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Clear filtersKing 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.
Don Fernando plots to marry his ward Serafina and enlists pirate Picaro to disrupt her marriage to Don Ramiro. Picaro impersonates Serafina’s long-lost father, while the real father and her sister Chiara arrive in disguise. Pirates later storm the castle; Picaro frees the captives, the sisters reunite, and Serafina and Ramiro affirm their love.
In a near future where the “Big Sleep” has frozen the world into an ice desert, two sisters known as seed children leave their hidden sanctuary to wake the planet. The opera is inspired by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and celebrates nature and children’s courage.
Chimène and Rodrigue love one another, but Rodrigue kills her father in a duel to defend his own father’s honor. The King orders Rodrigue to fight the Moors, and he returns victorious as El Cid. Chimène’s champion Don Sanche loses their duel, but Rodrigue spares him and asks Chimène to accept him freely; she finally agrees to marry him.
A three-act comic opera by Giselher Klebe, loosely based on Nikolai Gogol’s play The Government Inspector and ending with a significant twist.
In a Polish village at Christmas, Chopin declares his love to Stella. In Paris, his friend Elio tells children about Poland’s struggles, inspiring Chopin to compose a nocturne; Flora, his new love, is also present. In Mallorca, Chopin lives with Flora and their daughter, who dies after a thunderstorm. Stella later arrives in Paris from Poland, and Chopin dies in her arms.
On Christmas Eve in Dikanka, Oksana demands the Tsaritsa’s slippers before she will marry Vakula. With the Devil’s help, Vakula travels to the royal court to get them; on Christmas Day he returns, and Oksana accepts his proposal.
A two-part opera presenting episodes from the life of Christopher Columbus in a non-chronological order, with some allegorical scenes.
In the Spanish court, Christopher Columbus persuades Ferdinand and Isabella to fund his voyage. The opera then follows events aboard the Santa María, ending with Columbus’s landing at San Salvador on 12 October 1492.
The opera's libretto is based on William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Its roles include Christopher Sly, a tinker; Henry Pimpernel, a smith; Peter Turph, a tailor; and Marion Hackett, an alehouse hostess.
Composition student Anselm is assigned a string quartet based on St Christopher but decides to write an opera starring himself, his composer friend Christoph, and Christoph’s wife Lisa, whom Anselm loves. A year later, Christoph has left composition for family life, while Lisa is dissatisfied and attracted to Anselm. When Christoph discovers them together, he shoots and kills Lisa; he and Anselm flee. They reach a seedy nightclub, where a séance lets Christoph, under opium, try to contact Lisa. Anselm realizes he is losing control of his opera. In the epilogue, dream and reality blur; unable to finish, Anselm returns to music’s simplest form and begins the string quartet.
This staged sacred opera presents episodes from the New Testament life of Jesus, from the Nativity and temptation through his ministry, trial, and crucifixion; an epilogue has Paul lead praise of Christ.
An opera based on the traditional Korean love story of Sun Chunhyang, drawing on the novel Chunhyangjeon and pansori Chunhyangga.
After receiving his military commission, Chérubin flirts with the Countess and Spanish dancer L’Ensoleillad while his maid Nina loves him. A love letter nearly gets him killed. At an inn, he seduces L’Ensoleillad and serenades her, but the Countess and Baroness each think the song is for her, provoking duels with their husbands. Chérubin clarifies the misunderstanding; when Nina plans to enter a convent, he realizes he truly loves her and persuades her to stay.
In a Transylvanian opera house, Cinderella is a talented composer forced to work as a music copyist by her stepmother. Her stepsisters steal her melody and sing it with the wrong words at the royal ball. Cinderella sings it correctly to Prince Theodore, a poet, then flees at midnight. The prince searches for her using the melody, and they find each other.
Cinq-Mars loves Princess Marie de Gonzague, who is promised in marriage to the King of Poland. After hearing of the planned match, he enters a conspiracy of French nobles against Cardinal Richelieu, who refuses to approve his marriage to Marie. Cinq-Mars joins the plot despite De Thou’s warning against involving Spain. He and Marie exchange wedding vows, but a spy reports the conspiracy to Father Joseph. Joseph tells Marie that Cinq-Mars will be executed for treason unless she agrees to the Polish match. She capitulates, but Cinq-Mars is still condemned. In prison, Marie reveals that Joseph deceived her and admits she has always loved Cinq-Mars. De Thou’s escape plan fails when the execution is moved forward, and Cinq-Mars and De Thou pray before being led to the gallows.
A German-language opera by Werner Egk based on a work by Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
A tragédie en musique concerning Circe, the sorceress of Greek mythology.
An Italian opera about the Persian king Cyrus the Great.
Cyrus plans a campaign against Assyria with the Medes, but the Armenian king changes sides. Cyrus invades Armenia and defeats its forces. Tigrane, the king’s son and Cyrus’s childhood friend, persuades Cyrus to forgive the king, allowing Tigrane to marry Palmide, a princess of Phrygia.
During the Persian invasion of Babylon, Baldassare captures Amira, the wife of the Persian king Ciro, and their son. With a plan devised by his general Arbace, Ciro disguises himself as an ambassador and enters Baldassare’s court to arrange their release. After a series of trials and divine intervention, Baldassare is defeated, and Ciro is reunited with his wife and son.
After her father is murdered, Clara investigates his connection to organized crime. Her search takes her to red-light districts and a gambling den, where Lucio reveals that her childhood comforts were funded by death and narcotics. Her brother Pascal and Lucio die in a confrontation, and Clara leaves to begin a new life.
The country girl Clari attracts a Duke, who installs her in his mansion under the pretense that she is his cousin. Realizing he does not intend to marry her, she escapes home, where her father scolds her; the Duke follows, having recognized that he loves her, and the story ends happily.
After Caligula is murdered, the Senate names Claudius emperor. He proves capable, rebuilding Rome through reforms and public works and annexing Britain. He faces a planned uprising in the East and fails to recognize that his wife Messalina may betray him.
After Poros is defeated by Alexander, Queen Cleofide tries to secure peace while Poros repeatedly doubts her loyalty. Disguises, jealousy and Timagenes’ conspiracy complicate the conflict until Alexander exposes the plot and grants Poros and Cleofide their freedom and realm.
A distinct setting or adaptation of Pietro Metastasio’s Demetrio libretto by Christoph Willibald Gluck. Premiered on 2 May 1742 at Teatro San Samuele, Venice; only eight arias survive, and it was also performed as Cleonice. No version-specific plot is supplied.
A distinct setting or adaptation of Pietro Metastasio’s Demetrio libretto by Baltasar Saldoni. Performed in 1840 at Teatro de la Cruz, Madrid under this adapted title. No version-specific plot is supplied.
An opera by Lauro Rossi with a libretto by Marco D’Arienzo based on Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
Cleopatra’s maids discover that Mardion loves the lion hunter Meïamoun. When he swims into Cleopatra’s bath, she offers him one night with her in exchange for his life. Mardion kills herself after Meïamoun accepts. At a dawn banquet, Cleopatra offers Meïamoun gifts and escape, but he drinks poison as Antony’s arrival is announced. Cleopatra keeps her promise to remember him and welcomes Antony.
After Agamemnon returns from Troy, his wife Clitennestra kills him, ostensibly to avenge their daughter Iphigenia but also to be with her lover Egisto. Seven years later, Orestes returns in disguise and, aided by his sister Elettra, kills Clitennestra and Egisto before going into exile.
Count Emerico is betrothed to Clotilde, whom he has never met. Squire Sivaldo substitutes his sister Isabella and arranges for courier Tartufo to kill Clotilde, but Tartufo lets her escape. Disguised as a peasant, she finds shelter at innkeeper Jacopone’s inn, where Emerico mistakes Isabella for his bride. Clotilde later reveals the deception with Tartufo and Jacopone’s testimony. A locket proves her identity, and she asks Emerico to forgive Sivaldo and Isabella.
Marc-Antoine becomes infatuated with Cléopâtre after Rome conquers Egypt. He abandons his Roman obligations, returns to Octavie, then is drawn back to Cléopâtre. Deceived into believing she has died, he wounds himself; she brings him to her side and dies by a poisonous snakebite.
Set in 16th-century Clamecy, the opera follows Colas Breugnon, a fictional Burgundian optimist and craftsman. The libretto adapts Romain Rolland’s novel.
Wounded Confederate soldier Inman deserts and sets out to return to Ada at Black Cove Farm in North Carolina. He is captured by the Home Guard under Teague and put on a chain gang; after the guards shoot the gang, Inman is the sole survivor. Lucinda frees him. At the farm, Ada learns to survive with Ruby, who is estranged from her father Stobrod. Inman meets war widow Sara and helps her. Teague later shoots Stobrod and Pangle; Ada finds the wounded men. Inman and Ada reunite, affirm their love, and spend a final night together. Teague’s men track Inman down and kill him. Nine years later, Ada lives with her child by Inman.
An English-language opera based on Olive Ann Burns’s 1984 novel Cold Sassy Tree.
A three-act French comédie lyrique by André Grétry and Jean-Baptiste Lourdet de Santerre, based on Charles Simon Favart’s Ninette à la cour.
A radio opera about Christopher Columbus, revised by Werner Egk for the stage in 1942.
A woman moves through memories and dreams as she grieves her sister and searches for a way forward.
A river bridge separates two armies during a conflict. Josephine is held on the bridge because she lacks the papers needed to cross to her own side. The brewer Bedron is also detained there, and his flirtation with Josephine brings her fiancé Johnny and Bedron’s wife Eva into an argument. A schoolmaster ponders a riddle about a deer trapped in a walled field. When fighting is heard, the couples settle their differences. Their side wins the battle, and an officer reveals that Josephine’s brother is alive; she had buried another soldier. The officer gives the riddle’s answer: the deer does not escape.
Across ten scenes, each covering a decade in Sue’s life from birth to age 99, she encounters Death, Santa Claus, gossipy students, a newscaster, an ex-partner, an algorithmic trio, a neighbor, her child self and nursing-home residents. Death greets Sue at birth and returns on her 99th birthday.
In Seville, cigar maker Conchita resists Matteo’s advances even after he gives money to her mother. She leaves and becomes a flamenco dancer; when Matteo follows her, she stages a meeting with a false lover to provoke his jealousy and test his feelings. Convinced of his love, she reciprocates.
Weinberg's Russian-language opera adapts Sholem Aleichem's play Mazel Tov. Its plot closely follows the play and emphasizes class conflict.
Méhul's four-act opera adapts Jean-François Marmontel's novel Les Incas. Its roles include Ataliba, king of Quito; Alonso, a Spanish general; Cora; and her parents Zémor and Zélia.
Mark-Anthony Turnage’s two-act opera adapts Neil Gaiman’s dark fantasy novella Coraline. The available text does not provide plot details.
In Naples, Don Alfonso wagers that the fiancées of two officers will prove unfaithful. Ferrando and Guglielmo pretend to leave for war, then return in disguise as Albanians and attempt to seduce each other’s fiancée. Dorabella and Fiordiligi eventually yield; the men reveal the deception, and the group forgives one another.
On board the battleship Montesquieu, deputy Puy-Pradal arrives to lead a parliamentary inquiry and disrupts the crew’s plans for leave. His daughter Béatrice is courted by both the ship’s commander, Gerville, and Lieutenant Kermao. During a stop in Cairo, actress Sola Myrrhis seduces Puy-Pradal, who leaves the ship to travel with her. Three months later they rejoin the ship. Béatrice is angry with her father and misunderstands Kermao’s encounter with Sola. Puy-Pradal breaks with the actress; Gerville reconciles the lovers and persuades Puy-Pradal to consent to their marriage. Sola joins the Comédie Française, and Puy-Pradal learns he faces a ministerial reshuffle.
The opening of Die Walküre is interrupted by the opera company’s interface manager, who tells conductor Salonen to play Mozart instead. Singers and officials adjust to pandemic restrictions. A stranded diva complains about canceled international engagements before being offered a leading role in Finland. The opera then satirizes the changing lives of ordinary Finns and the uncertainty of official announcements.
Hatter Cox works by day, while printer Box works by night; their landlord Sergeant Bouncer secretly rents the same room to both. They meet when Cox unexpectedly has a day off and discover Bouncer’s deception. The lodgers become friends, but learn they were both engaged to Penelope Ann. When she announces that she is marrying Mr. Knox, Cox and Box discover they are long-lost brothers.
In Thebes, Eteocles and Polynices kill one another in a struggle for the throne, and the people make Creonte ruler. He honors Eteocles but leaves Polynices unburied. Antigone secretly buries her brother and is sentenced to die sealed in a cave. Creonte’s son Haemon, who loves Antigone, enters the cave to share her fate. The people rebel against Creonte’s cruelty and proclaim Antigone queen. Freed, she forgives him, and the opera ends with hope for peace in Thebes.
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