3280 shows
Clear filtersCount Cenci abuses his family and rapes Beatrice. Orsino arranges for assassins to kill Cenci, with Lucrezia’s help. Beatrice and Lucrezia are implicated in the murder, tried, and sentenced to death. Their pleas for papal clemency fail, and they are executed.
In 19th-century Nova Scotia, Beatrice is the multiracial daughter of slave owner Francis Chancy and Mafa, a Guinean enslaved woman whom Francis raped. After Francis forces Beatrice into an incestuous encounter, Beatrice and Mafa conspire to murder him.
Duke Filippo envies the influence his wife Beatrice holds over his subjects and pursues Agnese, who mistakenly believes Orombello loves her. When Beatrice and Orombello are discovered together, they are accused of adultery and tortured; Orombello recants his confession and Beatrice forgives him. Agnese confesses her role in the false accusation, but Filippo signs their death warrants when a rebellion threatens, and Beatrice faces execution with dignity.
Count Francesco Cenci celebrates the death of his sons with a masked ball, while his daughter Beatrix and second wife Lucrecia fear him. Beatrix asks Orsino to deliver a plea to the Pope, but he destroys her letter and falsely says the Pope refused. After the guests leave, Cenci rapes Beatrix. Later, Beatrix and her brother Giacomo arrange for assassins to kill their father, with Lucrecia giving him a sleeping potion. When the body is discovered, Beatrix is arrested, tortured, and executed.
Adamo's one-act English-language opera, commissioned by Dallas Opera, premiered at the Winspear Opera House in 2015. Its cast includes Queen Sophine, Prince Claus, a donkey/messenger, and four elves.
In recession-hit Borja, Cecilia accepts a request to restore the Ecce Homo fresco, despite doubts about her skill. Her botched restoration goes viral, drawing ridicule and tourists. As townspeople debate how to respond, Cecilia accepts responsibility, the mayor and community forgive her, and her son Marcos reconciles with her after repaying her loan. The ghost of the original artist then moves on.
Set in Münster in 1543, this opera focuses on the Anabaptists Jan Matthys and John of Leiden as they attempt to transform the town into a “City of God” in anticipation of the Second Coming. The people of Münster form a central musical protagonist. The German-language premiere was abridged; the complete English version was later broadcast by the BBC.
The opera adapts Ann Patchett's novel Bel Canto. The libretto uses nine languages: Spanish, English, Japanese, Russian, German, French, Latin, Italian, and Quechua.
The demon Belfagor tests whether marriage is hell by marrying Candida in disguise as a wealthy nobleman. Candida escapes with her lover Baldo, but Belfagor sows doubt between them until a plea to the Madonna and miraculous bells restore their trust.
Poul Rovsing Olsen’s four-scene opera is based on Federico García Lorca’s play Amor de don Perlimplín con Belisa en su jardín.
After Belisario returns victorious to Byzantium, his wife Antonina falsely accuses him of treason, and Emperor Justinian imprisons and blinds him. Belisario’s daughter Irene guides him out of prison. The captive Alamiro, whom Belisario had adopted, is revealed to be his long-lost son. When Alamiro joins an enemy army against Byzantium, Belisario persuades him to withdraw. Belisario leads the Byzantine forces to victory but is mortally wounded; Justinian promises to care for his children.
In eighteenth-century Paris, laundress Belle Lurette accepts a duke’s marriage proposal after fortune-telling predicts a wedding, unaware he plans to abandon her after marriage. She escapes with help from the soldiers. At the laundresses’ carnival, the duke learns she once saved his life and comes to love her; Marceline also reconciles with the man who wronged her and accepts his proposal.
Queen Sténobée, spurned by Bellérophon, asks the magician Amisodar to transform the garden into a barren desert and summon a chimera that terrorizes Lycia. Bellérophon loves Princess Philonoé. The short synopsis states that Apollo appears and resolves the danger, but gives no further plot detail.
The lyric opera is loosely based on the life of composer Benedetto Marcello. The entry does not describe its dramatic action.
In Rome during Carnival, sculptor Benvenuto Cellini plans to elope with Teresa, daughter of the Pope’s treasurer, while his rival Fieramosca makes a competing attempt to abduct her. During a Carnival performance, Cellini fatally stabs Fieramosca’s accomplice Pompeo and escapes arrest in the darkness. The Pope gives Cellini one night to cast a bronze Perseus statue, promising to pardon him and allow his marriage to Teresa if he succeeds. Cellini rallies his workers, melts down metal from his studio, completes the statue, and wins the Pope’s pardon and Teresa’s hand.
Zeppelin captain Ulysses Eisenhardt lands on an island to obtain its fuel reserves, but the enchanting Gladys Thunderbolt ensnares his crew. The comic opera combines material from the Odyssey and Calderón’s El mayor encanto, amor.
Queen Berenice is in love with Demetrio but is pressed to marry the Roman Alessandro. Unknown to her, Demetrio and her sister Selene are in love and plotting against her. When Berenice discovers the betrayal, she orders Demetrio’s execution, then relents after Alessandro demonstrates that he loves her without seeking political advantage. She releases Demetrio to marry Selene and agrees to wed Alessandro.
Aribert Reimann’s German-language opera adapts Federico García Lorca’s play La casa de Bernarda Alba, through Enrique Beck’s German translation. The available text does not provide plot details.
Queen Bertha of Oslo leads her garrison in repelling barbarians, then orders a teacher executed for questioning whether her subjects are themselves barbarians. After peace returns, Bertha declares war on Scotland and dismisses a council member who objects to her wars. She has two young lovers shot for meeting in her garden. As Bertha ages and grows more mad, she gives Norway to the barbarians so she can reconquer it. She regains the throne, collapses, and dies; the people praise her as a great queen.
Daniele believes Betly has accepted his marriage proposal, but she rejects him when she discovers the villagers’ prank. Sergeant Max, Betly’s long-absent brother, disguises himself and arranges for his troops to frighten her; Betly claims Daniele is her husband to save him from a duel. Max reveals himself, signs the marriage contract, and Betly declares her love for Daniele.
Don Jerome plans to marry his daughter Louisa to the wealthy fishmonger Mendoza, though Louisa loves Antonio. The Duenna helps Louisa escape by switching clothes with her, and Louisa borrows her friend Clara’s identity. Meanwhile, Clara has fled home and hopes to enter a convent. Confusions and mistaken identities lead Mendoza and Antonio to pursue the women they love, while Ferdinand searches for Clara. At the monastery the truth is revealed and three marriages are arranged; Don Jerome is surprised by the newlyweds at his feast.
Chamber opera about the relationship between Bettina von Arnim and Karoline von Günderrode, viewed in retrospect after Günderrode’s suicide. A single mezzo-soprano performs both women, accompanied by children’s chorus, tape, and ensemble.
A one-act English-language opera adapted from Carlo Goldoni’s comedy The Mistress of the Inn.
To reconcile a feud between rival Venetian families, Contareno promises his daughter Bianca to Capellio. Bianca loves Falliero, who is believed to have died defending Venice. Falliero returns, and Bianca refuses to sign the marriage certificate. He flees when Contareno threatens him, but is captured and charged with treason after being found in the Spanish Embassy. Bianca pleads for him before the Council of Three, whose members include Contareno, Capellio and Loredano. Capellio is moved by her appeal and agrees that the lovers belong together.
Fernando returns to Agrigento in disguise to avenge his father, Duke Carlo, whom he believes dead and whose throne was seized by Filippo. His sister Bianca, unaware of Filippo’s crimes, is preparing to marry him and at first fails to recognize Fernando. The siblings reunite, expose Filippo, and free Carlo; when Filippo threatens Bianca’s infant son, Fernando’s allies disarm him and the tyrant is overthrown.
A tragédie en musique based on the myth of Byblis as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Šimon Voseček’s two-act German-language operatic adaptation of Max Frisch’s play, written for eight voices and orchestra.
Doll Bilby, a French orphan raised in a Puritan colony, rejects a marriage proposal because she fears her parents’ fate as accused witches may await her. She marries a man who claims to be a demon, only to learn that he is the opportunistic son of the minister who befriended her. As she dies in childbirth in jail, Doll again believes her husband is supernatural.
On board HMS Indomitable during the French Revolutionary Wars, the cheerful sailor Billy Budd attracts the attention and hostility of Master-at-Arms John Claggart. Claggart arranges a false accusation of mutiny. When Billy is confronted with the charge, his stammer prevents him from answering and he strikes Claggart, killing him. A court-martial sentences Billy to hang. He refuses to support a mutiny in his defense, is executed, and blesses Captain Vere, who later recalls his own failure to save Billy.
On Salamis, the poet Bion welcomes Agénor and Cratès to his home. Agénor and Nysa, whom Bion freed from slavery and raised, fall in love, though Nysa worries that she owes Bion a debt. Bion pretends to leave and says he will marry Nysa on his return. When he interrupts their wedding, he reveals that he knew of their love and staged events to test them. He blesses their marriage.
In a medieval Lithuania threatened by the Teutonic Order, Winrich von Kniprode seeks to marry Birutė by force if needed. A pagan priest declares she must become a priestess, but prophecy foretells she will bear a leader who defeats the Order. Grand Duke Kęstutis arrives, falls in love with her, interrupts her initiation, and proposes; Birutė accepts as the chorus praises the homeland.
At a fair, singers Birzhan and Sara fall in love, while Altynay loves Birzhan and the local chief's brother wants Sara as his fourth wife. The chief abducts Sara, and Birzhan is arrested when he tries to stop her wedding. Sara frees him, but she is sentenced to death. Villagers free the couple; Altynay stabs Sara, who dies as Birzhan grieves beside her. Some versions instead have Birzhan die.
Raquel, a young widow unable to have a child, believes motherhood will give her immortality. She forces her lover Juan to marry Berta so that they can have a child for her to take. After Juan gives her the baby, he kills himself. Berta becomes insane, and Raquel triumphantly cares for both Berta and the child.
The penniless young couple Blaise and Blaisine face the advances of their landlady and her husband. The landlady tries to buy Blaise’s favors while her husband pursues Blaisine, setting up a farce.
According to the Swedish legend, Blenda gathers an army of women who defeat the Danes while their men are away. In a later battle, she sacrifices herself by placing herself between Danish leader Nils Dotta and her betrothed Harald.
On Blennerhassett Island, Stephen plans to join Aaron Burr’s forces. His fiancée Madeleine inadvertently reveals the plan to General Wilkinson; Stephen is mortally wounded in the resulting fight and dies in Madeleine’s arms.
The opera follows six Ohioans who were wrongfully convicted and later exonerated, alongside the lawyers and law students working on their cases through the Ohio Innocence Project. Among them are Clarence Elkins, convicted of rape and murder after a weak identification; Nancy Smith, convicted of child-abuse charges; the East Cleveland Three, who served 20 years after convictions based on tainted evidence and misidentification; and Rickey Jackson, who served 39 years for a murder he did not commit. Their stories trace the alleged crimes, imprisonment, legal advocacy, and eventual release.
Set in Brisbane in the early 1980s and based on Peter Carey’s novel Bliss.
In fourteenth-century Wales, Blodwen and Hywel fall in love as English forces threaten their community. After the Welsh defeat, Hywel is captured and awaits execution; Blodwen’s father, long thought dead, arrives with news that the king’s death has freed the prisoners.
Berthe tells Walther about her childhood with an old woman, a gem-laying bird and a dog, and how she stole the gems and fled. Eckbert becomes alarmed when Walther knows the dog’s name and later kills him. After the old woman reveals that she was also Walther and Hugo, and that Berthe was Eckbert’s half-sister, Eckbert goes insane and dies.
In Harlem, the Mother and her friends celebrate her pregnancy but fear the danger her son may face; the Father, a police officer, welcomes the child. Sixteen years later, their son is an artist and activist who clashes with the police and his father. After the Son is fatally shot at a protest, the Father struggles with grief and anger; the family and community gather for the funeral, and an epilogue imagines the Son reconciled with his parents and continuing his studies and peaceful activism.
At a Harlem café, gambler Joe hides from his sweetheart Vi that he plans to travel South to visit his mother. Tom tells Vi that Joe’s telegram is from another woman. When Joe opens it, Vi shoots him. She discovers the telegram was from Joe’s sister and that their mother died years earlier. Joe forgives Vi as he dies.
In a mythical swamp, Blue Steel from Birmingham and Neola of a voodoo cult struggle between black magic and materialism. Blue shoots Neola’s father, the high priest, after he tries to prevent their elopement. As the couple flee, the chants and drums affect Blue, who leaps to his death in the river’s quicksand.
Judith enters Bluebeard’s dark castle with him and insists that he open its seven locked doors. They reveal a torture chamber, an armory, a treasury, a garden, and Bluebeard’s vast kingdom; blood marks each of these. The sixth door reveals a lake of tears. Judith then demands that Bluebeard open the final door, which he says must remain shut. Behind it are his three former wives, alive and wearing crowns and jewels. Bluebeard names Judith his fourth wife, dresses her in their jewelry, and leads her away through the door. The castle fades into darkness, leaving him alone.
A two-act German-language lyrical tragedy based on Federico García Lorca's play Bodas de sangre.
An opera adapting Thomas Mann’s seven-scene short story Die Betrogene, also translated as The Black Swan. The entry does not describe the opera’s plot.
In Florence in 1331, the erotic stories of poet Boccaccio provoke the city’s husbands, who plot to drive him out and have him imprisoned. Boccaccio has his own plans: he courts Fiammetta, the Duke’s daughter, and ultimately wins the Duke’s favor and her hand.
The hunchbacked Duke Pier Francesco Orsini drinks a potion his astrologer says will grant him immortality. As the poison takes effect, he recalls episodes from his life: the death of his father and brothers, his troubled courtship and marriage to Julia Farnese, and his suspicion that she is betraying him with his brother Maerbale. He orders his slave Abul to kill Maerbale. The astrologer prepares the potion again as Bomarzo’s nephew Nicolás watches; Nicolás poisons it, and the Duke dies after drinking.
King Artaxaminous wants to marry Distaffina, who is betrothed to General Bombastes. Artaxaminous offers her half a crown to leave the general, and she accepts. Bombastes goes mad and hangs his boots from a tree, challenging anyone to remove them. Artaxaminous cuts them down and is killed by Bombastes; Fusbos then kills Bombastes. At the end, both men rise and promise to die again tomorrow if the audience wishes.
In the 1872 revised version, crowds are prompted to urge Boris Godunov to take the throne, and he is crowned Tsar. At a monastery, novice Grigoriy learns of Tsarevich Dmitriy’s death and decides to impersonate him. Boris is troubled by guilt over the child’s murder, especially after Shuysky recounts the death and Pimen describes a miracle at Dmitriy’s grave. The Pretender gains support in Poland, where Marina Mniszech and the Jesuit Rangoni maneuver for power; Marina agrees to join the Pretender after he promises to march on Moscow. Boris dies after visions of the murdered child. In the final Kromi scene, rebels denounce Boris, celebrate Dmitriy’s advance and march toward Moscow, while the Holy Fool laments Russia’s fate. The 1869 original version has a different scene structure and omits the Polish act and Kromi scene; it ends with Boris’s death.
A political opera about intrigues among Tsars Feodor I and Boris Godunov and Tsarina Irina Godunova, involving Russian, Danish, and Swedish nobles.
After a revolution, the Grand Khan appoints a white bear, Boule-de-Neige, ruler of a rebellious city, hoping to frighten its people into obedience. Bear trainer Olga discovers the animal was stolen from her and calms it; the bear’s decrees are actually written by Olga’s lover Kachmir, disguised in a bearskin. When officials uncover the ruse and conspire against the bear, Olga and Schamyl foil the plot; the bear escapes and causes chaos, and the Khan appoints Olga and Kachmir to rule together.
Student Armand falls in love with Manon and runs away with her to Paris. Their relationship is strained by poverty, infidelity, and drug addiction. Manon returns to Armand, but when she shoots an older man during a confrontation, she is arrested as Armand escapes.
A three-act Czech-language opera based on William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
Shchedrin's choral opera portrays the historical Boyarina Feodosiya Morozova, an aristocratic widow and Old Believer, drawing on Archbishop Avvakum's account and inspired by Vasily Surikov's painting Boyarina Morozova.
A tragédie en musique based on Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando Furioso.
In the first half of the 15th century, Serbian despot Brankovics is asked by Hunyadi to fight the invading Ottomans. His daughter Mara is secretly meeting the Ottoman grand vizier Murat. Brankovics first agrees to reject Ottoman envoys and fight, then accepts their peace offer, giving his two sons as hostages. Murat, secretly the sultan’s son, signs the treaty. After Hunyadi wins without him, Brankovics’s court urges him to break the pact, but he cannot risk his sons’ lives. Mara asks Murat to return her brothers, offering herself as guarantor; instead, the brothers are blinded. Mara leaves with Murat, and Brankovics vows revenge. He rejoins Hunyadi and attacks the Ottomans. Murat’s father dies, making him sultan, and he goes to battle. The Serbian forces win, but Brankovics is fatally wounded. He entrusts his children to Hunyadi and dies, realizing too late that Mara is present.
English adaptation of Offenbach’s one-act Breton legend operetta. Reinette seeks help for Pierre, who needs money to avoid conscription; Père Mathieu’s violin reveals that he owns a castle, enabling the young couple to marry while he chooses to remain a fiddler.
In the Scottish Highlands, religious young woman Bess loves her husband Jan, an oil rig worker. After an offshore accident leaves him paralyzed, Jan urges her to seek other lovers and tell him about them, believing the stories will sustain him. Bess’s selflessness leads to a fatal outcome.
An opera adaptation of Noël Coward’s Still Life and his screenplay for the 1945 film Brief Encounter.
In ancient Corinth, Hylas pauses at the home of Briséïs and her sick mother, Thanastô, before seeking his fortune in Syria. Hylas and Briséïs swear to love each other beyond death. Thanastô prays for the salvation of the pagans around her, while Briséïs worries about Hylas and her mother. The Catechist promises Thanastô’s salvation if Briséïs follows him; bound by her mother’s vow to remain a bride of God, Briséïs goes with him. In the projected final acts, Hylas returns after a shipwreck, Briséïs kills herself and invites him to die with her, and he follows her into the grave.
Ranch hands Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist meet in 1963 and begin a love that they cannot openly live. Across two decades, marriage, social pressure, separation, and repeated reunions shape their relationship and its tragic aftermath.
Edmund Eysler’s three-act operetta centers on Bruder Straubinger, a cheerful, carefree traveling craftsman. The available text does not provide a plot summary.
After losing money at the Derby, Beau Brummell retreats to the countryside, where his childhood friend Jim and former love Peggy re-enter his life. The Prince of Wales challenges Brummell to win Peggy as a lover; when Brummell loses the wager, Peggy offers to protect his reputation, but he instead supports her marriage to Jim.
Siblings Aninka and Pepíček need milk for their sick mother, but they have no money. They try to earn it by singing in the marketplace, where the organ grinder Brundibár drives them away. With help from a sparrow, a cat, a dog, and the children of the town, they overcome Brundibár and sing together in the square.
A two-act opera about football coach Bum Phillips adapts his memoir Bum Phillips: Coach, Cowboy, Christian.
Knight Buovo returns from exile to reclaim his estates and beloved Drusiana from the usurper Maccabruno. Drusiana wavers between her former lover and Maccabruno, while miller’s daughter Menichina also loves Buovo. Buovo ultimately regains his estates and marries Menichina.
While King Endre is away, Bánk’s wife Melinda is pursued by Queen Gertrude’s brother Otto. Bánk initially refuses to join the nobles’ conspiracy, but agrees after learning of Otto’s advances. Otto drugs and rapes Melinda; Bánk confronts Gertrude and kills her in a struggle. Melinda later drowns herself and their son in the Tisza. When Endre returns, Bánk admits killing the queen and collapses beside the bodies of his wife and child.
In 12th-century Hungary, Prince István returns from battle. His father, King Kálmán, urges him to remarry, and two royal advisors reveal that he has a lover, Bátori Mária, and two sons with her. István goes to Mária’s estate and marries her. When he and Mária’s brother leave to hunt, the advisors persuade the king that Mária and her sons threaten the royal succession. The king questions her at her estate, but Mária exposes the advisors’ motives and her children plead for her. The king excuses her and leaves. The advisors and executioner then enter her chamber and stab her. István returns in time to say goodbye to her as she dies and vows revenge.
Young nun Béatrice leaves her convent with Lorenzo, but he is unfaithful and abandons her. Disguised as a dancer, she believes she has caused a man’s death and returns in remorse; the Virgin, who took her place in the convent, forgives her and restores her to the sisterhood.
In Messina, Béatrice and Bénédict trade insults while Héro awaits the return of her fiancé Claudio. Don Pedro and Léonato trick Bénédict into believing Béatrice loves him, and Héro and Ursule similarly convince Béatrice that Bénédict is in love with her. At a masquerade celebrating Claudio and Héro’s wedding, Béatrice and Bénédict each struggle to hide their growing love. They finally declare their feelings and sign a second marriage contract.
After Titus becomes emperor, he must choose between his love for Judean queen Bérénice and loyalty to Rome, whose people oppose her. Warned against meeting her, he nevertheless comes to her boat before she cuts her hair and quietly departs for Ostia.
An opera based on Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore was initially a character in the work, whose multilingual libretto is primarily in English.
During a 1945 tour of New Orleans’s Cabildo, newlyweds Tom and Mary enter Pierre Lafitte’s former cell and Mary dreams of 1812. Lafitte awaits execution for a crime he did not commit; the ghost of his lover Valerie reveals how she died and urges him to escape and help defend the city. Mary wakes convinced the dream was real.
Lully’s prologue and five-act French tragédie en musique recount the mythological love story of Cadmus, founder of Thebes, and Hermione, daughter of Venus and Mars.
Three-act Italian opera seria based on historical writing about Gaius Marius.
Calandro, disillusioned with humanity, lives in a forest with tame bears. The shepherd Alceste hires him to tutor his unruly son Nearco, who tries to get rid of his tutor while helping his friend Licisco resolve his love for Clizia.
Detlev Glanert’s four-act German opera freely adapts Albert Camus’s play about the last days of the Roman emperor Caligula. The available text does not provide further plot details.
After Livia’s death, Tiberius’s depravity grows and Rome descends into corruption and executions. Caligula succeeds him, but his excesses and eccentricities soon lead Rome into an even more terrifying reign.
Princess Callirhoé loves Agénor, but her parents force her to marry Corésus, the high priest of Bacchus. Their wedding is interrupted when Callirhoé faints. Corésus calls on the people to kill Agénor. An oracle says Callirhoé or someone who loves her must die. Callirhoé and Agénor each offer to sacrifice themselves for the other. Corésus, unwilling to win Callirhoé at the cost of her hatred, stabs himself, fulfilling the oracle.
An Italian opera seria by Antonio Sacchini, set to a libretto by Mattia Verazi and first performed at Schloss Ludwigsburg in 1770.
Two-act Italian melodramma eroico in 23 scenes.
Camilla, heir to the Volsci throne, hides as a shepherdess while plotting to overthrow Latinus, who has usurped the crown. She saves Prenesto from a boar, and he falls in love with her. Lavinia hides her lover, the enemy king Turnus, while Latinus presses her to marry. After Camilla is captured and freed by Prenesto, a popular uprising defeats Latinus’s forces. Camilla and Prenesto marry, ending the political conflict.
A tragédie en musique about Camilla, Queen of the Volsci, based on Virgil’s Aeneid.
Enchantress Circe helps Picus become king because she loves him, but he loves the nymph Canens. The River Tiber also loves Canens and threatens to flood Latium if she marries Picus. Circe abducts Canens and sends demons and Furies against the lovers, but Cupids thwart her plans; Circe finally admits defeat and Picus and Canens marry.
Enchantress Circe helps Picus become king because she loves him, but he loves the nymph Canens. The River Tiber also loves Canens and threatens to flood Latium if she marries Picus. Circe abducts Canens and sends demons and Furies against the lovers, but Cupids thwart her plans; Circe finally admits defeat and Picus and Canens marry.
A Chinese-language western-style opera.
At a château near Paris around 1775, poet Olivier and composer Flamand debate whether words or music make the greater art. Both love Countess Madeleine, who cannot choose between them. The theatre director La Roche defends the stage, while the guests discuss their arts and the Count suggests making an opera from the events of the day. Left alone that evening, Madeleine remains uncertain about the opera’s ending and her choice of lover.
Jonathan Jinks bets that he can seduce opera star Aurelia Trentoni, but they fall in love and he regrets the wager. After an attempted customs bribe lands him in jail, a friend uses the bet as evidence that he is a fortune hunter; Jinks and Aurelia eventually reconcile when she invents an excuse for his missed trial.
The goldsmith Cardillac is secretly murdering the owners of the jewels he has made so he can reclaim his work. When the officer courting Cardillac’s daughter survives an attack, the gold merchant exposes the crimes; Cardillac confesses and is lynched by the crowd, reaching for a jewel even as he dies.
Portuguese King Alfonso attacks Spain after Queen Caritea refuses to marry him. Diego, a Spaniard who fled ten years earlier after killing a rival suitor, enters the Portuguese camp. Caritea infiltrates the camp in disguise; Diego saves her, but she does not recognize him. She had vowed to marry anyone who brings her Diego’s head. Diego offers to escort her home and proposes marriage, but Caritea repeats her condition. Alfonso challenges Diego to a duel and is killed. Diego returns to Toledo as a hero, reveals his identity, and Caritea forgives him and agrees to marry him.
Carlo, Duke of Burgundy, is torn between his promised marriage to Leonora of York and his love for Estella, daughter of Arnoldo. Arnoldo is wounded defending Estella and later joins the Swiss, who are resisting Carlo’s invasion. Estella protects Leonora when she is captured. During the battle, Arnoldo kills Carlo, and Estella dies in her father’s arms as the Swiss defeat the Burgundian army.
The opera is about Charles the Bald.
Two-act opera about the life of temperance activist Carrie Nation, commissioned by the University of Kansas for its centennial. The source identifies a love story and folk heritage in the work but gives no version-specific plot details.
Set in Venice in 1774, the opera portrays Giacomo Casanova and the people around him, including Lorenzo, Gabrielle, the Marquis De Lisle, Bellino, and Madame d’Urfé.
Based on Aeschylus’s Oresteia, the opera is a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts.
The Trojan priestess Cassandra recounts her memories of the war and predicts Troy’s fall. Her monologue moves through lament and revolt as time loops and the past becomes present; episodes flow into each other as a stream of consciousness.
After their newborn daughter dies, Isabeau is left alone while her husband Richard is away on crusade. Count Geoffrey of Lisiac, a former suitor, attacks Castle Agrazant and kidnaps her. Richard returns from Jerusalem, discovers the assault and follows her, disguised as a monk. At Lisiac Hall, he reveals himself to Isabeau and fights Geoffrey; both Isabeau and Geoffrey are wounded, and Richard escapes with her. As they hide, Richard renounces his crusade. Isabeau hallucinates that she is comforting their daughter and dies, while she and Richard sing of a brighter future beyond this life.
An English-language opera by Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith, commissioned for Cincinnati Opera’s centennial season. The plot is not described.
After Castor is killed in battle, his beloved Télaïre asks Pollux to persuade Jupiter to restore him. Jupiter says Pollux must take Castor’s place in the underworld, and Pollux accepts the sacrifice. Castor returns for one day, but Jupiter ultimately grants both brothers immortality, and the twins become the constellation Gemini.
Polluce, immortal but grieving for his dead brother Castore, seeks to exchange places with him so Castore can reunite with Telaira. The plan entangles Polluce’s own relationship with Febe, Telaira’s sister; Giove ultimately reunites the siblings and Telaira in heaven.
Caterina’s wedding to Gerardo is postponed when King Lusignano of Cyprus seeks her hand. As Mocenigo slowly poisons the king, Gerardo joins the Knights of the Cross to defend Cyprus; Lusignano dies of his wounds, entrusting Caterina with his people, and Gerardo returns to Rhodes.
Set in Paris in 1578, the Duke of Guise suspects his wife Caterina of an affair with San Megrino and forces her to lure him into a trap. Caterina cannot warn him. Arturo helps San Megrino escape through a window, but both are discovered and killed by the Duke’s soldiers. Caterina curses her husband.
After Pompey’s defeat, Cato and his allies retreat to Utica. Julius Caesar seeks Cato’s friendship and hopes to marry his daughter Marzia, who secretly loves him, but Cato has promised her to the Numidian prince Arbace. Pompey’s widow Emilia schemes against the match. Cato refuses to abandon his republican principles and dies by suicide rather than submit to Caesar.
Leonardo Vinci’s opera is the original setting of Metastasio’s libretto Catone in Utica. The available text does not provide plot details.
In a Sicilian village on Easter morning, Santuzza tells Turiddu’s mother that he has returned to his affair with Lola, now married to Alfio. After Santuzza reveals the adultery, Alfio challenges Turiddu to a duel; Turiddu is killed, and the news reaches the villagers.
The sacred opera centers on Cecilia. The entry provides the cast of roles but no account of the dramatic action.
A pseudo-classical morality fable based on the myth of Cephalus and Procris, set as a sequence of arias and recitatives.
Three-act Spanish opera by Juan Hidalgo de Polanco to a libretto by Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
Cendrillon is mistreated by her stepsisters, Clorinde and Thisbé. When she welcomes a beggar who is actually the prince’s minister Alidor in disguise, he promises to reward her. Alidor brings her to the royal ball, where the prince, disguised as his valet Dandini, falls in love with her. She flees and leaves a slipper behind. The prince finds her when it fits, and she accepts his proposal.
Cendrillon longs to attend the prince’s ball; the Fairy Godmother prepares her, warning that the magic ends at midnight. She meets and falls in love with the prince, then flees at midnight. Later, the Fairies bring them together under an enchanted oak, and after the prince recognizes her among the princesses trying on the glass slipper, they are reunited.
A three-act dramma per musica by Carl Heinrich Graun, using Giovan Gualberto Bottarelli’s Italian libretto. Its inaugural 1742 performance at Berlin’s new Royal Opera House was given in a German translation.
In the present, the aging boxer Emile Griffith struggles with dementia and memories of his past. Flashbacks follow his childhood in the Virgin Islands, rise as a welterweight, conflicted sexuality and the 1962 bout in which he fatally injured Benny Paret. Later losses, an assault and the haunting memory of Paret lead Griffith to seek peace and ask Paret's son for forgiveness.
Set in France several years after Agincourt, the opera follows King Charles VI during the English invasion. Odette frustrates Queen Isabelle and Bedford’s plan to replace the Dauphin with Bedford’s son and helps restore the heir; the dying king and French pledge resistance to English rule.
After Charlie Parker dies, his spirit meets Nica de Koenigswarter at Birdland while his body remains in her hotel suite. He revisits his youth in Kansas City, his family and marriages, his friendship and musical partnership with Dizzy Gillespie, and the death of his daughter. As the family disputes his burial, Parker recognizes music as his life’s work and makes peace with himself.
In Paris on 13 July 1793, Charlotte Corday meets her disillusioned Girondin friend Camille and Marat’s bodyguard Gaston. She sees Marat but misses a chance to kill him. The next day, after Marat frees Camille, Charlotte again considers how to act against him. In act three she visits Marat in his bath with a list of revolutionary enemies. Their argument over power, loneliness, truth and death ends when she stabs him; Marat dies understanding her expression but not learning her name.
A two-act opera and epilogue based largely on Charlotte Salomon’s autobiographical work Leben? Oder Theater?, featuring both Salomon and her fictional creation Charlotte Kann.
Poet Thomas Chatterton lodges with a wealthy family and, unable to support himself by writing, takes a servant’s job. He conceals his love for his landlord’s wife, Jenny Clark; despairing over his circumstances and impossible love, he kills himself, and Jenny dies immediately afterward.
Simon Mayr’s one-act farsa has a libretto by Gaetano Rossi based on an earlier French farce from 1779. It was the earliest of Mayr’s works to be widely produced.
Vakula’s beloved Oxana demands the Tsaritsa’s boots before she will marry him. With the Devil’s help, Vakula travels to Saint Petersburg and obtains them, while Oxana realizes she loves him rather than the boots. On Christmas morning Vakula returns, apologizes to Oxana’s father, and asks for her hand; the couple reunites.
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