The Tempest
Lee Hoiby’s three-act operatic adaptation of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
Operas
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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.
The Tempest or The Enchanted Isle
Opera adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Based on Gustave Flaubert’s novel The Temptation of Saint Anthony.
The Tender Land
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.
The Thirteenth Child
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.
The Threepenny Opera
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 Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Liberation Through Hearing
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.
The Tigers
A burlesque opera about a regiment nicknamed the Tigers.
The Transports
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.
The Transposed Heads
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.
The Travelling Companion
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.
The Trial
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.
The Trial of Lucullus (opera, first version)
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.
The Trial of Mary Lincoln
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.
The Triumph of St. Joan
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.
The Tsar’s Bride
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 Turn of the Screw
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 Twelve Chairs
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 Two Widows
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.
The Vanishing Bridegroom
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.
The Violins of Saint-Jacques
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
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 Voice of Ariadne
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.
The Voyage
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.
The Voyevoda
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.
The Wake World
David Hertzberg’s English-language opera sets Aleister Crowley’s story The Wake World. The available text does not provide the plot.
The Wandering Scholar
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.
The Warrior
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.
The Wedding Day
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.
The White Horse Inn
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
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 Wings of the Dove
A two-act, six-scene English-language opera based on Henry James’s novel The Wings of the Dove.
The Winter's Tale
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.
The Witches
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.
The Wizard of the Nile
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.
The Wreckers
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.
The Yellow Sofa
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.
The Yeomen of the Guard
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.
The Young Guard
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.
The Young Kabbarli
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.”
The Zoo
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.
Theatre of the World
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
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.
Theodora
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.
Thespis
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.
Thomas
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.
Thomas and Sally
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.
Thomyris, Queen of Scythia
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.
Thora paa Rimol
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.
Thorgrim
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.
Three Decembers
In December of 1986, 1996 and 2006, famous actress Madeline and her two adult children struggle to know and love one another.
Three Tales
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.
Through the Looking Glass
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.
Théagène et Chariclée
A tragédie en musique based on Heliodorus’s ancient Greek novel Aethiopica.
Thémistocle
A three-act tragédie lyrique based on the life of the ancient Greek statesman Themistocles.
Théonoé
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique.
Thérèse
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 Raquin
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.
Thésée
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.
Thésée
A five-act tragédie en musique using Philippe Quinault’s libretto about Theseus, previously set by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The music is now lost.
Thésée
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.
Thétis et Pelée
A prologue and five-act tragédie lyrique about the mythological figures Thetis and Peleus.
Tiefland
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.
Tieteberga
A partially lost Italian dramma per musica by Antonio Vivaldi that includes nine arias by other composers.
Tigrane
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.
Tigrane, o vero L’egual impegno d’amore e di fede
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.
Till Eulenspiegel
A Russian-language twelve-tone opera based on Charles De Coster's novel The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak.
Tirfing
Tirfing is a Swedish-language opera by Wilhelm Stenhammar named for the magic sword Tyrfing in Norse mythology.
Tiriel
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.
Tito Manlio
Vivaldi’s Italian opera dramatizes the Roman consul Titus Manlius Torquatus and his conflict with Latium.
Tito e Berenice
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.
Titon et l’Aurore
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.
To Traverse Water
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.
Tobias and the Angel
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.
Tolomeo e Alessandro, ovvero la corona disprezzata
Domenico Scarlatti’s Italian-language opera was composed for Queen Maria Casimira of Poland and premiered at Palazzo Zuccari in Rome in 1711.
Tolomeo, re d’Egitto
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 Jones
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.
Too Many Sopranos
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.
Torneo notturno
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.
Tornrak
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.
Torquato Tasso
A three-act Italian melodramma semiserio by Gaetano Donizetti, based on the life of the poet Torquato Tasso and set in 16th-century Ferrara.
Torvaldo e Dorliska
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.
Totila
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.
Transatlantic
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.
Transformations
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.
Transit of Venus
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.
Treemonisha
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.
Tri sestry
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.
Trial by Jury
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.
Triple-Sec
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.
Tristan und Isolde
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.
Tristram Shandy
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.
Troades
Aribert Reimann’s German-language opera based on Euripides’ tragedy The Trojan Women.
Troilus and Cressida
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.
Tromb-al-ca-zar, ou Les criminels dramatiques
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.
Trouble in Tahiti
Over the course of one day, married couple Sam and Dinah move between suburban routines and private disappointment. They argue over Sam’s priorities, money, and their relationship, then cross paths while separately avoiding a conversation. Sam wins a handball tournament; Dinah watches a romantic film and misses their son’s play. At home, neither can begin the promised discussion. They decide to go together to see a movie about Tahiti, choosing its imagined romance over the difficult work of repairing their marriage.
Troubled Island
A three-act opera about Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the Haitian Revolution, set in Haiti in 1791. Dessalines declares himself emperor of an independent Haiti but is assassinated by opponents.
Troy
At the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, Paris falls in love with Helen, wife of Menelaus, and brings her to Troy. Menelaus and Agamemnon prepare a Greek assault; after negotiations fail, Achilles kills Hector, though the Greeks cannot breach Troy’s walls. Later the Greeks are defeated and captured, but Priam releases the prisoners. The Trojans bring a wooden horse inside the city and celebrate their victory. At night Greek soldiers emerge from the horse, open the gates, and sack Troy. Paris kills Achilles with an arrow, while Agamemnon kills Priam; Paris, Helen, and a few nobles escape.
Tsefal i Prokris
Cephalus rejects the goddess Aurora’s advances after being abducted from his wedding. Prokris, consumed by jealousy, is later mortally wounded by Cephalus, who mistakes her for an animal while hunting.
Turandot
Kalaf, an exiled prince in disguise, decides to seek Turandot’s hand after finding a portrait left by a suitor who was executed. Turandot’s father, Emperor Altoum, laments her refusal to marry. Kalaf answers Turandot’s three riddles correctly and challenges her to discover his name and parentage; if she succeeds, he will leave. Adelma, Turandot’s confidante, knows Kalaf’s identity and offers to reveal it in exchange for her freedom. Turandot announces Kalaf’s name, and he prepares to depart, but she stops him and confesses that he has awakened her heart. The opera ends with an ensemble declaring that love rules all people.
Turandot
In legendary Peking, Princess Turandot requires suitors to solve three riddles or be executed. Prince Calaf accepts the challenge, answers all three, and offers Turandot a chance to avoid marrying him: if she discovers his name before dawn, he will die. She orders the city to find it. Calaf’s companion Liù refuses to reveal his identity and dies under torture. Calaf then tells Turandot his name; at dawn she announces to the Emperor and people that his name is Love.
Tutti in maschera
In Venice, opera troupe members seek a wealthy Turkish merchant’s support for a tour. Vittoria and Emilio fall in love, while the troupe’s director Gregorio and his wife Dorotea become entangled in misunderstandings over a masked-ball invitation. At the ball everyone appears in disguise; Abdalà awards contracts to the troupe, but Vittoria and Emilio stay in Venice.
Tvrdé palice
Widow Říhová and widower Vávra plan a marriage between their children, Lenka and Toník, who love each other but stubbornly resist. Their godfather Řeřicha tricks each into thinking the other’s parent intends to marry their beloved. The jealousy and village gossip break their resistance, and the young couple admit their love.
Twice Through the Heart
In prison for killing her abusive husband, a woman recalls their relationship, the violence she endured, and her decision to defend herself. The nine numbers move between memories and her confinement.
Two Boys
An opera structured around a police investigation into a violent crime, exploring online relationships and chatrooms. Its story draws on real events in Manchester in 2003.
Télèphe
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique based on the Greek legend of Telephus.
Télégone
A tragédie en musique based on the Greek myth of Telegonus, son of Odysseus.
Télémaque et Calypso
Shipwrecked while searching for his father Ulysses, Telemachus resists the sea-nymph Calypso’s seduction because he loves the shepherdess Eucharis.
Télémaque, ou Les fragments des modernes
A pastiche tragédie en musique assembled from music by Campra and excerpts from works by Collasse, Charpentier, Desmarets, Marais and Rebel.
Ubu Rex
At his wife's urging, the ambitious and cowardly Captain Ubu murders King Wenzel and takes the Polish throne. He enriches himself through the treasury, kills or imprisons rivals, and imposes heavy taxes; Prince Bougrelas returns with Russian support and leads a revolt, and after defeat Ubu, his wife, and their remaining followers flee the country.
Ugo, conte di Parigi
A two-act Italian tragedia lirica by Gaetano Donizetti, set in 10th-century Paris and based on Blanche d’Aquitaine.
Ugo, re d’Italia
An unfinished Italian opera by Gioachino Rossini, intended for the libretto La figlia dell’aria. No plot is supplied.
Ulenspiegel
Walter Braunfels’s three-act German-language adaptation of Charles De Coster’s novel The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak.
Ulisse
Ulisse is a full-length Italian opera in a prologue and two acts, composed by Luigi Dallapiccola to his own libretto and based on the legend of Ulysses. Dallapiccola described its theme as the struggle of a person against a much stronger force.
Ulysse
While Penelope waits in Ulysses’s palace for his return from Troy, her suitor Urilas laments that she will not attend to him. The witch Circe schemes to bewitch Penelope into infidelity so that she can take Ulysses for herself. With divine intervention, her attempts are thwarted and Ulysses reunites with Penelope.
Un ballo in maschera
Riccardo, the governor of Boston, loves Amelia, the wife of his friend and advisor Renato. A fortune-teller predicts that Riccardo will be killed by the next person to shake his hand; Renato does so without knowing the prophecy. Renato discovers Amelia and Riccardo together and joins a conspiracy against him. At a masked ball, Renato stabs Riccardo, who reveals Amelia’s fidelity and forgives his murderer before dying.
Un giorno di regno, ossia Il finto Stanislao
In 1733, French officer Belfiore impersonates the Polish king Stanislaus at Baron Kelbar’s castle in France. The baron plans to marry his daughter Giulietta to the older treasurer La Rocca, though she loves La Rocca’s nephew Edoardo. The Marchesa del Poggio, who loves Belfiore, is engaged to Count Ivrea. Belfiore arranges Giulietta and Edoardo’s marriage and prevents the Marchesa’s wedding. A letter from the real king releases Belfiore from his impersonation, and he and the Marchesa can marry.
Un jardin sur l'Oronte
A four-act, eight-tableau French lyric drama by Alfred Bachelet, with a libretto by Franc-Nohain adapted from Maurice Barrès’s novel of the same title. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
Un mari à la porte
Operetta composer Florestan, fleeing a jealous husband, creditors and a bailiff, hides in Suzanne’s room. Suzanne and her friend Rosita try to get him out unnoticed; when Florestan realizes that Suzanne’s husband is also the bailiff pursuing him, he asks Rosita to marry him so his aunt will pay his debts.
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