3280 shows
Clear filtersFaust summons Mephistopheles and bargains away his soul for power. After seducing the Duchess of Parma and abandoning her, he confronts the consequences of his choices and tries to redeem himself by giving his life to her child, while Mephistopheles claims his body.
People and spirits surrounding Faust include his assistant Wagner, Mephistopheles, the Duke and Duchess of Parma, Hans Wurst, and a good spirit. The opera is set in sixteenth-century Mainz and Parma; the source does not summarize its plot.
Pharmacist Stößel plans to marry his daughter Leonore to the drunken Captain Sturmwald, but she loves Gotthold, son of Stößel’s professional rival, Doctor Krautmann. Gotthold and surgeon Sichel sneak into the house and arrange to marry Leonore and Rosalie. Disguised as the captain and a notary, they trick Stößel into signing a marriage contract. When the real captain and the doctor arrive, Stößel and Krautmann accuse each other of deception and poisoning. Claudia brokers a reconciliation; the lovers marry, and Sichel becomes an apprentice in Stößel’s laboratory.
Interrogated about the death of her employer, wealthy widow Vera Donovan, Dolores recounts her life. Flashbacks reveal that her abusive husband Joe also molested their daughter Selena. During a solar eclipse, Vera urges Dolores to solve her problem. Dolores provokes Joe, who chases her into the woods and falls into a well she has concealed; she covers it, leaving him to die. In the present, adult Selena tells police that Dolores could not have killed Vera, who had become close to her. Vera left her estate to Dolores. Selena later learns Vera died by suicide, falling down stairs when Dolores was not looking. Selena leaves, still not having forgiven her mother for killing Joe.
After a disastrous campaign in Morocco, Dom Sébastien returns to Portugal disguised, while his uncle Antonio seizes the throne. Sébastien and Zayda are arrested, and Antonio forces Sébastien to sign away Portugal’s independence in exchange for Zayda’s freedom. They attempt to escape with the poet Camoëns, but the lovers fall to their deaths and the Spanish fleet appears.
Music master Don Bucefalo offers singing lessons to villagers. Rosa, believing her husband Carlino died in war, hopes to study singing and marry Count Belprato; her neighbour Don Marco also loves her. Carlino returns disguised as a soldier to find out whether Rosa still loves him. While Don Bucefalo prepares a village opera, Carlino insults Rosa and sets off accusations. Don Marco eventually funds the production and sings its principal bass role. During rehearsals, Carlino reveals himself and reunites with Rosa; all ends happily.
In 16th-century Spain, Don Carlos loves Elisabeth, who has married his father, King Philip II. Carlos and his friend Rodrigue oppose the oppression of Flanders; their actions bring them into conflict with the King and the Grand Inquisitor. Princess Eboli’s jealousy and a court scandal deepen the crisis. Rodrigue is killed while protecting Carlos, who ultimately confronts the King and the Inquisitor at the monastery of Yuste.
At an inn near Naples, indebted Don Checco lets the innkeeper Bartolaccio mistake him for Count de Ridolfi. Bartolaccio hopes to secure the count’s favor, while his daughter Fiorina and waiter Carletto seek permission to marry. The real count, disguised as artist Roberto, eventually forgives their debts and approves the marriage.
At the rural wedding of Gamace and Chitteria in seventeenth-century Spain, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza arrive and become involved in the dances and verbal intrigues as the feast is prepared. The one-act work combines comic opera with ballet.
In the Sierra Morena, Don Chisciotte encounters Cardenio, whose beloved Lucinda was stolen by Fernando. The Don’s friends stage disguises and adventures to guide him home. Cardenio and Lucinda reunite, and Dorotea and Fernando reconcile. Don Chisciotte is tricked into returning to La Mancha in a cage, believing the events to be sorcery.
King Charles II desires Maritana, a street singer, but cannot approach her because of her low birth. Don César de Bazan is sentenced to death for duelling to protect Lazarille. Don José arranges for Maritana to marry Don César before his execution, hoping to use her as a means to gain the queen’s love. After the execution, Lazarille reveals that he removed the bullets, and Don César is alive. He prevents the king from forcing himself on Maritana, kills Don José to protect the queen’s honour, and is appointed governor of Granada.
In Spain, the libertine nobleman Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore while escaping Donna Anna, then continues his seductions with the help of his servant Leporello. Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Donna Elvira, Zerlina and Masetto confront him, but he repeatedly escapes. After inviting the Commendatore’s statue to dinner, Giovanni refuses its demand that he repent and is carried to Hell. The others resolve their futures and state the opera’s moral.
Don Giovanni kills the Commendatore after attempting to seduce his daughter Donna Anna. He later pursues Donna Ximena and Maturina while evading vengeance from Anna’s fiancé Ottavio. His servant Pasquariello hears the Commendatore’s statue accept a dinner invitation. When Giovanni refuses Donna Elvira’s plea to reform, the statue arrives at his house and drags him to his death.
Gregorio helps Enrico conceal his secret marriage to Gilda and their child from Enrico’s father, Marquis Giulio. Attempts to hide Gilda and bring the baby into the household lead to confusion before Giulio accepts the marriage.
Don John of Austria and his half-brother Philip II of Spain are rivals for Agnes, who is secretly Jewish and also known as Miriam. The opera draws on Casimir Delavigne's play Don Juan d'Autriche and resolves the conflict happily.
Elderly bachelor Don Pasquale plans to marry after his nephew Ernesto refuses the match Pasquale chose for him. Dr. Malatesta and Ernesto’s beloved Norina deceive Pasquale: Norina poses as Malatesta’s convent educated sister Sofronia and marries him. Once the contract is signed, she becomes demanding and spends extravagantly. Malatesta stages a confrontation that reveals the deception, and Pasquale agrees to let Ernesto marry Norina.
Don Quichotte sets out with Sancho Panza to recover a pearl necklace stolen from Dulcinée by a bandit chief. After mistaking windmills for giants and winning the bandits’ respect, he returns the necklace, but Dulcinée declines his proposal of marriage. As he dies, he gives Sancho an imagined island as his reward.
Don Quixote and Sancho take part in the wedding of Comacho and Quiteria, in a comic one-act serenata based on an episode from Cervantes’s novel. Telemann’s score contrasts elevated operatic style for the noble figures with folk-inspired music for the peasants.
A sung-through comic ballet/opera based on the Don Quixote episode in which a Duke and Duchess devise an elaborate ruse to fool Don Quixote.
A one-act grotesque musical scene featuring Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, devised as a benefit vehicle for the performers Hervé and Desiré. It is based on Cervantes’s novel; the source gives no plot summary.
A German-language opera in three acts by Wilhelm Kienzl, adapting Cervantes’s novel. Its characters include Alonzo Quixano, called Don Quixote, his niece Mercedes and the peasant Sancho Pansa.
After avenging an attack on his father, Rodrigo is crowned King of Spain. Don Julian entrusts his daughter Florinda to the court, and Rodrigo promises to protect her. At his coronation Rodrigo opens a forbidden chest and discovers an Arab flag and a curse that he will be the last of his dynasty. He later rapes Florinda, who writes to her father demanding revenge. Don Julian rebels, defeats Rodrigo at Guadalete, and the Moors enter Spain. Rodrigo becomes a vagrant and, after sheltering with a blind hermit, meets Florinda again, confesses his wrongdoing, and dies in her embrace.
At the Castle of Love, Don Sanche cannot enter because Princess Elzire does not return his affection. The magician Alidor engineers a storm and a staged duel with a false rival; when Don Sanche appears mortally wounded, Elzire realizes her love for him, and the test is revealed.
A zarzuela by José de Nebra.
Set in Portugal during the 13th-century Reconquista of the Algarve from the Moors, the opera recounts the tragic love story between Afonso III’s daughter Dona Branca and Moorish ruler Aben-Afan.
A three-act German-language operetta by Franz von Suppé.
Michael grows up amid family conflict, falls in love with the half-woman, half-bird Mondeva and is admitted to a conservatory. He journeys around the world in a trumpet-centered act, then returns to his celestial home, battles Lucifer and rejects his taunts. A farewell of five trumpeters is performed outside the theatre.
Stockbroker Fred Fancourt courts his cousin Dora, who has become absorbed in literature and says she will marry only a poet. Through charades, each challenges the other's ideal of a spouse, and they agree to part; they later reconcile and presumably marry.
Andrea Doria plots to free Genoa from its foreign governor, using his wedding to conceal the conspiracy. He warns the governor to flee, but Vivaldi betrays him and he is imprisoned. Doria's supporter Sporta leads the people to besiege the fortress. Sporta kills the governor during the rescue, and Doria's younger brother kills Vivaldi.
An opera in three acts and a prologue by Francesco Cavalli to a libretto by Giovanni Faustini.
In Tempe, shepherdess Dorilla loves Elmiro, while Nomio, actually Apollo in disguise, loves her. King Admeto learns that the dragon Python can be stopped only by sacrificing Dorilla. Nomio kills the monster and saves her. Admeto orders Dorilla to marry Nomio, but she and Elmiro confess their love and flee. Elmiro is condemned and Dorilla throws herself into a river; Apollo saves her, reveals his identity, and orders Dorilla and Elmiro, and Eudamia and Filindo, to marry.
Humperdinck’s children’s opera retells the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale.
Douglas J. Cuomo’s two-act opera adapts John Patrick Shanley’s play Doubt: A Parable, which was also adapted as an Oscar-nominated film.
A two-act intermezzo giocoso featuring Clarice, a marquise, and Orazio, a count, who are lovers, alongside their servants Vespetta and Patrizio, also lovers.
Soprano Mrs. Green sings the ballad The Cruel Mother while actors and mime perform an English mummers’ play. The two strands remain self-contained until the final tableau, when Father Christmas completes Mrs. Green’s story and she briefly enters the mummers’ playing area.
After meeting at a prayer gathering, Brack Weaver and Jennie fall in love, but her father pushes her toward businessman Thomas Bouché for financial help. Jennie defies him and goes to a dance with Brack, where Bouché threatens Brack with a knife and dies in their struggle. Sentenced to hang, Brack escapes the night before his execution to spend time with Jennie, then turns himself in.
Opera by Damon Albarn and Rufus Norris based on the life of John Dee, medical and scientific adviser to Elizabeth I. The production combined Elizabethan instruments with kora, Nigerian percussion and orchestra; this entry provides no plot synopsis.
Across 1911–1918, revolutionary Sun Yat-sen and Ching-ling Soong fall in love and marry despite her father Charlie’s opposition; Sun’s first wife Lu gives him a divorce paper. After the Qing dynasty falls, Sun becomes provisional president, but Yuan Shikai betrays him and the couple flee assassins, during which Ching-ling miscarries. Charlie later reconciles with his daughter, returns her childhood wedding dress, and renews his faith in Sun’s revolutionary ideals.
Geirr Tveitt’s opera, performed in 1940, is known through an incomplete surviving piano transcription; the full score was destroyed in a 1970 fire.
A monk tells of a stone and a crimson pearl flower who descend to earth as Bao Yu and Dai Yu. Raised in the Jia household, they recognize their connection and fall in love. But family debts and the Emperor's political demands press Bao Yu toward marriage with Bao Chai. The household tricks him into that marriage, and imperial soldiers seize the fortunes of the Jia and Xue families. Dai Yu disappears into the lake, while Bao Yu becomes a monk and later narrates his life.
An elderly provincial governor falls in love with two young women, one married and one engaged, and imprisons them. Their partners fail in initial attempts to rescue them; the women are freed after a new governor is appointed.
King Erik seduces Ingeborg, the wife of Marshal Stig. Stig organizes a conspiracy to murder the king. Afterward, Stig is banished and Ingeborg commits suicide.
Widowed Queen Aline encounters Saint Phar, her former love from Provence, who does not recognize her. When a revolution imprisons Aline and her court, Saint Phar rescues her, and she finally reveals her identity.
This radio opera cycle parodies different operatic styles. Four of its five short one-act chamber operas survive: La fille d'opéra, Le bel ambitieux, La pauvre Eugénie, and Monsieur Petit Pois achète un château.
After Troekurov confiscates his father’s estate, Vladimir Dubrovsky gathers a band of serfs and becomes an outlaw. He falls in love with Masha, Troekurov’s daughter, but the police pursue him for arson; he is shot after a final duet with her, and Masha is left insane beside his body.
The Israelite prophetess Deborah urges war against Canaanite King Sisera and sends Jael to lure him from his fortress. Jael attempts to kill Sisera but falls in love with him, and he pardons her. Mara’s account of her son’s death at Canaanite hands stirs Jael’s conscience. After the Israelites defeat the Canaanites, Sisera seeks refuge in Jael’s tent. Though Jael first refuses to hand him over, she kills him in his sleep as an Israelite mob approaches, sparing him a worse death.
In a Paris shoe shop, Dédé buys the business to pursue Odette, unaware she is the owner’s wife. Confusion over Odette’s identity, a strike, and a police visit bring the scheme to light; Dédé turns to Denise, while Robert pursues Odette.
After Hercules kills King Eurytus and sacks Oechalia, he intends to marry the king’s daughter Iole. Iole loves Philoctetes, and agrees to marry Hercules to save her lover’s life. Phénice urges Hercules’s wife Déjanire to leave him, but she instead tries to win him back. When that fails, she gives Iole a tunic soaked in the blood of Nessus, believing it will restore an unfaithful lover. Iole gives it to Hercules on their wedding day; the poisoned tunic causes unbearable pain, and Hercules dies in the flames of the pyre before ascending to Olympus.
A French-language opera featuring Démophon, King of Thrace, and his son Timante, who is secretly married to Dircée.
A three-act tragédie lyrique based on Metastasio’s Demofoonte, featuring the King of Thrace and his sons Osmide and Néade.
King Ulászló ennobles György Dózsa, angering the lords. Dózsa falls in love with noblewoman Lóra Csáky, while his bride Rózsa and friend Barna remind him of his origins. When Zápolya harasses Rózsa and is linked to Dózsa’s mother’s death, Dózsa vows revenge. Peasant forces defeat the nobles. Dózsa keeps Lóra hostage, but Rózsa switches places with her so Lóra can save Dózsa later. Barna kills Rózsa, and Dózsa mourns her before the lords’ army attacks and captures him. Lóra offers to rescue Dózsa, but he accepts his fate. He dies on a burning throne and sees a vision of Rózsa and angels.
Wounded at the Battle of Porrassalmi, General Georg Carl von Döbeln is operated on and treated with opium. Under its influence he experiences seven dreams or hallucinations; the opera ends as events return to the operating table.
Fidelia welcomes the return of Edgar, who has been living with Tigrana. Edgar rejects Tigrana’s invitation to resume their debauched life and declares his love for Fidelia. When villagers order Tigrana to leave, Edgar defends her and leaves with her, burning his house as they go. Later, tired of this life, he leaves Tigrana and joins the army. After Edgar supposedly dies in battle, a funeral procession honors him, but a monk denounces his past and the crowd turns against him. Tigrana is bribed to confirm the accusations. The monk reveals that he is Edgar in disguise; Tigrana stabs Fidelia, and soldiers capture her.
An Italian opera based on Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, with most of the original play’s choruses omitted.
In seventeenth-century Bohemia, Oberto and Edmea love each other, but Oberto’s father orders her to marry Ulmo. Edmea throws herself into the Elbe, and Ulmo follows; both survive. Edmea loses her reason and believes she is a river fairy until she recognizes Oberto at a celebration and recovers. She reveals she married Ulmo; he resolves to kill himself so the lovers can unite. Ulmo dies after Edmea grants his last wish, and Oberto’s father arrives with news that the marriage has been dissolved.
Eduardo returns to Stockholm with news of peace. King Carlo announces that his daughter Cristina will marry Prince Giacomo, but Cristina is secretly Eduardo’s wife and they have a young son, Gustavo. Cristina plans to flee; when Gustavo is discovered, she acknowledges him as her son but will not name his father. Eduardo reveals himself as the father, and both are imprisoned. Cristina continues to refuse Giacomo, even though he offers to recognize Gustavo. Eduardo is freed by his friend Atlei, and together they defeat a surprise Russian attack. Eduardo gives his sword to Carlo, who forgives the couple and blesses their union.
In eight songs, George III delivers an increasingly fractured soliloquy, recalling his kingdom and personal world through varied musical scenes. The performance climaxes when he seizes and smashes a violin.
During the Silesian war, King Frederick escapes Hungarian soldiers with help from Conrad, who is in love with Vielka. They disguise Conrad as the king so Frederick can flee. Later, Frederick’s appearance prevents loyal soldiers from lynching Saldorf, and Vielka and Conrad are rewarded with permission to marry.
A country doctor is summoned to a distant house to treat a seriously ill boy. His maid Rosa cannot find a horse, but a mysterious stable boy arrives with horses and assaults her. The doctor is transported to the patient’s house and worries about Rosa. The boy has a deep wound and begs to die. His family forces the doctor into the boy’s bed, threatening him if the patient is not healed. The doctor escapes on a horse but cannot return home and is condemned to travel eternally.
A German-language opera based on August Strindberg’s play A Dream Play.
Princess Helene marries Lieutenant Niki, who is uneasy about his new position as a prince and longs for Vienna. On a secret visit to a beer garden, Niki falls for Franzi, a ladies’ orchestra leader, who does not know he is married. Helene discovers his homesickness and refashions palace life to follow Viennese customs. Niki accepts his marriage, and Franzi gives him up.
A three-act German opera by Giselher and Lore Klebe based on John Millington Synge’s play The Playboy of the Western World.
Simone returns from a business trip and finds Prince Guido with his wife Bianca. He offers Guido everything in his house, and Guido chooses Bianca. Simone later overhears Bianca wishing him dead, then lets the lovers declare their devotion before challenging Guido to a fight. Simone kills him, and Bianca embraces her husband as the two reconcile.
In this adapted history, Albert Einstein, exiled from Nazi Germany, assists the Americans in creating the atomic bomb. He grows distrustful of American politics and destroys his final twenty years of research to keep its knowledge from being abused.
This non-narrative opera portrays Albert Einstein through a sequence of nine connected scenes in four acts, framed by five interludes called Knee Plays. Its recurring settings include a train, a trial, and a field with a spaceship; numbers, solfège syllables, and short passages of poetry replace a conventional plot.
The High King’s warriors nominate his eldest son Ceart as heir, but his half-brothers Neart and Art accuse him of killing the king’s hound. Ceart’s former nurse Nuala reveals that the brothers committed the murder. The king sentences them to death, then pardons them at Nuala’s urging and names Ceart heir. During a hunt, the king follows a mysterious bird, revealed as Eithne, cursed into bird form by her father, the King of Tír na nÓg. Ceart defeats the gate’s guardian and Eithne’s father with a magic sword. Nuala is revealed as the king’s wife, cursed to mortal life during his anger; they reunite and the spell breaks. Ceart defeats his half-brothers in the contest for Eithne’s hand. After his father dies, Ceart becomes High King.
A romantic episode in the life of Ekkehard II of Saint Gall, adapted from Joseph Victor von Scheffel’s novel.
A three-act Tagalog opera by Felipe Padilla de León, based on José Rizal’s novel El Filibusterismo, the sequel to Noli Me Tángere. The music develops darker and more violent versions of romantic themes from de León’s earlier opera Noli Me Tangere. The reviewed text does not provide a plot synopsis.
Mary reflects on the coming birth of Jesus. After the Nativity, the work follows the visit of the Magi, Herod’s slaughter of the children, and episodes from Jesus’s early life, using biblical and other poetic texts.
In Madrid in 1766, barber Lamparilla loves seamstress Paloma, who helps the Marquesita, a lady-in-waiting, pursue a plot with Don Juan to remove the unpopular prime minister Grimaldi. When Don Luis, Grimaldi’s nephew and the Marquesita’s fiancé, finds her with Don Juan, Paloma and Lamparilla disguise the Marquesita to help her escape. Lamparilla is arrested in her place and later returns to Lavapiés. The conspirators arrange a diversion with broken street lamps, allowing the Marquesita and her allies to escape the guards. In the final act, Paloma plans to help the Marquesita and Don Luis flee Madrid, but they are captured. Lamparilla returns with news that Grimaldi has been removed and Floridablanca has replaced him. Don Luis must go into exile, and the Marquesita joins him; Lamparilla and Paloma pledge their love.
Parody zarzuela by Tomás López Torregrosa with text credited to Candela and Merino; plot details are unavailable.
At a Peruvian Andes mining settlement, Frank resists the owners’ abuse of the miners. His mother María reveals that one owner, Mr. King, is Frank’s biological father; King’s cruelty toward María’s husband Higinio leads Higinio to kill him. When the other owner arrives seeking the murderer, Frank kills him while defending Higinio and the miners. The appearance of a condor gives them hope of freedom.
A three-act Spanish-language opera by Manuel Penella. Its English-language production was presented in New York as The Wild Cat in 1921.
The poet José de Espronceda is exiled from Spain for his liberal beliefs and opposition to Ferdinand VII. Abroad, he falls in love with Teresa Mancha, while Carmen Osorio also loves him. After Espronceda rejects Carmen three times, she murders Teresa.
Rosario, daughter of a farm overseer, gives a bunch of roses to a young master. Her fiancé becomes jealous; the couple are brought to the king’s court, where they marry and are raised to the aristocracy. Events at court prove to have been Rosario’s dream, and she wakes on her father’s farm in time to receive the king, who gives her a generous dowry.
Master Peter announces a puppet play about Melisendra, Charlemagne’s daughter, held captive in Zaragoza. The Boy narrates as the puppets perform the story: Don Gayferos rides to rescue her, and the two escape together. Don Quixote objects to details of the staging, then becomes convinced the puppets are real when the Moors pursue the lovers. He jumps up and destroys the puppet theater to defend them, leaving Master Peter in despair.
In 1957, Diego Rivera longs to see Frida Kahlo again as he nears death. Catrina, ruler of the dead, allows Frida to return to the living world for one day on Día de los Muertos. The former lovers revisit the joys and injuries of their relationship and seek forgiveness before Frida returns to the Land of the Dead; Diego is left comforted by their reconciliation.
At an inn in the Austrian Alps, poet Gregor Mittenhofer uses those around him—including his secretary, doctor, young muse Elisabeth, and a widow troubled by visions—as material for his art. When a young man arrives and attracts Elisabeth, Mittenhofer lets the couple go into a snowstorm without warning them. They die, and he turns the tragedy into a wordless elegy.
At the palace of Mycenae, Elektra mourns her murdered father Agamemnon and urges her sister Chrysothemis to help avenge him by killing their mother Klytaemnestra and her lover Aegisth. Chrysothemis refuses. Elektra meets Orest, returned in disguise, and learns he will carry out the revenge. Orest and his followers kill Klytaemnestra and Aegisth. Elektra celebrates the deaths in a frenzied dance and collapses, dead.
Menelaus disguises himself as an Amazon to approach Helen, while Theseus also pursues her. Peritoo falls for Menelaus, believing him to be a woman. Theseus abducts Helen and abandons Hippolyta, who later finds him. Helen is freed by Castor and Pollux; Theseus marries Hippolyta, and Menelaus reveals himself and marries Helen.
An opera semiseria by Johann Simon Mayr.
In Guelph-Ghibelline Italy, Elena loves Guido, while Ubaldo also loves her. Ubaldo abducts her and pressures her to marry him to save her father; the father is executed despite Elena’s compliance. After the truth emerges, Elena dies, and Ubaldo returns to the Guelph cause.
In a Polish village after World War II, the Jewish boy Eli has been killed by a German soldier during a pogrom. The opera unfolds in separate episodes in which the villagers remember him and his death; it has no continuous plot.
In Rome in 222 AD, Emperor Eliogabalo indulges his desires and disregards the people around him. He pursues Gemmira and Eritea, who love Alessandro and Giuliano, and plots to drug the women and kill his cousin Alessandro. His schemes collapse, and after Eliogabalo attempts to assault Gemmira, the guards kill him. Alessandro becomes emperor and marries Gemmira; Giuliano and Eritea also unite.
Elisa and Claudio are secretly married and have two children, while Claudio’s father pressures him to marry Silvia. The children are kidnapped, and Elisa is imprisoned after the family struggles to recover them. Claudio’s friend Celso frees the children, and the Count ultimately accepts Elisa and Claudio’s marriage while Silvia is allowed to marry Celso.
Elisabetta journeys from Siberia to Moscow to seek a pardon for her exiled family. She survives danger on the way and ultimately secures the Tsar’s pardon, reuniting her family.
After Leicester returns from victory with Scottish hostages, he discovers his secret wife Matilda and her brother among them. When Elizabeth learns of the marriage and Leicester refuses her offer, she arrests them and sentences Matilda to death. Norfolk incites a rescue attempt, then tries to stab the Queen; Matilda shields her, and Elizabeth pardons Leicester and the prisoners.
Set in 1588, Britannia despairs at the approaching Spanish Armada. The Genius of England, Peace, Liberty, Neptune, shepherds and shepherdesses encourage her until the group is ready to defend the country. After a battle at sea, the Genius celebrates victory and the ensemble welcomes peace.
Florindo, believing that Eliza is engaged to another, leaves for a glacier intending suicide. Eliza follows him after her father’s death clears the way for their marriage; monks rescue Florindo from an avalanche, and the lovers reunite.
Football captain Elmer Gantry feigns conversion to gain a seminary scholarship and becomes an evangelist, first partnering with Sharon Falconer. His former lover Lulu and her husband Eddie expose his affairs at the opening of Sharon’s tabernacle, which catches fire; Sharon and her followers die, while Elmer escapes and later becomes a New Thought promoter haunted by the disaster.
Els Pirineus is a three-act opera with a prologue by Felipe Pedrell, based on Víctor Balaguer’s 1892 trilogy of the same name. Its subject matter includes Albigensians, troubadours, and inquisitors.
Captured by the Moors, Castilian noblewoman Elvida is held by chieftain Amur as Spanish troops led by her fiancé Alfonso approach. Amur’s son Zeidar loves Elvida and opposes his father’s plans, but she rejects him. Alfonso’s troops rescue Elvida and capture Amur; Alfonso frees Zeidar and spares Amur, then announces his marriage to Elvida.
Emilia lives in a hermitage after Federico seduced and abandoned her, and her father disappeared pursuing him. Years later Federico returns repentant, as does Claudio, who had been captured by pirates; when Claudio challenges Federico, Emilia stops the duel, declares her love for Federico, and plans to marry him.
Edemondo, accused of murdering his father, returns in disguise to find his wife Emma and son Elvino. Emma has disguised herself as a bard to remain near the boy. Edemondo is condemned to death, but Norcesto reveals his own father committed the murder and produces a deathbed confession. Edemondo, Emma, and Elvino reunite, and Edemondo regains his title.
A three-act German Singspiel by Telemann.
At fourteen, Emmeline is sent to work in a Lowell textile mill. The married factory supervisor, Mr. Maguire, seduces her; when she becomes pregnant, her aunt Hannah arranges for a couple to adopt the baby and hides its sex from Emmeline. Twenty years later Emmeline, still unmarried, falls in love with younger boarder Matthew Gurney and accepts his marriage proposal. At her mother’s funeral, Hannah recognizes Matthew as Emmeline’s son and reveals the truth. Matthew runs away; Emmeline remains in town, waiting for her child.
Joan searches for her missing husband in a Métis community near Georgian Bay, where his disappearance becomes entangled with the legend of the Rogarou.
A German operetta by Franz Lehár, first performed in 1914 and revised in 1930 with a new text under the title Schön ist die Welt.
A two-act sequence of vignettes about eccentric figures. Among them, Sarah Whitehead becomes convinced the Bank of England is defrauding her after her brother is hanged; later scenes include quack doctors, Beau Brummell’s decline and death, and the impostor Mary Baker.
In Palermo, Prince Gaëtan refuses the crown and the marriage proposed by Princess Enguerrande, though both are drawn to one another. After meeting in disguise and uncovering their identities, Enguerrande becomes queen and holds Gaëtan prisoner; persuaded to accept the throne to secure a pardon for Noéma’s exiled father, he signs, then flees with Enguerrande. When an enemy invasion threatens Palermo, Gaëtan returns to fight, but is mortally wounded and dies in Enguerrande’s arms; she dies beside him.
Enrico, rightful heir to Burgundy, has been raised in hiding after his uncle Guido murdered the king. Enrico loves Elisa, whom Guido intends to marry by force. With the help of Pietro, Brunone, and the jester Gilberto, Enrico enters the castle and reunites with Elisa. His identity is revealed, Guido’s guards side with Enrico, and he defeats the usurper, then urges the people to show mercy.
In 1919 northern France, soldier Erb Iggins is sent to buy food and obtain signed receipts. His poor French complicates his attempt to buy a chicken from Jeanne Arcot, who refuses to sign. Erb and Bill ask a notary to write an explanation in French. When Erb gives the document to Jeanne, she reveals that he has signed a marriage contract. The wives and Charles are outraged until Jeanne explains she was joking; Bill realizes Erb’s repeated mispronunciation of “poulet” as “pool” confused the notary, since “poule” can be a term of endearment. Order and marital harmony are restored.
An Italian dramma per musica by Leonardo Vinci, featuring the title character and her daughters alongside Roman, Capuan and Syracusan figures. The entry does not provide a plot synopsis.
This five-act opera concerns Hercules and draws on Sophocles' The Trachiniae and Book 9 of Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Ercole loves Iole, who loves his son Hyllo. After divine interventions and mistaken suspicions, Iole is enchanted into accepting Ercole and gives him a poisoned shirt; he dies, while Hyllo and Iole reunite.
To complete his ninth labor, Hercules travels to Thermodon to seize the sword of Amazon queen Antiope. He is accompanied by Theseus, Telamon, and Alceste; the expedition captures Antiope’s daughter Martesia, while the Amazons capture Theseus. Hippolyta falls in love with Theseus, and the goddess Diana eventually decrees their marriage as well as the marriage of Martesia and Alceste.
This three-act opera features Erismena, daughter of King Erimante, along with Aldimira, a favourite of the king, and princes Idraspe and Orimeno.
An Italian three-act opera by Francesco Cavalli to a libretto by Giovanni Faustini.
Erminie is promised in marriage to Ernest, but she loves her father's secretary Eugène, while Ernest loves Eugène's sister Cerise. Thieves Ravennes and Cadeaux rob Ernest and disguise themselves to attend the engagement ceremony; Ernest arrives later and is falsely accused and jailed. In a second farcical scheme, the robbers' plans fail, and Erminie and Eugène, as well as Ernest and Cerise, are united.
In Epirus after the Trojan War, Andromaca agrees to marry Pirro only to protect her son Astianatte, while the rejected Ermione turns to Oreste for revenge. Pirro is killed by soldiers; Ermione then condemns Oreste, who escapes with his companion Pilade.
The outlaw Ernani and King Don Carlo both love Elvira, who is promised to the elderly Gomez de Silva. Silva discovers Ernani and Elvira together but protects Ernani according to his word; the two men later ally against Carlo and Ernani swears to die if Silva sounds a horn. Carlo is elected emperor and pardons the conspirators, then gives Elvira to Ernani. At their wedding, Silva sounds the horn; Ernani keeps his oath and kills himself, dying in Elvira’s arms.
In a Viking-era saga, rival powers struggle for control of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and for the hand of Ernelinde, Princess of Norway.
Mića, a young man, claims to have come from the other world and tells Marko’s wife Doma that her deceased husband is angry, persuading her to give him a sock of gold coins. He later disguises himself at the mill and escapes an angry mob while arranging to elope with Marko’s daughter Đula. At the fair, Mića reveals that he pretended to be poor to find someone who would love him for himself, returns Marko’s horse and coins, and receives Marko’s blessing to marry Đula.
Ottoman sultan Baiazid demands the surrender of Mircea the Old. Peace talks fail, and Mircea vows to fight. The chorus recounts the ensuing battle and Wallachian victory, including the bravery of Mircea’s son Mihail. Mihail writes to his wife, telling her of the triumph and promising to return.
A woman searches a forest at night for her lover. She first mistakes a tree trunk for a body, then finds that her lover is dead. She tries to revive him, accuses him of infidelity as if he were alive, and finally wanders away alone.
Elmire fears that her coldness drove Erwin away. Her tutor Bernardo persuades her to meet an old hermit in a secluded valley; the hermit is Erwin in disguise.
Elmire believes that her coldness has driven away Erwin, her low-born suitor. Her mentor Bernardo sends her to meet an old hermit in a secluded valley. In the second act Bernardo disguises Erwin as the hermit, and Elmire confesses that she feigned indifference to satisfy social propriety. Convinced of her love, Erwin reveals himself, and the lovers reunite.
After a fire destroys her grandmother’s palace, Eréndira is forced into prostitution to repay an imposed debt. Ulysses tries to free her, but the grandmother repeatedly intervenes; eventually they plot the grandmother’s death, after which Eréndira leaves alone.
A German-language fairy-tale opera by Alexander von Zemlinsky in a prologue and three acts, adapted from Holger Drachmann’s play Der var engang through Marie von Borch’s German translation.
Esclarmonde, empress and sorceress of Byzantium, secretly meets Roland and gives him a magic sword to defend Blois, provided he remains faithful. After Roland reveals their meetings, monks tear away her veil and the sword shatters; she disappears. Her father later forces her to renounce Roland, but Roland wins a tournament in disguise, and they recognize each other and are acclaimed together.
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