Viriate (Galuppi)
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Baldassare Galuppi. Premiered on 19 May 1762 at Teatro San Salvatore, Venice. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
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Clear filtersA distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Baldassare Galuppi. Premiered on 19 May 1762 at Teatro San Salvatore, Venice. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Johann Adolph Hasse. Premiered on 24 January 1739 at Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo, Venice, with libretto adapted by Domenico Lalli. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Giovanni Nicola Ranieri Redi. Premiered in summer 1729 at Teatro Cocomero, Florence. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
A nurse reads King Lear to an old man, linking the play with memories of his own life. He envisions Goneril and Regan brought before court and speaks Lear’s lines to imagined figures. His life ends in a vision of Lear dying with Cordelia’s body in his arms, while the nurse continues reading.
Lei Lei’s Chinese contemporary opera adapts the plot and songs of the 1963 film, about frontier guards in Xinjiang. It retains the film’s characters, dialogue, and melodies while expanding the music.
An Argentine long-distance mail pilot is caught in a storm with no place to land. His family waits anxiously for his return, while his employers are concerned both for his safety and for their enterprise.
A setting of the story of the Parthian king Vologeso, deposed by Lucio Vero and restored by Flavio.
A 16th-century man feigns illness and impending death to extract money from those who expect to inherit from him.
After an evening out, a husband and wife discuss their flirtations while preparing for bed; the husband grows jealous when a singer telephones. The next morning, the singer and a friend visit and celebrate social trends. Once they leave, the couple recognize that their relationship rests on love rather than fashion.
In Louisiana during Reconstruction, the house servant Cleota loves Mando, an overseer. Lolo, a jealous voodoo queen, plots against Cleota, who is nearly killed during a ceremony before Mando and Chloe rescue her. Lolo makes another attempt to control Cleota and is shot.
An opera adaptation of Patrick White’s novel Voss, commissioned by the Australian Opera.
Theatre director Mondor commissions writer Henri to compose a Faust opera. Henri encounters Maggy and Greta, goes to a fairground of musical quotations and styles, and faces alternatives about love, work and escape. In Act II the audience votes on choices and on which of four Faust puppet-show versions to follow. In three of four possible endings Henri never begins composing his Faust opera; each version closes with commentary on the events and choices witnessed by the audience.
Based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection.
Venus chooses Adonis as king of Cyprus, angering Mars and the secretly jealous princess Cidippe, who loves Adonis. Mars and Cidippe arrange revenge, but Adonis defeats the monster sent against him. Diana restores the beast, which kills Adonis; Cidippe dies by suicide as Venus and the people mourn.
Ratnakara, a robber chief, abandons violence after releasing a girl he had captured for sacrifice. When his men leave him, he wanders in the forest, utters a spontaneous verse after seeing a hunter kill birds, and seeks Saraswati; she reveals that the girl he spared was herself and blesses him to become the poet Valmiki.
As Richard Wagner dies in Venice, he recalls Die Sieger, an opera sketch he never completed. The recalled story follows the outcast Prakriti’s love for the monk Ānanda; Buddha permits their union and welcomes Prakriti into the monastic community.
On the border of an unnamed Empire, the Magistrate’s peaceful town is occupied by Colonel Joll’s Civil Guard, who torture captured nomads. The Magistrate helps a blinded and crippled barbarian girl return to her people, then is accused of treason, imprisoned, and tortured. After the Empire’s forces are defeated and withdraw, he urges the townspeople to survive the winter and wonders who the true barbarians are.
Giorgio Battistelli’s opera retells the biblical story of the raising of Lazarus. The available text does not provide a detailed plot.
A four-act romantic opera concerning the medieval Danish king Valdemar Atterdag and his plundering and burning of Visby. The entry does not describe the dramatic plot.
In 1944, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg accepts a mission in Hungary to save as many Jews as possible, using protective passports and direct intervention. After the war, Soviet counterintelligence arrests him, and his fate remains uncertain as the opera shifts between imprisonment, memory, and public commemoration. Survivors recall his rescue efforts.
Two sailors fall in love with the same woman. One commits a murder and frames his rival, who flees abroad to save himself. Years later the truth emerges; the innocent sailor returns to his beloved, while the murderer is executed.
Natasha Rostova and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky are drawn together, but while Andrei is away, Natasha is tempted by Anatole Kuragin, who is already married. Her attempted elopement is stopped, and Pierre Bezukhov helps her through the crisis. Napoleon’s invasion brings Andrei, Pierre, and their companions into the war. The Russian army retreats and Moscow burns; Andrei dies after reuniting with Natasha. During the French retreat, Pierre and other prisoners are rescued by partisans, and Kutuzov celebrates the Russian victory.
Based on interviews with more than seventy people from Western Europe born between 1940 and 1949, the opera brings together their memories as a time capsule of roughly eighty years. It explores individual experience and social change, the relationship between private and political life, and the consequences of personal choices.
In an imaginary empire, a general suppresses a revolt, oversees executions, and later questions his role in war after learning he will go blind. Imprisoned in an asylum, he refuses the emperor’s order to return to battle. The regime blinds him to prevent a revolt, and the other inmates kill him.
A one-act chamber opera about Hans and Sophie Scholl, who were executed by the Nazis in 1943 for leading the nonviolent White Rose resistance group.
Greek immigrant steelworker Dionysos becomes obsessed with an opera singer’s voice and leaves work to wait outside the opera house. At night, ghosts of opera heroines urge him to kill himself and join them, but he refuses. The next morning he approaches the singer in the street and is stopped by police.
A chamber opera based on the story of Cai Wenji.
In July, the Bailiff’s children rehearse a Christmas carol as Charlotte prepares to attend a ball. Werther meets Charlotte and falls in love with her, but she has promised her dying mother to marry Albert. Three months later, Charlotte and Albert are married. Werther, unable to accept Charlotte’s request that he leave, returns on Christmas Eve. As Charlotte and Werther confess their love, she sends him away. Werther borrows Albert’s pistols and shoots himself. Charlotte reaches him too late; he dies after she declares her love.
Martinů’s one-act pastoral opera adapts Tolstoy’s story Where Love Is, There God Is Also. The work is written for soloists, a narrator, and a small chorus or vocal ensemble.
After a car crash, six physically unharmed characters wake without memory of who they are or why they were together. Their competing explanations lead to arguments and a fruitless search for help; the adults return in further confusion while the child remains composed, until he finally shouts at the audience.
Edwin, who distrusts his girlfriend Gloria, decides to trust the next person who asks. Richard accepts a £1,000 check from Edwin as a supposed gambling debt and hurries back to Gloria, who insists he cover it. The check bounces, and Vivian finds Edwin about to jump from Waterloo Bridge. She persuades him to meet her the next day. Richard and Vivian discover Edwin and Gloria together, and a pawnbroker’s ticket, check, and introductions resolve the misunderstandings. Vivian plans to go to Paris with Edwin, while Gloria discovers jealousy.
Yevhen Stankovych’s three-act folk opera draws on Nikolai Gogol, Ukrainian traditions, folklore, ceremonies, and epic poetry. The available text does not provide a plot summary.
Margit, a young Hungarian country girl, travels to the city, where an artist seduces and abandons her. She eventually returns home and reconciles with her peasant fiancé, Pista.
After a tantrum, Max is sent to his room and dreams of traveling through a forest to the island of the Wild Things. They hail him as their king, but he stops their wild dance when Tzippy is injured. The dream ends, and Max begins to eat the food his mother left for him.
In this satire on 1980s American life and tabloid journalism, Junior, an “all-American boy,” reacts to the crime and corruption around him by searching for detective hero Dick Tracy.
A five-act opera arranged as a panorama of characters and events, from Portuguese voyages of exploration to modern lunar missions and imagined future space travel. Its libretto combines poetic writing with scientific texts, headlines, travel accounts and historical names rather than telling a conventional story.
Apprentice Dick Whittington flees draper Fitzwarren’s shop with his cat Thomas and boards a ship. On the island of Bambouli, Princess Hirvaia favors him, but he remains faithful to Alice. He becomes rich by ridding the island of rats with the cat’s help. Back in London he reunites with Alice, marries her, and is named Lord Mayor by Edward III.
An unfinished juvenile opera begun by Adolf Hitler around 1905 and modelled on Richard Wagner’s unfinished Wieland der Schmied. Only a piano sketch survives; no plot is described.
Schwanhilde, a swan maiden, marries the smith Wieland after he rescues her. The Neidings steal her ring, kidnap her, and destroy Wieland’s home; they then trap and cripple him. Wieland fashions wings, escapes with Schwanhilde, and the Neidings’ house is destroyed.
One-act English-language opera based on Alfred Sutro’s play A Marriage Has Been Arranged.
In seventeenth-century Scotland, Mary is being married to Douglas, although she loves William Ratcliff. Ratcliff’s father killed Mary’s mother after an affair, and their ghosts haunt him; he has already killed two men betrothed to Mary. After Douglas wounds Ratcliff in a duel, Ratcliff returns to Mary’s room. A song by her nurse Margaret drives him into a frenzy: he kills Mary and her father, then takes his own life. The ghosts of his parents appear and embrace.
Governor Willie Stark faces impeachment for manipulating the state’s legal system while pursuing Anne Stanton, who is engaged to his aide Jack Burden. Judge Burden, Jack’s father, is accused of bribery and later dies by suicide. When Jack learns that Anne plans to marry Stark, he assassinates the governor during a public speech, then is killed himself.
A German- and English-language opera adapted from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, featuring Leontes, Hermione, Polixenes, Paulina and Perdita. The Sicilian scenes are mostly in German, while scenes on the Bohemian seacoast are mostly in English and use jazz-rock music. The entry does not give a plot synopsis.
A four-scene Chinese-language chamber opera based on Lu Xun’s story Diary of a Madman.
Filmmaker Sama persuades Fatma, a sex worker imprisoned for killing her pimp, to tell her life story, marked by sexual violence and family abuse. At the end, Sama urges her to appeal her sentence, but Fatma refuses and asks Sama to tell her story to the world.
Soldier Wozzeck is mocked by his Captain, subjected to a Doctor’s experiments, and troubled by visions as he struggles with poverty. His partner Marie accepts earrings from the Drum Major and begins an affair with him. Wozzeck suspects Marie’s infidelity, sees her dancing with the Drum Major, and is beaten by him. After confronting Marie, Wozzeck takes her to a pond and cuts her throat. He throws the knife into the water and drowns while trying to retrieve or conceal it. The next morning, children learn that Marie is dead; her son follows them to see her body.
Manfred Gurlitt’s 18-scene operatic adaptation of Georg Büchner’s fragmentary play Woyzeck.
In Vermeer’s Delft household in May 1672, his wife Catherine Bolnes, mother-in-law Maria Thins, and fictional model Saskia each write six letters to him while he is away. Their domestic lives contrast with violence outside, which intrudes tragically by the end.
The Protector commissions the Boy, an artist, to create an illuminated book celebrating his family. Agnès, the Protector’s wife, visits the Boy and becomes his lover. The Boy lies to the Protector to protect her, then writes an account of their affair into the manuscript. The Protector murders the Boy and forces Agnès to eat his heart. When he attempts to reassert control, Agnès jumps from a balcony and dies.
Heathcliff, an orphan brought to Wuthering Heights, loves Catherine Earnshaw, and she loves him. Catherine later marries Edgar Linton, while Edgar’s sister Isabella becomes Heathcliff’s wife.
An opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, based on the first part of Emily Brontë’s novel.
An opera depicting the life of civil rights leader Malcolm X.
An opera about Xerxes I, set in ancient Persia and based on the libretto story used in Francesco Cavalli's 1654 opera Xerse. Silvio Stampiglia's version reshapes the earlier work's structure.
A Chinese-language western-style opera based on the ancient story of Xi Shi.
A Cuicamatini (Master Singer) teaches music to three young women, who also learn to prepare maize. The stranger Tohuenyo arrives and seduces them, then finds himself alone. Xochipilli appears and gives him an ocarina, a symbol associated with sex and death. The opera presents sexuality as an analogy for the intense but fleeting nature of life.
A chamber opera based on a supernatural folk tale about two shepherds, their sheep, and the Devil. Its subtitle is A Mechanical Pastoral, and the title derives from a traditional sheep-counting system.
In eleventh-century Kiev, Prince Yaroslav tries to govern amid conflict with Novgorod, the Vikings and the Pechenegs. Norwegian Harald falls in love with Yaroslav’s daughter Elizaveta, but Yaroslav insists he first win a kingdom. Yaroslav’s wife Ingigerda conspires with Ulf against him; stonemason Zhureyko discovers the plot and warns the prince, while Ingigerda is sent to a nunnery. Years later, the Pechenegs invade. Mykyta, secretly the imprisoned governor Kosnyatyn’s son, returns with Djemma and reveals his identity during the crisis. Yaroslav defeats the Pechenegs, though Mykyta dies defending Kiev, and the people praise their ruler.
Villa-Lobos’s opera sets Federico García Lorca’s Spanish-language tragedy Yerma as a three-act opera. The opera was commissioned in 1955 and composed in 1955–1956.
A site-specific underwater opera created by Juliana Snapper and Andrew Infanti, first staged at Victoria Baths in Manchester.
At an imaginary royal court, bored Prince Philipp chooses the mute Yvonne as his fiancée, appalling his parents and provoking ridicule from the courtiers. As repeated attempts to make Yvonne speak heighten tensions, the King and Chamberlain are revealed as murderers. Yvonne is killed during a banquet held in her honour.
Philippe Boesmans’s French-language operatic adaptation of Witold Gombrowicz’s anti-conformist play.
In an isolated Japanese village, farmer Yohyō lives with Tsū, a crane he once rescued who has become his wife. Tsū secretly weaves cloth from her own feathers to help him. Two villagers persuade Yohyō to demand more cloth for profit. Despite her distress and the danger to her life, Tsū weaves again, gives Yohyō the finished fabric, changes back into a crane, and flies away. Yohyō realizes he has lost her love.
Zaide loves Gomatz, an enslaved man, and tries to save him. The Sultan also desires Zaide and reacts with jealousy. Allazim urges the Sultan to see Gomatz as a man rather than a slave. A surviving final quartet suggests that Zaide and Gomatz face punishment or execution, but Mozart’s fragment ends before the opera’s conclusion.
Zaira, a Christian captive, loves Orosmane, the Muslim Sultan of Jerusalem, who agrees to release French prisoners. She and the returning Nerestano discover that the condemned prisoner Lusignano is their father; Zaira’s crisis over her faith delays the wedding. After a jealous courtier manipulates a letter from Nerestano, Orosmane mistakenly believes Zaira is betraying him and kills her, then takes his own life when he learns she was his sister.
Pirate Zampa, formerly the Count of Monza, returns to the estate of merchant Lugano and demands Camille, Lugano’s daughter, as ransom. He declares himself engaged to the marble statue of Alice, the woman he once betrayed, and the statue repeatedly threatens him. Camille marries Zampa under duress; Alphonse discovers that Zampa is his long-lost brother and cannot kill him. As Zampa embraces Camille, Alice’s statue drags him to hell during an eruption of Etna.
A historical opera about a Torghut Mongolian tribe returning from the Nogai Steppe to China during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.
Zanaida is a three-act opera seria by Johann Christian Bach, with a libretto by Giovanni Gualberto Bottarelli based on Metastasio’s Siface, re di Numidia. Bottarelli relocated the action from North Africa to Persia.
Courtesan Silvia, who has renounced love, meets the wandering minstrel Zanetto and falls for him. She hides her identity and sends him toward the dawn rather than reveal herself; after he leaves, she says that love has let her weep again.
A comic opera about a Cossack clan adjusting to life beyond the Danube. Ivan Karas encounters the Ottoman Sultan travelling incognito, and the encounter leads to permission for the Cossacks to return and resettle in Ukraine.
In 1698 Saardam, Peter the Great works incognito in a shipyard and befriends Russian deserter Peter Ivanov, who loves Marie. The burgomaster and foreign ambassadors search for a man named Peter but mistake Ivanov for the tsar. The real Peter secures an alliance, lets Ivanov leave with his passport, blesses his marriage to Marie, and returns to Russia.
In Little Russia in 1762, Olga agrees to marry Nyrkoff if he secures the freedom of Pierre, the serf she has loved since childhood. Pierre kills himself after learning of her sacrifice. The marriage is halted, Olga enters a convent, and a chorus of peasants praises the abolition of serfdom.
Music-hall singer Zazà has an affair with Milio, but leaves him when she discovers that he is married.
Queen Zaïde in the Alhambra must choose between the love of two rival Moorish princes. She chooses the good prince.
Genie Zaïs disguises himself as a shepherd to win the love of shepherdess Zélide. Through a series of ordeals, he shows that he is willing to give up his magic for her. Oromasès, king of the genies, grants Zélide immortality so that they can marry.
Mendel Singer leaves his disabled son Menuchim behind when taking his family from Russia to America. Years later, after war and family hardship, Menuchim returns at Passover, having discovered music and become a composer.
Zelmira hides her father, King Polidoro, in a mausoleum during an invasion of Lesbos. Antenore and Leucippo plot to seize the throne and accuse Zelmira of murder. She is imprisoned after preventing an attempt on her husband Ilo’s life. The conspirators trick her into revealing her father’s hiding place, but Emma tells Ilo the truth. Ilo rescues Zelmira and Polidoro, and the family reunites while the plotters are arrested.
The Mogol emperor Akbar seeks Zemira despite opposition from her father, Sarabes, and her intended husband, Gandarte. Sarabes stabs his daughter; Akbar pardons Gandarte.
A Dutch-language semi-opera with spectacles and ballet, based on Jean-François Marmontel’s La Belle et la bête.
Johann Adolph Hasse’s 1761 opera sets a libretto by Pietro Metastasio about the ancient queen Zenobia.
The opera's characters include Tiridate, king of Assyria; Radamisto, a defeated king disguised as Creonte; Zenobia, Radamisto's wife; and Doriclea, also known as Ismene, a princess. The cast also includes court officers, servants, a shepherd, a wizard, a jester, and a chorus.
The bachelor Podkolyosin considers marriage but frets over the dowry and the bride’s social status. Matchmaker Fyokla tries to arrange a match, but Podkolyosin’s friend Kochkaryov takes over and pushes him to visit the prospective bride. Podkolyosin resists, and Kochkaryov finally shoves him out the door.
Fairies foretell a Norman invasion and betrayal by Zunbeltz, while promising that Sancho Garcés will lead the Basques. Zunbeltz tries to seize the crown and fails to kill the infant Sancho; later, he accuses Sancho of political and romantic betrayal. As San León promises deliverance, the Normans are defeated, and Zunbeltz’s remorse and violence culminate in his fatally wounding his daughter Lore.
Fleana, a Romani woman, falls in love with the nobleman Radu, and they marry after he vows to join her community. A year later, she confesses that she no longer loves Radu and runs away with Tamar, a poet who also loves her. Radu seals them inside a hut and sets it on fire, killing them both.
Almuzir, king of Granada, wants to marry Zoraida, who loves the Moorish general Abenamet. To save Abenamet from a death sentence engineered by Almuzir, Zoraida agrees to marry the king; after doubts about her fidelity, she is allowed to wed Abenamet.
Zoroastre, devoted to Amélite, is exiled by the sorcerer Abramane, who seeks the throne with Erinice. The good spirit Oromasès initiates Zoroastre, who returns to free Amélite and defeat the forces of evil. Abramane kidnaps her, but Zoroastre calls on the gods, who destroy the sorcerer and his followers; Zoroastre and Amélite are crowned rulers of Bactria.
Henry, heir to the English throne, evades his responsibilities for nocturnal adventures. His wife Catharina and the Count of Rochester set a trap for him at the tavern called The Great Admiral.
The opera recounts nobleman Peter Vok’s long illicit romance with Zuzana Vojířová, the daughter of a miller-knight. It is based on Jan Bor’s play and František Kubka’s romance.
An opera based on the legendary Czech minstrel-warrior Záboj and his exploits in the Manuscript of Dvůr Králové.
An opera based on Jaroslav Vrchlický’s poem about the legendary Czech hero Záboj.
A one-act opera-ballet divertissement by François Rebel, with a libretto by François-Augustin Paradis de Moncrif. It was created at Versailles in 1745 and revived as a ballet in 1753. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
After taking a rose from Azor’s palace garden, merchant Sander must give his life unless one of his daughters takes his place. Zémire agrees and discovers that Azor, despite his frightening appearance, is kind and lets her visit her family. When she returns and professes her love, the spell is broken: Azor becomes a handsome prince and reclaims his kingdom with Zémire.
Zephyrus hides among the nymphs of Diana and woos Chloris, making flowers appear beneath her feet. He asks Cupid to release the nymphs from their vows of chastity. Diana confesses her love for Endymion and frees them; Zephyrus and Chloris declare their love, and he transforms her into Flora.
Conceived as a daylong, international music-theatre work for the 1984 Olympics, this five-act project combines sections by composers from several countries. The planned complete performance was cancelled, but four sections received productions; they include a Cologne family and political drama and a Rome act depicting figures from the American Civil War.
This three-act opera follows events surrounding the early French Revolution. Its scenes move from popular grievances and the fall of the Bastille through political conflict, the fugitive king, and the Paris Commune. The final act depicts the execution of Louis Capet and Marie Antoinette’s last night, before closing with a scene titled “Liberty.”
The nymph Écho is loved by Narcisse but also desired by Apollo. Apollo enchants Narcisse into loving his own reflection, but Cupid eventually reunites Écho and Narcisse for a happy ending.
A three-act tragédie lyrique based on the Greek myth of Electra, with characters including Clytemnestra, Orestes, Aegisthus and Pylades.
Elisabetta journeys from Siberia to Moscow to seek a pardon for her exiled family. She survives danger on the way and ultimately secures the Tsar’s pardon, reuniting her family.
Pregnant Émilie du Châtelet writes and reflects on her scholarship, relationships, and impending childbirth. The scenes connect the birth of her child with her work on the physics of fire and the writings she produced with Voltaire.
After the fall of Troy, Aeneas reaches Latium and seeks to marry Lavinia, but Turnus is his rival. Juno incites Turnus against the Trojans, and Bacchus persuades Lavinia to declare for him; she later admits she does not love him. Aeneas defeats Turnus in single combat, and he and Lavinia marry.
After fleeing Troy, Aeneas arrives in Latium, where the king wants him to marry Lavinia. Turnus, favored by Queen Amata and Juno, is his rival; Juno incites Turnus to fight. Lavinia briefly declares for Turnus under Bacchus’s influence, but admits she does not love him. Aeneas defeats Turnus in combat, and he and Lavinia marry.
Epicurus loves his pupil Aspasia but believes she sees him only as a friend. Four suitors for her hand suspect Epicurus and denounce him to the Areopagus. In prison, his philosophy helps him and converts his warder; he also dreams of Wisdom. At trial, Aspasia exposes the accusers' motives, Epicurus is acquitted, and he pardons them.
Three-act conte lyrique by Pierre de Bréville to a French libretto by Jean Lorrain. The entry identifies the roles and premiere production but provides no plot synopsis.
Set in Paris in the first half of 1358 during the English captivity of King John II, the opera centers on Étienne Marcel, prévôt des marchands.
A six-part surrealist audiovisual opera-poem conceived by Salvador Dalí, with appearances by figures including God, an artichoke, Catherine the Great, and Marilyn Monroe.
Parisian hatter Prosper Aubertin, dissatisfied with home life, places an advertisement seeking a soulmate. He chooses a reply and is angered to discover the handwriting belongs to his wife Antoinette; his daughter Marie-Anne has also answered, as has their maid Félicie. Prosper arranges meetings for them with the people they have been corresponding with, including his own wife and daughter. At a rented villa in the Basque region, owner Victor is mistaken for the mysterious correspondent. The confusion is resolved: the Aubertins reconcile, Marie-Anne accepts Claude, and Victor pairs with Félicie. Their mute friend Hilarion regains his voice.
Hakan Feridun has twin sons, Tur and Iraj. Soon after their birth, the Devil’s wrath separates them, and they grow up in different lands. Years later they meet and discover that they are twin brothers.
Oedipus survives an attempt to abandon him as an infant and grows up in Corinth, believing he is the son of Polybus and Merope. After learning a prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother, he flees; on the road he kills Laius, then defeats the Sphinx and marries Jocasta. Years later, during a plague, he learns the truth, Jocasta kills herself and he blinds himself. Exiled from Thebes, he wanders with Antigone, rejects Creon’s offer of restoration, and settles at Colonus.
Polynices makes an alliance with Theseus and plans to marry his daughter Eriphyle, but a failed sacrifice signals divine anger. Polynices encounters his exiled father Oedipus and sister Antigone. After Oedipus curses his sons, Polynices offers his life in remorse; Oedipus forgives him and the Furies’ wrath is appeased.
The travelling quack Pustrpalk attracts villagers with cures, travels with his troupe and becomes involved with Amaranta, drawing the hostility of the monk Jochimus. After a series of deaths and accusations, Pustrpalk escapes, grows old and dies after a vision of Jochimus and the crowd’s cry of “Charlatan.”
The opera adapts the Bohemian legend of Šárka, drawing on J. Vrchlický’s 1880 version.
After Libuše’s death, women revolt and form an army led by Šárka. As the male troops’ morale declines, Ctirad guards Libuše’s tomb. The women swear vengeance when he frightens them from the tomb. Šárka is tied to a tree as bait; Ctirad frees her, and they fall in love. As they sleep, she remembers her plan and signals the maidens, who kill Ctirad and his warriors. At Ctirad’s funeral, Šárka throws herself onto his pyre and dies.
Kahless vows to avenge his father after his brother Morath betrays and kills him. Kahless forges the first bat’leth, descends to the underworld and forgives Morath, then joins with Lukara and an army against tyrant Molor; after victory, their deaths unite the Klingon people.
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