Joe Hill: the Man Who Never Died
A biographical opera about Swedish immigrant Joe Hill, a union activist and songwriter who was controversially convicted of murder and executed in 1915.
Operas
3280 shows
Clear filtersJohn Socman
In Wiltshire after the Battle of Agincourt, archer Richard returns from France and finds his sweetheart Sybil pursued by magistrate John Socman. Socman wants to force her to marry him to prevent the execution of her father, a follower of John Wycliffe. Socman is ultimately revealed to have abandoned a wife years before.
Jone, ossia L’ultimo giorno di Pompei
Both Glauco and the high priest Arbace love Jone, while the slave Nidia loves Glauco. Arbace’s servant Burbo gives Nidia poison to pass to Glauco as a love potion. Arbace then tries to force Jone into the temple of Isis; Glauco rescues her but is condemned for sacrilege. Nidia exposes Arbace to the praetor, freeing Glauco. When Vesuvius erupts, Arbace dies; Jone and Glauco escape, while Nidia returns to the city.
Jonny spielt auf
The composer Max leaves Anita to pursue an elusive musical sound, while jazz violinist Jonny steals a celebrated violin and places it in Anita’s banjo case. A chain of misunderstandings leads to Max’s arrest and Daniello’s accidental death; Jonny eventually helps Max escape and reunite with Anita as he leads a fantastical dance.
Joseph
Years after his brothers sold him into slavery, Joseph has risen to power in Egypt under the name Cleophas. During a famine, his brothers come to his palace for food without recognizing him. He learns that Jacob has also come to Egypt, and Simeon admits the brothers’ crime to their father. Joseph and Benjamin plead for mercy; Jacob relents, and Joseph reveals his identity and secures sanctuary for his family.
Jubilee
A three-act opera based on Margaret Walker’s novel about the life of Vyry, a woman born into slavery who later lives as a free woman during Reconstruction.
Judith
During the Assyrian siege of Bethulia, Judith resolves to save the city rather than wait for surrender. She enters Holofernes’ camp, wins his trust and decapitates him while he is drunk. Judith returns with his head, and the Assyrians flee as the people praise God for their deliverance.
Judith
A two-act opera by Siegfried Matthus, who wrote the libretto using Friedrich Hebbel’s tragedy Judith and texts from the Old Testament. The score also incorporates material from Matthus’s earlier orchestral work Holofernes-Porträt. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
Juha
Marja leaves her husband Juha for Karelian merchant Shemeikka. Juha believes she was abducted, but finds her at Shemeikka’s home. He kills Shemeikka; when Marja confirms she left willingly, Juha throws himself into the rapids.
Juha
Marja leaves her older husband Juha for the merchant Shemeikka, who soon tires of her and sends her back after she becomes pregnant. Juha welcomes her home, believing she was taken by force, and accompanies her to retrieve their child. When Anja reveals that Marja left willingly, Juha runs out and throws himself into the rapids.
Julie
A one-act German-language chamber opera based on August Strindberg’s play Miss Julie.
Julie, ou Le pot de fleurs
Mondor plans for his ward Julie to marry his friend. Julie drops a flowerpot from a window to attract her lover Valcour, but it hits him; he comes upstairs and finds her with her intended groom. The groom pretends to be her uncle and questions them, then mistakes the actual uncle for his rival. The confusion is eventually resolved.
Julien, ou La vie du poète
A prologue presents Julien, a Prix de Rome winner studying at the Villa Medici in Rome. The opera then moves into imagined settings: a dreamland in Act I, the Slovakian countryside in Act II, and Brittany in Act III. Act IV returns to Montmartre, where the sudden appearance of the Temple of Beauty closes the work.
Julietta
Michel, a Parisian bookseller, searches for Julietta, whose voice has haunted him, in a town where people retain memories for only minutes. Their encounters unfold through shifting dreamlike episodes; after trying to leave, Michel hears her call and chooses to remain in the dream world with her.
Julietta
Heimo Erbse’s four-act opera adapts Kleist’s story of a widowed noblewoman who discovers she is pregnant under mysterious circumstances and seeks the child’s father. The source novel reveals the pregnancy resulted from rape.
Juno and Avos
After his wife’s death, Nikolai Rezanov organizes an expedition to California aboard Juno and Avos. He meets Conchita, the governor’s daughter, at her birthday celebration, and they fall in love and become secretly engaged. Rezanov leaves for Russia to seek permission to marry her, but falls ill and dies on the journey; Conchita later enters a Dominican monastery.
Jupiter vainqueur des Titans
A prologue and five-act tragédie en musique.
Jérusalem
Gaston is falsely accused of attempting to murder the Count of Toulouse and is exiled. During the First Crusade, he reunites with Hélène, while the repentant Roger eventually confesses his own guilt; Gaston is restored to honor before Roger dies.
Jōruri
In seventeenth-century Osaka, puppet master Yosuke falls in love with Otane, the young wife of narrator Shojo, who once saved her and was blinded for it. Shojo discovers their feelings while preparing a new play; when its parallels with their lives become unbearable, Yosuke and Otane die together.
Jūratė ir Kastytis
The sea god Perkūnas punishes Jūratė for loving the mortal Kastytis by destroying her underwater palace and leaving him chained to a rock. In the opera’s closing scene, Kastytis hears faint echoes of their former peaceful life.
Kaddara: Folkelivsbilleder fra Grønland
Four scenes offer sketches of folk life in Greenland, moving through joy and merrymaking, baseness, and sentimental outpourings.
Kain und Abel
After Adam reveals that Abel and Ada are children of his former companion Lilith, Kain resents his position in the family and his relationship with Ada is challenged. Abel returns describing a fertile land; he and Ada decide to leave together. Kain follows them and kills Abel offstage, then tells Adam, “I have killed him.”
Kalmora, or The Paternal Right of the Americans
A two-act Polish-language opera (melodrama) by Karol Kurpiński, with a libretto by Kazimierz Brodziński.
Kantan and Damask Drum
The three parts are Kantan, Damask Drum and (Un)fair Exchange. The first two draw on Japanese Noh plays and the third on a kyogen folk play. No plot details are provided.
Karabakhname
As Arif and Melek prepare to marry in Karabakh, the Stranger sheltered by Seyid joins enemies who raid the village. Arif dies, Melek freezes in the mountains, and Asli remains with her young son. The opera is set against the Karabakh War.
Karenina Anna
A Hungarian-language opera adapted from Edmond Guiraud’s 1907 French stage version of Anna Karenina.
Karl V.
This stage work with music dramatizes Emperor Charles V’s life through a sequence of flashbacks on a split stage.
Karlštejn
A Czech opera by Vítězslav Novák based on Jaroslav Vrchlický’s drama of the same name. Its plot is not summarized in the available record.
Kashchey the Deathless
The imprisoned Tsarevna longs for Ivan, while Kashchey hides his death in a tear of his daughter Kashcheyevna. Ivan resists Kashcheyevna’s enchantment; moved by the Tsarevna’s kiss, she weeps, ending Kashchey’s immortality and freeing the lovers.
Kassya
A four-act French opera based on a novella by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
Kateryna
The opera uses 17 figures from the traditional Eastern European Vertep Christmas play to tell its story, with folkloric rites representing the passage of years.
Katharina von Bora
Katharina von Bora is sent to a convent as a child and later escapes with other nuns after encountering Martin Luther’s writings. After a failed courtship, she marries Luther, builds a family and household with him, survives plague and personal losses, and struggles to protect her children after his death before dying from injuries sustained while fleeing plague.
Katyusha Maslova
Katyusha Maslova is seduced by Dmitri Nekhlyudov and dismissed from his aunts’ estate; after her child dies, she becomes a prostitute. She is implicated in a merchant’s murder and put on trial. Nekhlyudov later seeks her forgiveness in prison, and she joins political prisoners traveling to Siberia, where she marries another prisoner after receiving a pardon.
Kepler
Fragments from Johannes Kepler’s life and scientific ideas alternate with creation narratives and poems by Andreas Gryphius depicting Europe during the Thirty Years’ War.
Keshan Hong Ri
A six-act opera about PLA actions in Tibet at the pseudonymous Mount Ke.
Keto and Kote
Keto loves Prince Kote, but her wealthy father plans to marry her to Kote’s uncle, the impoverished Prince Levan. Two rival matchmakers complicate matters; Barbale tricks Makar into signing a marriage agreement with Kote, and the young couple wed before the adults can intervene.
Khovanshchina
Set in 1682 Moscow, the opera depicts political conflict among Prince Ivan Khovansky and the Streltsy, the Old Believers led by Dosifey, and the supporters of Tsar Peter. Khovansky is murdered, Golitsin is exiled, and the Streltsy are pardoned. Dosifey, Marfa, Andrey Khovansky, and the Old Believers ultimately die by self-immolation as Peter’s forces approach.
King Arthur
Arthur’s Britons fight the Saxons, led by King Oswald, who has abducted Arthur’s blind fiancée Emmeline. With help from Merlin and the spirit Philidel, Arthur overcomes the Saxon magician Osmond’s spells and destroys an enchanted wood. Arthur defeats Oswald in single combat but spares his life. Merlin restores Emmeline’s sight, and she and Arthur reunite.
King Harald's Saga
Harald Hardrada recounts his exploits and is persuaded by Tostig to invade England despite a warning from his dead brother Olaf. After farewell from his wives, the Norwegian army lands in England and is defeated at Stamford Bridge, where Harald dies.
King Midas’ Ears
A two-act satirical opera based on the Midas myth, featuring Midas, a barber, Apollo and Pan.
King Priam
Priam spares the infant Paris despite a prophecy, and years later welcomes him back to Troy. Paris chooses Helen, helping bring war to the city. During the siege, Hector kills Patroclus, and Achilles returns to battle. After Hector’s death, Priam asks Achilles for his son’s body and receives it. Troy falls; Priam stays behind as his family leaves, and Achilles’ son kills him.
King Roger
In 12th-century Sicily, King Roger hears charges of heresy against a young shepherd and allows him to explain himself. The shepherd’s ecstatic dance draws away much of the court; Roger follows him and, after the shepherd becomes Dionysus, greets the sunrise with a hymn.
King and Charcoal Burner
During a hunt, the lost King Matyáš arrives incognito at the charcoal burner Matěj’s hut. Matěj welcomes him, while his daughter Liduška and the young charcoal burner Jeník love each other but are kept apart by their poverty. The disguised king kisses Liduška, prompting Jeník’s jealousy; after the royal party discovers the king, Jeník leaves for the army. Later, at the Prague court, the king stages a mock trial of Matěj’s family and arranges for Jeník to marry Liduška. Jeník accepts when he learns she is his intended bride; the king ultimately blesses their union and that of Jindřich and Eva. The king thanks the charcoal burner’s family for the hospitality and lessons they gave him.
Kleider machen Leute
Tailor’s apprentice Wenzel Strapinski is mistaken for a count when a coachman delivers him to Goldach. He falls in love with Nettchen but is exposed as an impostor by her rejected suitor; Nettchen chooses to marry him even if that means becoming a tailor’s wife.
Kleider machen Leute
A five-act German opera based on Gottfried Keller’s novella and set in Goldach, Switzerland.
Kleopatra
Prince Harmaki enters Queen Cleopatra’s palace intending to murder her and regain power from the Romans.
Knight Crew
A modern gangland retelling of the King Arthur legend.
Koanga
On a Louisiana plantation, enslaved African prince Koanga and Palmyra, the planter’s maid, fall in love. Overseer Perez kidnaps Palmyra to prevent their marriage; Koanga escapes, returns to rescue her and kills Perez, but is captured and executed. Palmyra takes her own life, and Uncle Joe finishes telling their story to the planter’s daughters.
Kommilitonen!
The opera interweaves three stories of student activism: James Meredith’s struggle to enter the University of Mississippi, the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany, and Chinese students pressured to denounce their parents during the Cultural Revolution. The narratives converge at the end.
Konrad Wallenrod
Following Adam Mickiewicz’s epic, the opera portrays Konrad Wallenrod and his wife Aldona. They sacrifice themselves in the final act, while the Teutonic Knights triumph.
Koroghlu
After the cruel Hasan khan blinds his father, the singer Rovshan takes the name Koroghlu and leads an uprising. The khan captures Koroghlu by stealing his horse, but Koroghlu escapes and returns with his rebels to free Nigar, her brother, and others condemned to execution.
Kosiki
In Japan, Prime Minister Xicoco arranges for Prince Kosiki to marry his daughter Nousima, though she loves Sagami. Kosiki pardons juggler Fitzo and appoints him adviser. It is revealed that Kosiki was born a girl and raised as a boy after the true male heir was abducted. The usurper Namitou exposes Kosiki, who flees with Fitzo. They learn Fitzo is the missing heir; he is summoned to the throne, Kosiki returns beside him, and Nousima marries Sagami.
Koukourgi
A French-language comic opera by Luigi Cherubini, reconstructed for its first performance in 2010 after remaining unperformed during the composer’s lifetime.
Koza-dereza
A mischievous goat causes a quarrel between an old man and his family, then takes over a rabbit’s home. The other animals try to persuade the goat to leave.
Krapp, ou, La dernière bande
Krapp, an aging man, listens to recordings of his younger self and revisits memories of his life. The monologue returns to a recorded account of a happy moment with a lover, while the live singer and recorded voice create a dialogue across time.
Krishna
A baritone narrator recounts 14 vignettes from the life of Krishna, mostly in English with one scene in Sanskrit. The entry does not detail the vignettes.
Krútňava
The original version is framed as a wager between a Poet and his Double over whether conscience can overcome human nature. After Jan Štelina is found murdered, his father accuses Katrena, who marries Ondrej against her will. A year later, Ondrej drinks and beats her; she confesses that Jan was her true love. Ondrej sees Jan’s ghost in the woods and resists the Double’s urging to conceal the crime. At Easter he confesses, and Katrena says the child is his. Old Štelina reconciles himself to helping raise the child. The communist-era revisions change Ondrej’s confession and the child’s paternity and fate.
Kullervo
After Unto destroys Kalervo’s house, he takes Kalervo’s son Kullervo as a slave. Kullervo grows into an angry youth, kills the smith’s wife after finding stones in his bread, and later reunites with parents who survived the fire. In a dream, Kullervo learns that the girl he seduced was his lost sister Ainikki. He retaliates against his father, burns Unto’s house and kills Unto’s clan. Finding his friend Kimmo insane, Kullervo throws himself onto a fire and dies.
Kuningas Lear
Lear disinherits Cordelia after she refuses to compete with her sisters in declarations of love, then loses his authority as Goneril and Regan reject him. Meanwhile Edmund deceives Gloucester and turns him against Edgar, who disguises himself as Poor Tom. The sisters and Edmund maneuver against Albany as the French and British prepare for battle; after Edmund loses a duel to Edgar, he orders Lear and Cordelia killed. Lear enters carrying Cordelia’s body and dies beside her.
Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan
In an encroaching ice age, the English prince becomes king and leads an army across the frozen Channel to France with four prospective brides and Parliament, represented by a giant cannon. The campaign follows the Hundred Years’ War: the English win at Crécy, then besiege Calais. The king grows increasingly cruel, ordering the English archer mutilated and threatening the starving people of Calais, though he later spares six burghers after the Queen and Caroline plead for them. He plans to conquer Paris and continue south, while chronicler Froissart asks him to read his account; the king replies that Time shaped history, not him.
Kuratov
This opera follows Komi poet Ivan Kuratov from childhood through his work as a teacher in Ust-Sysolsk and into old age in Kazakhstan. He promotes Komi culture amid opposition from local Russophile and tsarist authorities.
Kurofune
At Shimoda in the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate, loyalist samurai Yoshida calls on officials to expel foreigners. Geisha Okichi is ordered to assassinate the American consul, but becomes his mistress and struggles between her mission and his kindness. Yoshida later attacks the consulate, only for a messenger from Kyoto to announce the Emperor’s wish for peace.
Káťa Kabanová
Káťa lives under the control of her mother-in-law Kabanicha and her husband Tichon. Secretly in love with Boris, she meets him while Tichon is away. When Tichon returns, Káťa confesses their affair in front of the townspeople and flees during a storm. Boris is sent away, and Káťa throws herself into the river. Tichon tries to help her but is restrained by Kabanicha; he blames his mother for Káťa’s suicide.
König Hirsch
After the governor casts the king into the forest as a child, he returns to claim his kingdom. The governor tricks him into returning to the forest, where he becomes a stag. The king eventually returns, the governor is killed, and the king regains human form.
König Manfred
The opera depicts Manfred, the 13th-century King of Sicily, in conflict with Charles of Anjou. Its action takes place in 1266 in Naples and Benevento.
Königskinder
The Goose-Girl, held by a witch, falls in love with a King’s Son. The witch’s prophecy identifies them as the rulers destined for a nearby town, but the townspeople reject them and drive them away. Years later, exhausted and starving, the lovers seek shelter at the witch’s ruined hut and eat her enchanted death-bread, dying together. The Fiddler and the children return too late and carry them away for burial.
Kłótnia przez zakład
Karol Lipiński’s one-act Polish comic opera is based on Nikolai Kugushev’s Russian comedy The Sable Fur Coat. The available text does not provide the plot.
L'Abandon d'Ariane
L'Abandon d'Ariane is a one-act French-language opera by Darius Milhaud, with a libretto by Henri Hoppenot, based on Greek mythology. Its roles include Ariadne, Dionysus, Phaedra, and Theseus.
L'Aiglon
Napoleon II, the Duke of Reichstadt, escapes Austrian imprisonment with his faithful footman Séraphin Flambeau and visits the former battlefield at Wagram. He eventually dies of tuberculosis.
L'Angelica
In this serenata, Angelica thwarts the noble Orlando and elopes with Medoro. The work is Carvalho’s setting of Metastasio’s libretto, distinct from Nicola Porpora’s 1720 setting of the same text.
L'Armida immaginaria
A three-act Italian dramma giocoso for seven named roles, including Marchesina Tisbea, Ermidora, Stella, Masto Giorgio, and Patro Caspero.
L'Egisto
Egisto and Clori are captured by pirates and sold separately. Climene is captured on her wedding day and sold to the same master as Egisto. A year later, Egisto escorts her home to Zakynthos as they each search for their former lovers; unbeknownst to them, Clori has fallen in love with Lidio, Climene's intended husband. The gods' machinations bring further suffering before the story reaches a happy conclusion.
L'Europe galante
An opéra-ballet whose prologue and four entrées explore love in France, Spain, Italy, and Turkey. The sections share a theme rather than one continuous narrative.
L'Invisible
Aribert Reimann combines three Maeterlinck plays into a single opera linked by fate, death, and unseen characters. The sections present a domestic tragedy with supernatural overtones, a family tragedy involving suicide, and a medieval tale of murder driven by the pursuit of power.
L'Italiana in Londra
At Madama Brillante’s London inn, the guests include a homesick Neapolitan, a Dutch merchant and an English lord. Livia, an Italian woman who has disguised her origins, has been jilted by the lord, while both the innkeeper and Polidoro pursue her; a day of misunderstandings involving a stone said to grant invisibility ends happily.
L'Olimpiade
A three-act dramma per musica by Pergolesi, based on Pietro Metastasio’s libretto of the same title.
L'Orestie d'Eschyle
Darius Milhaud’s French-language operatic setting of Aeschylus’s Oresteia triptych, comprising Agamemnon, Les Choéphores, and Les Euménides.
L'Orfeo
At their wedding in Thrace, Orfeo and Euridice celebrate their love. A messenger arrives with news that Euridice has died from a snakebite. Orfeo descends to the Underworld and persuades Pluto to release her, on the condition that he not look back as they return. Doubt overcomes Orfeo and he turns to look; Euridice vanishes. In the ending used in Monteverdi’s 1609 score, Apollo descends and invites Orfeo to join him in the heavens, where he may see Euridice among the stars. The original 1607 libretto instead ends with Bacchantes threatening Orfeo, leaving his fate uncertain.
L'Orione
An Italian opera in a prologue and three acts about the mythological hunter Orion.
L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe
Al Radshi sends his three sons to find his vanished golden hoopoe, but only the honest Al Kasim undertakes the quest. With a demon’s help, he finds the bird, rescues a captive princess, and obtains a magic chest. His jealous brothers push him and the princess into a well and claim his achievements, but the pair are rescued and the brothers expelled. Al Kasim must complete another quest before he can marry the princess, and the ending leaves their union unresolved.
L'ajo nell'imbarazzo
Marquis Giulio has raised his sons in ignorance, but Enrico has secretly married Gilda and has a child. Enrico asks his tutor Gregorio to help conceal the marriage, leading to a farce in which Gilda is hidden and the baby is smuggled into the house. When the truth emerges, Giulio accepts the marriage and entrusts his younger son to Enrico’s guidance.
L'alcôve
During the French Revolution, General Raymond encounters the peasant Sauvageot, who pretends Marielle is his wife. Raymond protects the young Comte Anatole d’Ambert, sends Sauvageot to the army, and marries Marielle.
L'amant anonyme
The wealthy young widow Léontine resists falling in love again after a cold marriage, though she receives gifts and letters from an anonymous admirer. The admirer is her friend Valcour, who fears that his lower birth will prevent her from loving him and hides his feelings. Their friends’ awkward efforts to reveal the truth eventually succeed, and Léontine and Valcour unite.
L'amant statue
A one-act French opera for four principal roles: Célimène, Rosette, Dorval, and Frontin.
L'ambassadrice
Three-act French opéra comique by Daniel Auber.
L'americano
Villotto, an American visiting the California peninsula, befriends the aristocrat Lisandro, who takes him to Europe. Villotto’s social missteps upset Lisandro’s fiancée Aurora, while Lisandro falls for Aurora’s friend Silvia. After a series of misadventures, Aurora ends up with Lisandro and Villotto with Silvia.
L'amico Fritz
Wealthy landowner Fritz bets the rabbi David that he will never marry, while David sees Suzel, the daughter of one of Fritz’s tenants, as a suitable bride. Fritz helps Suzel pick cherries and realizes he loves her, then becomes jealous when David says she is engaged. Suzel and Fritz declare their love, and David gives Fritz’s wagered vineyard to Suzel as a wedding gift.
L'amor coniugale
Sentimental farce about a wife, Zeliska, and her imprisoned husband, Amorveno, with the jailer Peters, his daughter Floreska, and the governor also involved.
L'amour masqué
Elle plans to marry neither of her wealthy suitors, while longing for the young man in a portrait. His older owner disguises himself as his own son for a masked ball, where Elle unknowingly falls for him; a rose thorn later reveals his identity, and she accepts both apparent father and son as one lover.
L'ancêtre
Set in Corsica during the First French Empire, the opera involves the families Piétra Néra and Fabiani, including Nunciata, her granddaughter Vanina, and Vanina’s foster sister Margarita.
L'arbore di Diana
Diana attempts to protect her island as a stronghold of chastity, but her defenses weaken when she encounters the handsome shepherd Doristo.
L'arlesiana
Federico loves an unnamed woman from Arles, but his family learns she has another lover. His mother urges him to marry Vivetta, who also loves him; after a renewed bout of jealousy, Federico becomes delirious and jumps from a hayloft to his death.
L'assedio di Calais
During the English siege of Calais, Aurelio returns to the city and joins his family and fellow citizens in resisting the attack. The mayor Eustachio and five other men volunteer as hostages to spare the city; as Edward III prepares to execute them, Queen Isabella pleads for their lives and persuades him to pardon them.
L'elisir d'amore
Nemorino, a poor peasant, loves Adina, a wealthy landowner, but she rebuffs him. He buys a bottle of red wine from the traveling quack Dulcamara, believing it to be a love potion. After he acts indifferent, Adina agrees to marry Sergeant Belcore, first in six days and then before Belcore’s regiment departs. Nemorino enlists for money to buy more of the fake elixir. Meanwhile, Adina learns of Nemorino’s devotion and buys back his military contract. She declares her love, and the couple reconcile. Nemorino also learns he has inherited money from his uncle, while Dulcamara credits the elixir for the happy outcome.
L'empio punito
Early Italian opera on the Don Juan subject.
L'enfant prodigue
Grand opera adaptation of the Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke.
L'esule di Granata
In fifteenth-century Granada, Almanzor, an Abencerrage ruler, falls in love with Azema, a Zegri princess. Her exiled father plots to kill Almanzor, but the conspiracy is uncovered. Almanzor forgives him at Azema’s request, and the couple marry.
L'esule di Roma, ossia Il proscritto
Septimius, a tribune exiled for political reasons, secretly returns to Rome to see Argelia, daughter of the senator Murena. After Murena condemns him, he resolves to die rather than escape; remorse drives Murena to confess, and the emperor pardons both men.
L'heure espagnole
In 18th-century Toledo, clockmaker Torquemada leaves his shop to tend the municipal clocks. His wife Concepción uses his absence to arrange assignations with poet Gonzalve and banker Don Iñigo. Muleteer Ramiro repeatedly carries grandfather clocks upstairs, hiding the men inside them. When Torquemada returns, the two men are trapped in clocks, which they eventually escape and buy to preserve their dignity. Lukas, suspecting an affair, goes to the Corregidor’s house wearing the official’s clothes. The Corregidora untangles the confusion and reconciles Lukas and Concepción.
L'heureux malgré lui
Méhul's one-act opéra bouffon premiered at the Opéra-Comique in 1803 and received only two performances.
L'hôtellerie portugaise
One-act French opéra comique.
L'impresario in angustie
A one-act Italian farsa with seven roles, including Fiordispina, Doralba, Merlina, Don Cristobolo, and Don Perizonio Fattapane.
L'incoronazione di Dario
Perti’s three-act opera dramatizes Dario’s claim to the throne of Cyrus. Its cast includes rival claimants, Cyrus’s daughters and the ghost of Cyrus; the source does not give a plot summary.
L'incoronazione di Poppea
In Rome around AD 60, Poppea’s affair with Emperor Nerone displaces both his wife Ottavia and her former lover Ottone. Seneca warns Nerone against divorcing Ottavia and marrying Poppea, so Nerone orders Seneca to commit suicide. Ottavia then orders Ottone to kill Poppea, but Cupid prevents the attempt. When Ottone confesses and takes the blame to protect Drusilla, Nerone spares them but banishes them and Ottavia. Nerone crowns Poppea empress, and they celebrate their union in a duet.
L'inimico delle donne
The three-act comic opera has a cast including Agnesina, Zon-Zon (emperor of China), and Xunchia, among others. The entry does not describe the plot.
L'irato, ou L'emporté
The hot-tempered Pandolphe plans to disinherit his nephew Lysandre and marry Isabelle to his former tutor, Balouard. With help from Scapin and Nérine, Isabelle feigns fickleness so Balouard rejects the match; after a drunken diversion and escape from confinement, Lysandre and Isabelle win Pandolphe’s blessing.
L'isola disabitata
Costanza and her sister Silvia live on a remote island after Costanza was abandoned by Gernando. When Gernando and Enrico arrive, misunderstandings and new affections give way to reunion: Enrico explains the truth, and Gernando and Costanza are reconciled while Enrico proposes to Silvia.
L'italiana in Algeri
In Algiers, Bey Mustafà plans to marry his Italian slave Lindoro to his wife Elvira, while seeking a new Italian woman for himself. Isabella, who is searching for Lindoro, is captured with her companion Taddeo. Reunited, Isabella and Lindoro plan to escape. Isabella tricks Mustafà into accepting the role of pappataci, which requires him to eat, drink, and remain silent. The Italians escape while Mustafà is distracted, and he reconciles with Elvira.
L'oca del Cairo
Marquess Don Pippo keeps his daughter Celidora confined in a tower. She is promised to Count Lionetto but loves Biondello. Biondello wagers that he can rescue her within a year and get her hand in marriage. He is smuggled into the tower garden inside a large mechanical goose and succeeds. Mozart’s musical setting is incomplete, though Varesco’s full libretto survives.
L'oracolo
A one-act opera set in San Francisco’s Chinatown, based on Chester Bailey Fernald’s drama The Cat and the Cherub. The described roles include the opium-den owner Cim-Fen, but the entry gives no plot synopsis.
L'oriflamme
Villagers prepare to celebrate Nazir and Amasie's wedding, but news arrives that the Saracens are ravaging the land. They postpone the wedding and, inspired by a knight carrying Charles Martel's oriflamme, take up arms and sing patriotic hymns before going to battle.
L'oro
Giovanni tries to modernize his community, but a gold discovery turns the farmers toward easy wealth. He hides his own discovery to prevent greed; his wife Cristina blows up the cave to keep others from reaching the gold. Though she survives the explosion briefly, her sacrifice restores the community’s harmony and she dies after asking Giovanni to continue his work.
L'Étoile de Séville
Balfe’s four-act French grand opera adapts Andrés de Claramonte’s play La Estrella de Sevilla. Its roles include Estrella, Zaïda, Don Sanche, Don Bustos and the King.
L'île du rêve
A three-act French opera set in Polynesia, adapted from Pierre Loti’s semi-autobiographical novel Rarahu, also titled Le Mariage de Loti. It was Reynaldo Hahn’s first opera. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
L.I.T.A.N.I.E.S
Twelve lyrical litanies trace a human life through encounter, blooming, yearning, fragmentation, abandonment, gathering, transformation, love, and renewed divine presence. The work frames these pieces as petitions to a divine maker for cosmic recognition.
La Basoche
In Paris in 1514, law-clerk guild members elect Clément Marot as their ceremonial king. Because the guild’s king must be unmarried, Clément hides his wife Colette. When Colette arrives at the tavern where King Louis XII will meet his new bride, Princess Mary, both women mistake Clément for the real king. The confusions continue as Colette is taken to the palace and Louis mistakes her for his wife. The Basoche procession reveals the identities; Roland is arrested in Clément’s place, and Louis pardons Clément, who leaves Paris with Colette. Louis marries Mary.
La Belle au bois dormant
This three-act French opera adapts Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, with roles for Aurora, the Prince, Carabosse, the Queen, and King Florestan.
La Belle au bois dormant
Princess Loyse wakes from a hundred-year sleep and falls in love with Olivier, the falconer who accompanies the timid Prince Charming. An old wizard has vowed that she will scorn the prince; Loyse must marry him by midnight or sleep another century. A fairy reveals that the supposed prince is actually a forester’s son, while the real prince was raised by the forester’s family. Loyse marries Olivier, who assumes his true identity.
La Belle et la Bête
Belle’s father is condemned by the Beast for taking a rose, so Belle offers herself in his place. She gradually comes to trust the Beast, but returns home to visit her ailing father; her siblings steal the key to the Beast’s pavilion, and Avenant dies trying to enter. His death breaks the curse, transforming the Beast into Prince Ardent, whom Belle marries.
La Béarnaise
Captain Perpignac violates King Henri’s order to avoid women and pursues Bianca. His cousin Jacquette disguises herself as a man and intervenes; Bianca ultimately marries Pomponio, while Jacquette returns to Béarn with Perpignac.
Showing 1,345–1,464 of 3,280 shows
Load more shows