul to the devil. As he dies, the boy eats his heart but discovers that Kircher’s soul has escaped him.
Thel seeks an answer to why life must end. The Lily of the Valley and Cloud try to console her, then the Clod of Clay explains that people live for others and invites her to see the realm of the dead. Mysterious voices there question her, and she flees home.
The Roman governor Valens orders Christians in Antioch to sacrifice to Roman gods. Theodora is sentenced to serve in a brothel, and Didymus, a soldier secretly converted to Christianity, rescues her by disguising her in his uniform. When both are captured and sentenced to death, each offers to die for the other; Valens condemns them both, and they sing of immortality.
The elderly gods on Mount Olympus complain that mortals have forgotten them. Thespis and his acting troupe arrive for a picnic, and he persuades the gods to exchange places with the actors for a holiday on Earth. A year later the actors have restored Olympus but caused chaos below through their inept rule. The gods return, hear complaints about disrupted weather, war, and wine, and punish the troupe by sending them back to Earth as neglected tragedians.
Near the end of his life, Thomas, the 13th-century bishop of Finland, looks back on his past and his early advocacy of Finnish nationhood.
Sally is distraught when sailor Thomas leaves on a long sea voyage. The Squire, who is infatuated with her, attempts to win her while Thomas is away, encouraged by Dorcas. Sally remains faithful to Thomas. When Thomas returns just as Sally seems close to yielding, the lovers reunite and agree to marry.
The plot centers on a love triangle among fictional characters: Persian princess Cleora, Scythian prince Orontes, and Armenian king Tigranes. Cleora is held captive by Orontes but falls in love with him despite being betrothed to Tigranes. In the 1707 version, Queen Thomyris intervenes to prevent the Scythians from sacrificing Cleora after she receives false news that Orontes has died; Tigranes is wounded in battle. The opera’s historical title figure is based on Queen Tomyris, but the love story is fictional.
Earl Haakon and his slave Kark flee Olav Tryggvason and hide at the farm of Haakon’s former lover Thora. Kark murders Haakon, but Tryggvason does not reward him and has him executed.
A four-act English opera by Frederic H. Cowen, based on the Icelandic tale Víglundar saga. Its story is not described in the available account.
In December of 1986, 1996 and 2006, famous actress Madeline and her two adult children struggle to know and love one another.
This three-act video-opera examines modern technology through three subjects: the Hindenburg disaster, nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll, and Dolly the sheep. It combines music with pre-recorded interview speech, eyewitness and documentary material, and commentary from scientists, computer researchers, and religious scholars. The final act considers cloning, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, robots, and immortality.
Alice enters the looking-glass world and journeys through scenes with live flowers, the Red and White Queens, passengers on a train, a name-less forest, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty, a picnic, and the White Knight. The opera interweaves the adventures of young Alice with adult Alice Liddell, who seeks permission to grow up and reflects on childhood memories.
A tragédie en musique based on Heliodorus’s ancient Greek novel Aethiopica.
A three-act tragédie lyrique based on the life of the ancient Greek statesman Themistocles.
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique.
During the French Revolution, Thérèse is married to Girondist André but still loves the exiled nobleman Armand. Armand returns and hides at André’s château. When André is arrested and taken to the guillotine, Thérèse has agreed to flee with Armand, but turns back and cries “Vive le roi!” She is arrested and accompanies her husband to execution.
Thérèse and Laurent, lovers trapped by her marriage to Camille, drown him during a river outing. They later marry, but guilt and Camille’s ghost haunt them. Madame Raquin learns the truth and becomes paralyzed; Thérèse and Laurent’s marriage collapses as each struggles with remorse and fear.
Aegle loves Theseus, but King Aegeus also wants to marry her, despite being betrothed to the sorceress Medea. Medea grows jealous when Theseus confesses his love for Aegle and uses magic to frighten the princess into renouncing him. She later persuades Aegeus to poison Theseus, but the king recognizes his son’s sword and stops him from drinking. Theseus marries Aegle, Medea escapes in a dragon-drawn chariot, and Minerva restores the palace she burns.
A five-act tragédie en musique using Philippe Quinault’s libretto about Theseus, previously set by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The music is now lost.
Églé loves Thésée, while King Égée loves her and plans to marry Médée to his son, whom he has hidden at Troezen. Médée loves Thésée and grows jealous when he reveals his love for Églé. She threatens them with sorcery and reveals Thésée’s life is in danger; Thésée reveals he is Égée’s son. Médée pretends to bless their betrothal, then persuades Égée to poison Thésée. Recognizing his sword, Égée realizes Thésée is his son and saves him, agreeing to the marriage. Médée flees in a dragon-drawn chariot and threatens the palace, but Minerva intervenes and raises a new palace. The opera ends in rejoicing.
A prologue and five-act tragédie lyrique about the mythological figures Thetis and Peleus.
Wealthy landowner Sebastiano plans to marry an heiress while keeping Marta, his mistress, nearby by arranging her marriage to shepherd Pedro. Pedro and Marta fall in love, and she reveals Sebastiano’s scheme; Pedro initially attacks her but then takes her back to the mountains. When Sebastiano again tries to claim Marta, Pedro strangles him, and the lovers escape to freedom.
A partially lost Italian dramma per musica by Antonio Vivaldi that includes nine arias by other composers.
Johann Adolph Hasse’s opera uses an anonymously reworked libretto related to Francesco Silvani’s text, also used in Vivaldi’s opera of the same title. The available text does not provide the plot.
Queen Tomiri has unknowingly raised her kidnapped son Tigrane as an Armenian prince. After defeating the Persian king Ciro, she considers marrying one of her allies while feeling drawn to Tigrane. Ciro’s daughter Meroe arrives in disguise to avenge her father. Tigrane is condemned after preventing Meroe from killing Tomiri, but Meroe reveals the truth before his execution. Tigrane’s parentage is discovered, Tomiri reunites with her son, and Meroe marries Tigrane; Tomiri chooses Policare.
A Russian-language twelve-tone opera based on Charles De Coster's novel The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak.
Tirfing is a Swedish-language opera by Wilhelm Stenhammar named for the magic sword Tyrfing in Norse mythology.
The blind king Tiriel curses his sons after his wife’s death and wanders away. He encounters his senile parents, then is captured by his brother and brought back to his children, whom he destroys with curses. His daughter Hela guides him back to his parents, where he curses them and dies.
Vivaldi’s Italian opera dramatizes the Roman consul Titus Manlius Torquatus and his conflict with Latium.
A three-act dramma per musica about the love affair between Berenice of Cilicia and the future emperor Titus. The opera ends with Berenice’s entirely fictitious marriage to Antiochus, King of Commagene.
In the prologue, Prometheus gives life to his statues by stealing fire from heaven, and Love teaches them about love. In the main story, the mortal shepherd Titon and dawn goddess Aurore love one another, provoking the jealousy of Eole, who also desires Aurore, and Palès, who loves Titon. Aurore rejects Eole, preferring to lose her immortality rather than Titon. Palès fails to win Titon and curses him with premature old age. Aurore remains faithful, and Love reverses the spell.
In a two-part montage, Despina’s story moves from Greece to Australia as she leaves her homeland and settles in a new country. The work draws on her immigrant experience and the broader tensions of multiculturalism.
Tobit is blinded after giving a proper burial to a murdered fellow Jew, so he sends his son Tobias to recover money owed by a relative. Guided by a stranger who is the angel Raphael, Tobias defeats a great fish and wins Sara, whose husbands have been killed by the demon Ashmodeus. Tobias cures his father’s blindness with the fish’s gall, and Raphael reveals his identity.
Domenico Scarlatti’s Italian-language opera was composed for Queen Maria Casimira of Poland and premiered at Palazzo Zuccari in Rome in 1711.
The deposed Egyptian ruler Tolomeo lives in disguise on Cyprus, where he encounters his shipwrecked brother Alessandro and his wife Seleuce, also living under an alias. They conceal their identities as the king of Cyprus and his sister pursue them. Tolomeo drinks a potion that is presented as poison but is actually a sleeping draught. Alessandro reunites the couple and declares Tolomeo Egypt’s rightful ruler.
Tom and Sophie love each other, but Sophie’s aunt mistakenly tells her that her father has approved her marriage to Tom when he has actually agreed to a match with Blifil. Tom is expelled after rejecting that arrangement, and Sophie follows him. At a tavern, Tom protects her from two drunk men; a hidden letter then reveals that Tom is older than Blifil and Alworthy’s nephew, clearing the way for Tom and Sophie to marry.
Four sopranos are stopped at heaven’s gates because only one place remains in the heavenly choir. They travel to hell to retrieve condemned tenors and basses, pass a series of operatic trials, and ultimately gain entry together.
A seven-scene opera linked by instrumental interludes. Its scene titles move through serenades, a storm, a forest, a tavern, an extinguished hearth, a castle of boredom, and a prison.
In 1845, sailor Arthur survives a shipwreck in the Arctic with help from Milak, an Inuit girl, and follows her back to her village, where disease has killed everyone but her father. A British explorer takes Milak to Wales, where she is displayed at a fair, abused, and eventually sentenced to hang. Arthur later calls on Milak’s spirit to protect the Inuit from the British ship, and dies at the helm as a storm ends.
A three-act Italian melodramma semiserio by Gaetano Donizetti, based on the life of the poet Torquato Tasso and set in 16th-century Ferrara.
The violent Duke of Ordow desires Dorliska and attacks her husband Torvaldo, leaving him for dead. Unaware that she has reached the Duke’s castle, Dorliska is held prisoner there and comforted by Carlotta and her brother Giorgio. Torvaldo survives and enters the castle in disguise, but Dorliska inadvertently reveals who he is. The Duke sentences him to death. Carlotta, Giorgio and their allies conspire to free the couple; Carlotta steals the prison keys and Dorliska reunites with Torvaldo. The Duke discovers them, but a crowd of rebels storms the castle, captures him and frees the couple.
During the siege of Rome, Clelia considers killing her child and herself rather than letting them fall into enemy hands, while Marzia is captured by Totila after he falls in love with her. Clelia offers herself to Vitige for her freedom, but he spares her. Marzia rejects Totila, who binds her to his ship’s mast; a storm sinks the ship and Lepido rescues her. Clelia disguises herself as a soldier and challenges Vitige, while Belisarius frees Servius and imprisons Vitige. In disguise, Totila plots against Belisarius, but Vitige refuses to kill the magnanimous general. After Publicola wounds Totila by mistake, Belisarius helps him; Clelia and Publicola reunite, and the commanders offer peace if Totila becomes Justinian’s vassal.
Oil baron Ajax recruits Hector Jackson to run for president and uses Helen to influence him, but she falls in love with Hector. Ajax forces her to marry gigolo Jason, while treasurer Leo embezzles money for a diamond ring for Helen; the public is won over by Hector and elects him.
In a mental-hospital setting, Anne Sexton and other patients perform ten poems, beginning with “The Gold Key” and retelling nine Grimm tales, including Snow White, The White Snake, Iron Hans, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, Godfather Death, The Wonderful Musician, Hansel and Gretel, and Briar Rose. Sexton’s introductions and codas connect the stories to adult experience, marriage, motherhood, sexuality, mental illness and death; a recurring middle-aged witch gradually becomes a vulnerable beauty moving toward nightmare.
Astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil de la Galaisière attempts to observe the transit of Venus to estimate the distance between Earth and the Sun. His fiancée Celeste initially loves him but later turns to his assistant, Demarais.
In an 1884 plantation community, Treemonisha uses her education to challenge conjurers who exploit superstition. They kidnap her and prepare to throw her into a wasps’ nest, but her friend Remus rescues her. After returning home, Treemonisha persuades the community to forgive the captured conjurers and they choose her as their teacher and leader.
Péter Eötvös’s Russian-language opera adapts Chekhov’s play Three Sisters, arranging episodes into character-focused sequences devoted to Irina, Andrei, and Masha, with Olga and Natasha also major roles.
A jilted bride brings her former fiancé to court for breach of promise. The Judge presiding over the case reveals his own hypocrisy and ends by offering to marry the plaintiff.
At a dinner theater, a Hostess addresses an audience that has had too much to drink. In Lord Rupert Silverside’s library, his servants discuss his coming wedding to Lady Betty. A Stranger arrives and reveals that she is already married to Silverside; Lady Betty faints, and the opera ends as the company tries to revive her.
Isolde, promised to King Marke, travels to Cornwall under Tristan’s escort. She and Tristan drink what they believe is a death potion, but it is a love potion, and they confess their passion. Marke discovers them together; Tristan is wounded in a fight and taken to his castle in Brittany. Isolde arrives as Tristan dies. Marke comes to unite the lovers, but Isolde sings of Tristan’s transfiguration and dies beside him.
An unfinished opera project adapting separate passages from Laurence Sterne’s novel. The excerpts include music for sections from Volumes IV, V, VI, and VII; the project remains on hold.
Aribert Reimann’s German-language opera based on Euripides’ tragedy The Trojan Women.
In Troy, Cressida falls in love with Troilus, but during a prisoner exchange she is sent to the Greek camp. Her messages from Troilus are intercepted, and believing he has forgotten her, she accepts Diomede; when Troilus arrives, Calkas kills him, and Cressida dies by suicide.
At an isolated inn near Saint-Jean-de-Luz, innkeeper Ignace mistakes actor Beaujolais, dressed as a brigand, for the notorious bandit Tromb-al-ca-zar. The rest of Beaujolais’s theatrical troupe arrives, and Ignace recognizes his cousin Gigolette among them. When the players rehearse their melodramatic roles, Ignace becomes increasingly frightened and tries to flee; they bring him back and enroll him in the troupe.
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