3280 shows
Clear filtersDon 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.
This three-act Italian opera seria is based on Book I of Herodotus's Histories, the account associated with Croesus.
Poor cobbler Crispino cannot make ends meet. A fairy encourages him to practice medicine, although he cannot read, and helps him become successful. He grows unable to handle prosperity and mistreats his wife. The fairy makes him recognize his faults, and his family is happily reunited.
Queen Cristina’s favorite Gabriele loves her cousin Maria, while Cristina hopes to marry Gabriele herself. After Maria refuses a marriage to Erik and reveals her love for Gabriele, conspirators exploit the court’s divisions and plot against the queen. Cristina suppresses the revolt, forgives Gabriele and the conspirators, consents to his marriage with Maria, and abdicates in favor of Carlo Gustavo.
The opera follows Columbus’s voyage of discovery, opposition to the expedition from Spanish authorities, and Queen Isabella’s encouragement. After overcoming difficulties and achieving his goal, Columbus learns of Isabella’s death and grieves.
Croesus, king of Lydia, ignores Solon's warning that wealth does not guarantee happiness. When Cyrus invades, Croesus is captured and condemned. His son Atis, who has just regained his speech, disguises himself as a Persian soldier to return to court and thwart Orsanes's attempt to seize power. Solon persuades Cyrus to spare Croesus, who returns to his throne; Atis and Elmira reunite.
Berio’s five-scene musical action incorporates rabbinic literature and poetry by Paul Celan and Marina Tsvetaeva into an Italian libretto compiled by Talia Pecker Berio. Berio described the work as an azione musicale rather than an opera.
After abducting Fleur-de-Soufre, Croquefer wants to end his long feud with her father, the mutilated knight Mousse-à-Mort. Fleur-de-Soufre and Croquefer’s nephew Ramasse-ta-Tête plot to escape and marry; poisoned drinks interrupt the men’s confrontation, and a final letter reveals the composer and librettists are being taken to an asylum.
During the American Civil War, Walt Whitman volunteers as a nurse and cares for wounded soldier John Wormley, who conceals that he is a Confederate. Their intimacy and Wormley’s letter threaten the Union hospital, leading to a confrontation before a messenger announces the war’s end.
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique by Louis Lacoste, with a libretto by Pierre-Charles Roy.
In medieval East Anglia, a Madwoman searches for her son, who disappeared a year earlier. A Ferryman tells how a sick boy was abandoned by his master near the river and died, asking to be buried by the path to a chapel. As the Ferryman recounts the story, the Madwoman realizes the boy was her son. She prays at his grave, and the boy’s spirit appears to comfort her. Her madness lifts, and the Abbot closes the parable.
To relieve Queen Genia’s melancholy, the android engineer Trull builds machines that tell her stories. Their nested tales follow a supercomputer made for a king, a ruler lost in erotic dream cupboards, and a castaway who becomes an enemy of technology. The stories reflect on human existence and the limits of progress; in the finale, Trull kills his clone.
Cymon, a captive prince, falls in love with the shepherdess Sylvia. His captor Urganda threatens her, but Merlin frustrates the plan and allows the lovers to unite.
Cyrano loves Roxane but helps the less eloquent Christian win her by writing letters and feeding him words from beneath her balcony. Christian dies in battle, leaving Roxane to cherish the letters; years later she recognizes Cyrano as their author shortly before he dies of his wounds.
Cyrano loves Roxane but believes she cannot love him because of his large nose. Roxane loves Christian, a handsome but inarticulate soldier. Cyrano writes letters to Roxane in Christian’s name and speaks for him beneath her balcony, enabling Christian to win her. During the siege of Arras, Roxane tells Christian she would love him even if he were ugly. Christian realizes she loves Cyrano’s words and asks him to reveal the truth, but dies before he can do so. Fifteen years later, Roxane recognizes Cyrano as the author of the letters as he dies in her arms.
Cyrano loves his cousin Roxane but believes his appearance rules out her love. When she falls for the handsome Christian, Cyrano supplies the eloquent letters and words that win her, while Christian gives Cyrano the chance to protect her at the siege of Arras. Christian dies in battle, and years later Roxane realizes that Cyrano wrote the letters; he dies after finally revealing his love.
Opera in three acts and an epilogue based on Edmond Rostand’s play. Its title character is described as a poet and cadet with a range from humor to tragedy; the entry supplies no plot synopsis.
Céphale and Procris love each other, but the dawn goddess Aurora and Thracian prince Borée complicate their marriage plans. Aurora’s spell briefly makes Procris believe Céphale has been unfaithful, then Aurora reverses it; Procris is accidentally struck by Céphale’s arrow while intervening in his fight with Borée and dies.
Aurora, who loves Cephalus, prophesies that he will kill Procris and drives him away from her. Later, as Cephalus hunts, Procris hides to listen to him; mistaking her sigh for an animal, he shoots and mortally wounds her. Cupid revives Procris and grants the couple immortality.
A Vietnamese-language western-style opera by Đỗ Nhuận. No plot information is supplied.
Across 100 scenes set in 1002–03, the opera depicts Izumi Shikibu’s affair with Prince Atsumishi.
Opera by composer Olli Kortekangas and librettist Michael Baran, commissioned by the Savonlinna Opera Festival and the Finnish Parliament.
After Apollo kills Python, he challenges Cupid to an archery contest. Cupid retaliates by making Apollo fall in love with the nymph Daphne. Daphne flees Apollo and transforms into a laurel tree. Apollo makes a crown from its leaves, which become a symbol of poetry, music, and freedom.
After Apollo kills a monster that terrorizes shepherds, Cupid makes him fall in love with Daphne. Apollo pursues her until her father Peneus turns her into a laurel tree, whose leaves become a lasting gift to poets.
Pursued by Apollo, Daphne appeals to Diana for rescue and is transformed into a laurel tree.
In a Georgian village preparing for the Khatoba holiday, Maro grieves for her absent lover Malkhaz and dreads her forced engagement to Commander Kiazo. Malkhaz returns, learns of the engagement and seeks Maro, but she resists because she believes they cannot be together. Tsangala tells Kiazo that Maro still loves Malkhaz, provoking jealousy. As the feast continues, Maro and Malkhaz meet again, but Nano warns them that Kiazo is coming. News arrives that an enemy has invaded, and Kiazo calls the people to defend their homeland. Maro tells Kiazo she never loved him and returns her ring. Kiazo, consumed by revenge, fatally stabs Malkhaz despite his appeal to duty. Maro mourns as the people grieve and the warriors depart to protect the country.
Dalibor, a Czech knight, is tried for killing the burgrave of Ploskovice in revenge for the death of his friend Zdeněk. The court commutes his sentence to life imprisonment. Milada, the burgrave’s sister, falls in love with Dalibor and conspires with Jitka to free him. Disguised as a boy, she becomes the jailer Beneš’s assistant and visits Dalibor with Zdeněk’s violin. Their escape plan fails, and the king orders Dalibor’s execution. Milada storms the castle but is wounded and dies; Dalibor kills himself.
A short ballet within Act III of Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda, depicting dawn, day, twilight, and night through solo and ensemble dances. The choreography, lighting, and costume changes symbolize the struggle between light and darkness.
Circus rider Dandy Dick loves Alice Fitzwarren, but her mother opposes their match. Dick’s acrobat friend Larry is unexpectedly selected as King of Siam, and the circus travels there. Dick follows with Captain Fairfax, who loves Lola. At Larry’s enthronement, he makes Dick first minister, making Dick a suitable suitor for Alice. When the real king returns, Larry gladly relinquishes the throne and marries Willasee; Dick and Alice also marry.
Dante is depicted as a young man entangled in political and romantic intrigues as he seeks Beatrice.
During the French Revolution, Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins call for an end to the daily executions. Robespierre and Saint-Just decide they must be killed. Danton refuses to flee, is tried and guillotined with Camille, and Lucile is arrested after crying “Long live the king.”
A lost opera by Handel and Hinrich Hinsch based on the Daphne myth. Its surviving libretto centers on conflict between Phoebus and Cupid and a web of often unrequited loves; the entry does not provide the detailed plot.
Daphne, devoted to nature, rejects the love of her childhood friend Leukippos and of a mysterious herdsman, who is Apollo. At a Dionysian festival, Apollo reveals Leukippos’s disguise and kills him with an arrow. Grieving Daphne, Apollo asks Zeus to transform her into a tree, and she rejoices in her union with nature.
Daphnis loves the shepherdess Alcimadure, who doubts his sincerity. Disguised as a soldier, her brother Jeanet tests Daphnis, who proves his courage by rescuing her from a wolf; Alcimadure still denies her love. When she believes Daphnis dead, she confesses that she loves him too, and the lovers reunite after learning the death was a ruse.
In ancient Greece, Pan pursues the proud shepherdess Chloé while she loves the shepherd Daphnis. A group of bacchantes tries to cure Daphnis’s lovesickness with seduction and a potion of forgetfulness, but the lovers reunite after Pan accidentally drinks the potion himself.
Shepherd Daphnis and shepherdess Eglé believe they are only friends until Cupid reveals that they are in love with each other.
Dardanus, at war with King Teucer, falls in love with Teucer’s daughter Iphise, who is promised to Anténor. The magician Isménor enables the lovers to meet. After Dardanus is captured, Venus rescues him and sends him to fight a monster attacking the coast. Dardanus saves Anténor from the creature, and Teucer agrees to peace and the marriage.
French tragédie lyrique by Antonio Sacchini in four acts, later revised to three. Nicolas-François Guillard adapted a libretto previously set by Rameau.
In a midwinter forest, the elf Elflein asks the tree spirit Tannengreis about Christmas. Frieder passes on his way to seek a doctor for his dying sister Trautchen, while his servants encounter Knecht Ruprecht as they search for a tree. The Christ Child promises to bring Trautchen a tree on Christmas Eve, and Elflein follows him despite Tannengreis’s warnings. At the family home, the Christ Child says Trautchen will die. Elflein offers to take her place; the Christ Child grants the elf a soul and names him Christ-Elflein, allowing him to return each Christmas. Trautchen recovers, Frieder regains his faith, and Tannengreis makes peace with humanity.
A biotech company owner’s dependence on stock-market fluctuations frames the exposure of a human clone to the outside world and the complications of a love triangle. The opera explores the emotional and ethical consequences of human cloning.
A three-act German-language opera by Hans Pfitzner.
A princess rejects suitor after suitor and sends her most eligible suitor on a quest for the Garment of Heaven. Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s opera is based on Charles Perrault’s Donkeyskin.
A poet observes hunter Josuke Misugi, whose wife Midori asks for a divorce. His secret lover Saiko is also Midori’s cousin and best friend; Saiko and Josuke have a daughter, Shoko.
A four-act romantic opera based on Heinrich von Kleist’s drama of the same name.
As Pamina and Tamino prepare to marry, the Queen of the Night and Tipheus try to separate them, while Sarastro requires them to complete a labyrinth trial. Papageno searches for Papagena and encounters his family; Monostatos repeatedly schemes to win Papagena. With help from the genii, Tamino and Pamina reunite, and Tamino defeats Tipheus in a duel before marrying Pamina.
Governor Friedrich enforces strict moral laws in Palermo, sentencing Claudio to death for an amorous indiscretion. Claudio’s sister Isabella pleads for his release, but Friedrich demands her body in exchange. Isabella arranges a masked meeting with Friedrich and substitutes her friend Marianne, whom Friedrich had previously betrayed. After the governor is exposed, Claudio is freed and Friedrich asks the returning King to judge him. Claudio explains that death need not be the penalty for a love offence, and the town celebrates Carnival.
Dramatic ballad set in twelfth-century Palermo.
A two-act opera about Joan of Arc by Giselher and Lore Klebe, based on Friedrich Schiller’s play The Maid of Orleans.
Lachenmann’s two-part Musik mit Bildern reworks Andersen’s tale of the little match girl through added political and philosophical texts. The work explores icy cold and social indifference; Lachenmann described Gudrun Ensslin as a distorted variant of the girl, while Leonardo da Vinci’s text adds a wider perspective. Its two sopranos and choirs narrate and reflect on the story in an experimental musical form. The entry does not give a continuous plot.
A two-act opera by Giselher Klebe and Lore Klebe based on Goethe’s symbolic fairy tale Das Märchen.
A two-act German romantic opera set in Granada, Spain, in the mid-sixteenth century.
A one-act expressionist opera described as a play for Burmese marionettes. The work satirizes European drama and opera through puppet-theatre conventions and slapstick elements.
At the South Pole in 1912, Scott, Wilson, Bowers, and Oates are the last survivors of the expedition. Oates’s frozen feet slow the others, but they refuse to abandon him. During a storm, Oates leaves the tent and walks into the snow to die. The penguin chorus first mocks him, then honors his self-sacrifice as the surviving explorers pay their respects.
The fairy Morgana spreads lies about Lenore, causing Karados to stop loving her and King Arthur to banish her. While Lenore is away, the King arranges for Karados to marry his niece. A guardian spirit gives Lenore a beautiful gown and brings her to the court disguised as a minstrel. The gown flies away from every woman until Lenore tries it on; a drinking horn can be emptied only by Karados. The King accepts Lenore back and the pair are betrothed.
A one-act comic chamber opera in which meetings between three men and three women are treated as a burlesque about changing the norms of marriage.
Alberich steals the Rhinegold after renouncing love and forges a ring that grants power. Wotan and Loge travel to Nibelheim, seize Alberich’s hoard, and take the ring to pay the giants who built Valhalla and hold Freia hostage. Alberich curses the ring. Warned by Erda, Wotan gives it to the giants; Fafner kills Fasolt over the treasure. The gods enter Valhalla, while the Rhinemaidens mourn the loss of their gold.
Aribert Reimann’s adaptation of Kafka’s novel follows the stranger K., who arrives in a community that rejects him and is observed by an opaque apparatus.
An opera by Othmar Schoeck based on Joseph von Eichendorff’s novel of the same title.
The opera draws on Franz Kafka’s short story about Odysseus, Circe and the Sirens.
A two-act opera by Franz Schreker.
Set in 1750 in Austria’s Ausseerland, the musical comedy follows an old, unmarried mayor and innkeeper who has promised his assets to his friends. Persuaded to disinherit them and fake his death, he hides to observe their reactions.
In an unnamed totalitarian state, a ruler condemns a stranger who has brought joy to his subjects. Heliane visits the prisoner and falls in love with him, but refuses his request to give herself to him. The ruler discovers them and puts her on trial for adultery. After the stranger kills himself, Heliane must prove her innocence by restoring him to life. As she is taken to execution, he miraculously rises. The ruler wounds Heliane, and the lovers ascend together as the stranger's blessing ends his power.
A satirical fairy-tale opera in which a king seeks to resign after a revolution. The queen falls in love with a revolutionary leader and is transformed into a tree.
Ignaz Brüll’s two-act German-language opera is a comic Singspiel based on a story by Mélesville, involving mistaken identities during the Napoleonic Wars. The available text gives no further plot details.
Set in summer and winter, the opera centers on Fusako Kuroda, her son Noboru, and merchant navy officer Ryuji Tsukazaki.
A five-act, twelve-scene biblical opera about King David, based on the Books of Samuel.
Opera about the early-18th-century Armenian struggle led by the historical figure David Bek against Persian and Ottoman forces. Armen Tigranian began the work; collaborators completed it after his death.
Disguised, King Saul consults the Witch of Endor, who summons Samuel’s ghost and hears a prophecy that Saul will lose his children, friends and crown. Banished by Saul, David takes refuge with the Philistines and returns from victory hoping Jonathan, Saul’s son and his beloved, will be spared. During a truce, Jonathan and David meet, while the jealous Israelite general Joabel schemes against David. Joabel persuades Saul that David is plotting against him, and David is forced to leave. Saul then chooses war. The Philistines defeat Israel; Jonathan dies in David’s arms, and Saul falls on his sword to avoid capture. Though Achis names David the new king of Israel, David grieves for Jonathan.
The work explores images associated with schizophrenia and was inspired by the experiences of the composer’s brother and their shared Greek heritage. The libretto combines Byzantine liturgy, Old and New Testament material, text from Emanuel Bronner’s Rules for Life and interpretations of commentary by people with schizophrenia.
In this three-part mystery play about the end of time, the Sibyls foretell judgment, the Anchorites contemplate the end of the world, and Dies illa depicts its destruction. After worldly existence has ended, Lucifer asks forgiveness and is restored as an angel. The work concludes with Bach’s Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit, presented in a canon and its mirror image.
Sister Helen Prejean agrees to serve as spiritual adviser to Joseph De Rocher, a prisoner on death row for murdering two teenagers. She faces criticism from fellow sisters, prison officials, and the victims’ families as she supports his appeal for clemency. The pardon board rejects his request, and the governor declines to intervene. Before his execution, De Rocher confesses the murders to Helen and asks the victims’ parents for forgiveness. He is executed while Helen remains with him.
Shchedrin's three-act Russian-language opera adapts Nikolai Gogol's novel Dead Souls. A radio recording was made in 1976, followed by a vinyl and CD release in 1982.
The novelist Gustav von Aschenbach travels from Munich to Venice seeking renewed inspiration. There he becomes fascinated by the Polish boy Tadzio, while cholera spreads through the city. Aschenbach follows Tadzio and his family, conceals the danger from them, and remains in Venice. After the family leaves, Aschenbach watches Tadzio on the beach, grows too weak to rise, and dies as the boy walks out to sea.
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