3280 shows
Clear filtersA 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique based on the Greek legend of Telephus.
A tragédie en musique based on the Greek myth of Telegonus, son of Odysseus.
Shipwrecked while searching for his father Ulysses, Telemachus resists the sea-nymph Calypso’s seduction because he loves the shepherdess Eucharis.
A pastiche tragédie en musique assembled from music by Campra and excerpts from works by Collasse, Charpentier, Desmarets, Marais and Rebel.
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.
A two-act Italian tragedia lirica by Gaetano Donizetti, set in 10th-century Paris and based on Blanche d’Aquitaine.
An unfinished Italian opera by Gioachino Rossini, intended for the libretto La figlia dell’aria. No plot is supplied.
Walter Braunfels’s three-act German-language adaptation of Charles De Coster’s novel The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A reclusive king of a mythical realm hears about his kingdom only by overhearing conversations. When a traveling troupe arrives to stage The Tempest, the king listens to auditions and rehearsals and begins to imagine himself as Prospero, confusing the play with events in his own kingdom. He undergoes a psychological collapse, the production never takes place, and the troupe leaves. The king then has a vision of the future as he moves toward death.
The mayor and Spanish Prince Don Giovanni both try to seduce Lilla, a virtuous peasant engaged to Lubino. The queen discovers what is happening and resolves the situation so Lilla can marry the man she loves.
A one-act Italian farsa by Gaetano Donizetti, using Bartolomeo Merelli’s libretto based on August von Kotzebue’s play Der Graf von Burgund. Donizetti set the same libretto in Enrico di Borgogna, but supplied different music for this opera.
A one-act chamber opera setting Dylan Thomas’s play for voices directly, featuring characters including Captain Cat, Organ Morgan, Polly Garter and Reverend Eli Jenkins.
A three-act Russian opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, based on Fouqué’s Undine through Zhukovsky’s translation. The full score was destroyed, and only five musical numbers survive.
A three-act German opera with spoken dialogue, based on Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué’s 1811 story Undine.
Knight Hugo marries Undine, a water spirit raised by fishermen, and learns that Bertalda, whom he once loved, is the fishermen’s kidnapped daughter. Bertalda seduces Hugo, who abandons Undine; the water prince Kühleborn takes her back to the depths. When Undine returns during Hugo’s wedding to Bertalda, a flood destroys the castle. Hugo is forgiven but must remain with the water spirits.
Démêloir organizes a lottery whose prize is the hand of Aspasie, a former horse dancer. Anténor Pigeonneau arrives seeking the ticket number he believes will win, while Démêloir disguises himself as a rival suitor to help matters along. After a mix-up and a fortune offered, Aspasie and Pigeonneau marry.
Florival loves Armantine, the ward of painter Cerberti. Florival first tries to approach Cerberti disguised as a Flemish art merchant, but is discovered. His valet then persuades Cerberti to use Florival as a model for a painting of Bayard with Armantine. After their identities are revealed, Florival and Armantine insist on their choice, and Cerberti consents to their marriage.
Du Puy’s comic opera was created for the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen after a planned production of Méhul’s Une folie was cancelled. It uses Jean-Nicolas Bouilly’s French libretto for that opera, translated into Danish. The entry gives no plot summary.
The opera adapts Arthur Miller’s play A View from the Bridge. Its cast includes Eddie and Beatrice Carbone, their niece Catherine, Rodolfo and Marco, and lawyer Alfieri.
A daughter confronts the consequences of her father’s memories being uploaded to a digital cloud in an attempt to preserve his consciousness. Film and live singers present parallel strands, with motion-capture projections allowing the daughter to interact with her digitized father.
Gordon Getty’s opera adapts Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 short story The Fall of the House of Usher.
Uthal seizes the lands of his father-in-law Larmor. Malvina, Uthal’s wife and Larmor’s daughter, is torn between them and tries to prevent a war. Uthal loses the battle and is sentenced to exile. When Malvina offers to follow him, Uthal admits his wrongdoing and reconciles with Larmor.
On the South Pacific island of Utopia, King Paramount hopes his daughter Zara’s education in England will help transform the kingdom. Zara returns with six British advisers, the Flowers of Progress, and their recommendations impress the Utopians. Mr. Goldbury persuades the King to turn the country into a limited-liability company. This change strips the Wise Men Scaphio and Phantis of their power to threaten the King, and the island adopts British institutions and customs. When the Wise Men convince the people that the reforms have made the country dysfunctional, Zara proposes a two-party system whose mutual obstruction will satisfy everyone. The plot ends with the Wise Men imprisoned and Utopia praising Britain.
The Devil tries to thwart smith Vakula’s courtship of Oxana by causing a snowstorm, but Vakula outwits him and rides him to Saint Petersburg. There he obtains the Empress’s boots as proof of his love. Oxana realizes she wants Vakula rather than the boots, and the couple reunites on Christmas morning.
Gilbert travels to Paris to marry Valentine, his fiancée whom he has not seen for ten years. At an inn, Boisrobert, who is trying to evade marriage to actress Sylvia, proposes that Sylvia impersonate Valentine and marry Gilbert. Gilbert falls for Sylvia, while the real Valentine secretly writes the letters that sustain his affection. Sylvia eventually gives up the deception, and Valentine reveals it first; she and Gilbert marry, leaving Sylvia heartbroken.
In late 14th-century Milan, Valentina loves Louis of Orléans, though her father Gian Galeazzo is at war with the French. After the French defeat Milan, Valentina persuades her father to accept peace. Louis is shot during treaty negotiations, nearly rekindling the war. Valentina disguises herself to find a pharmacist who saves him. The true assassin is exposed as an agent of Burgundy, and Valentina and Louis marry.
An opera about painter Vincent van Gogh, based on Irving Stone’s novel Lust for Life.
Vanda reluctantly becomes queen of Poland and refuses to marry the German Prince Roderich, while loving the knight Slavoj, who is of humble birth. After Slavoj wins a contest and defeats Roderich in battle, Vanda vows to sacrifice her life for her country; when victory comes, she keeps that vow by jumping into the Vistula.
Vanessa has spent twenty years waiting for her former lover Anatol to return, keeping the mirrors in her house covered and living with her mother, the Baroness, and her niece Erika. When a young man named Anatol arrives, Vanessa mistakes him for her former lover. Erika falls in love with the young Anatol, but doubts his sincerity and refuses his marriage proposal. Vanessa becomes engaged to him. At the announcement, Erika faints, then runs into the cold while pregnant and miscarries. Vanessa and Anatol leave for Paris. Erika covers the mirrors and closes the house, beginning a vigil of her own.
An unfinished comic opérette by Chabrier to a French libretto by Paul Verlaine; its surviving numbers portray the cowardly, bawdy title character as a satire of Napoleon III.
A chamber opera about the life of Jorge Luis Borges, with roles for an older Borges, a younger Borges, a speaker, a hotel owner, and chorus.
A zarzuela by José de Nebra.
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