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Clear filtersIn 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.
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.
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.
Méhul's one-act opéra bouffon premiered at the Opéra-Comique in 1803 and received only two performances.
One-act French opéra comique.
A one-act Italian farsa with seven roles, including Fiordispina, Doralba, Merlina, Don Cristobolo, and Don Perizonio Fattapane.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This mythological opera combines the story of Jupiter’s seduction of Callisto with Diana’s encounter with Endymion.
An Italian opera seria in three acts by Josef Mysliveček, setting Mattia Verazi’s libretto based on legends about the Oceanid Callirrhoe.
At the Paris Opera, Mandrin poses as the Chevalier de Valjoly while pursuing dancer La Camargo. Spanish aristocrat Juana recognizes him as the robber who visited her during a confusing dream, but protects his identity and hides a stolen necklace. Mandrin later captures Camargo and others at his castle. After the prisoners escape, Mandrin disguises himself as a detective, but Camargo learns of his plan to abduct her. Disguised as a street performer, she exposes him to Juana; when Pontcalé’s troops surround the house, Camargo takes pity on Mandrin and lets him flee Paris.
A four-act, five-scene comic opera by Reynaldo Hahn with a libretto by Catulle Mendès. The roles include Louise de La Vallière, Louis XIV, and the Archbishop. No plot description or exact premiere date is available in the reviewed text.
Opera by Flavio Testi based on Fernando de Rojas’s La Celestina.
Angelina, called Cenerentola, is made to serve her stepfather Don Magnifico and stepsisters Clorinda and Tisbe. Prince Ramiro, disguised as his own valet, meets her, while his valet Dandini poses as the prince. Alidoro brings Angelina to the ball, where she and Ramiro fall in love. She leaves him a matching bracelet as a clue. Ramiro finds her again after his carriage breaks down outside her home. They marry, and Angelina forgives her family.
A three-act children’s opera based on Charles Perrault’s Cinderella fairy tale, written for performance by children.
Fabrice del Dongo meets Clélia when her father is stopped by police and offers her a seat in his carriage. His aunt Gina works with Milanese liberals to free him from Austrian authorities. Fabrice and Clélia fall in love, but a misunderstanding separates them. After a duel forces him to flee, Fabrice is imprisoned in Parma, where Clélia visits him. She agrees to marry the Marquis Crescenzi but helps Gina free Fabrice, promising to help him and then never see him again. After the prince’s death, Fabrice returns to Parma and meets Clélia at the charterhouse, where he blesses her marriage. He retreats into religious orders and prays for forgiveness.
An opera by Pietro Andrea Ziani based on Greek legends about the sorceress Circe, with a libretto by Cristoforo Ivanovich. It was first performed for Emperor Leopold I’s birthday. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
An Italian opera seria in three acts by Josef Mysliveček, set to Domenico Perelli’s original libretto based on Greek legends of the sorceress Circe.
A two-act Italian opera seria about Cleopatra, composed for performance at the Hermitage Theatre in Saint Petersburg.
In Florence, the impoverished Horace refuses to sell his beloved dove to Maître Jean, majordomo to Countess Sylvie, who wants it to rival Aminte’s trained parrot. Sylvie learns that Horace loves her and visits him, where he happily invites her to dinner. Unable to obtain food on credit, Horace and his servant Mazet decide to kill the dove for the meal. When they serve a roasted bird, it proves to be Aminte’s escaped parrot. Sylvie is pleased that Horace’s dove is alive and will remain a reminder of his love.
A multilingual film opera retelling Dante’s Divine Comedy, with a libretto also drawing on the Old Testament and poetry by Joost van den Vondel.
Through Marina's dreams of a distant past, the opera depicts the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Moctezuma receives warnings of the Spanish arrival, while Cortés advances toward Tenochtitlan and the two leaders meet. Alvarado's massacre in the Great Temple sparks revolt; Moctezuma dies in captivity, and the Spanish retreat from the city in 1521.
An opera set in Mexico.
The page documents the work’s musical and theatrical revisions but provides no plot synopsis.
Apollo kills the Python, which had terrorized Delos. Cupid and Venus punish his pride by making him fall in love with the nymph Daphne, while another arrow makes her flee from him. Daphne calls to her mother for help and is transformed into a laurel tree. Apollo makes the laurel his enduring emblem.
Disillusioned with life, the scholar Faust accepts Méphistophélès’s offer of a journey and is shown Marguerite, with whom he falls in love. After seducing and abandoning her, he learns that she faces execution after accidentally killing her mother with a sleeping potion he supplied. Faust agrees to surrender his soul in exchange for her rescue, but Méphistophélès takes him to hell; Marguerite is saved and welcomed into heaven.
Cavalli and Busenello adapt Book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid but replace Dido’s suicide after Aeneas leaves her with a happy ending: Iarbas, king of the Getuli, saves Dido from herself and marries her. The opera is structured as a prologue and three acts.
Dolores works at an inn in 1830s Calatayud. The role descriptions identify her former lover Melchor, seminarian Lázaro who loves her, and wealthy Patricio; the source provides only a brief opening description rather than the opera’s full plot.
Dori, a princess kidnapped as a child and raised as an Egyptian royal, disguises herself as a male slave to find Oronte, her beloved. She is sold to her real sister Arsinoe, while Egyptian prince Tolomeo disguises himself as a woman to approach Arsinoe. After a series of mistaken identities, Dori’s origins are revealed and she marries Oronte; Arsinoe and Tolomeo also marry.
Three couples experience the vicissitudes and pleasures of love.
Hippolyte’s love for Aricie arouses the jealousy of his stepmother Phèdre. After Hippolyte rejects her, Phèdre denounces him to his father, Thésée, who arranges his death by a monster. Théramene kills Phèdre in revenge and is then executed on Thésée’s orders. Aricie comforts the grieving Thésée.
In Paris, Esmeralda attracts the desire of Archdeacon Frollo and the love of Captain Phoebus. After Frollo wounds Phoebus, Esmeralda is imprisoned and sentenced for his supposed murder; she rejects Frollo’s offer to free her in exchange for becoming his lover. Quasimodo gives her sanctuary in Notre-Dame, and Phoebus arrives to clear her before dying in her arms; she vows to follow him.
At the wedding celebration of Margherita de’ Medici and Odoardo Farnese, Hymen presents the story of Chloris and Zephyrus. The gods arrange their union, but Cupid’s jealousy and Pan’s false accusation separate them, bringing storms to Tuscany. The truth is restored, spring returns, and Zephyrus transforms Chloris into Flora, goddess of flowers; Apollo celebrates Florence in the finale.
In 17th-century Venice, the singer Gioconda loves Enzo, who has returned in disguise to elope with Laura, his former fiancée. The spy Barnaba exposes their plans to Laura’s husband Alvise, but Gioconda saves Laura after recognizing that she once protected Gioconda’s blind mother. Gioconda later replaces the poison Alvise gives Laura with a drug that makes her appear dead. When Enzo and Laura escape together, Gioconda faces Barnaba and stabs herself; he then reveals that he has drowned her mother.
In Constance in 1414, Jewish goldsmith Eléazar has raised Rachel as his daughter. She falls in love with Prince Léopold, who is secretly a Christian and already married to Princess Eudoxie. When Eléazar and Rachel discover Léopold’s identity, they are arrested alongside him. At first Cardinal Brogni offers to spare them if they convert, but Eléazar refuses. He reveals that Rachel is not his biological daughter and that Brogni’s infant daughter survived the fire that destroyed his home years earlier. Eléazar can save Rachel by disclosing that she is Christian, but she refuses to convert. At the gallows, Eléazar tells Brogni that Rachel is his daughter and points to the boiling cauldron where she is to die. Eléazar and Rachel are executed.
Governor Fernando Bustamante confronts corruption in the colonial treasury and imprisons Auditor Torralba. Clergy and officials conspire against him, and Luisa witnesses the murder of her husband and son. Grief transforms her into La Loba Negra, who begins killing friars in revenge. She later joins rebel leader Macatangay, turning her vengeance toward the liberation of the country; before her death, she blesses a future in which the struggle continues.
Juana is passionately devoted to her husband Philip, who is unfaithful and pressures her to surrender her claim to the Spanish throne. After Philip dies, she travels with his body to Spain and sings to him. Her father Fernando tries to take the kingdom; when she refuses, he confines her in a convent and separates her from all but daughter Catalina. Later her son Carlos demands her abdication; she again refuses, and he removes Catalina and boards up her cell window. After 46 years of confinement, dying Juana is comforted by priest Miguel.
Polish princess Lodoiska loves Lovinski, but Boleslao, who is charged with her care, wants to marry her and refuses to release her. He imprisons Lovinski and Lodoiska’s father and plots the lovers’ deaths, but Tartar prince Giskano rescues them in gratitude to Lovinski.
Camille Erlanger’s first opera adapts Gustave Flaubert’s story of Saint Julien l’Hospitalier. The available text does not provide the plot.
In sixteenth-century Flanders, Marjolaine marries the wealthy Baron Van der Boom after her former lover Frickel has been away for years. Annibal, leader of a group of predatory bachelors, conspires to discredit her by trapping Frickel in her bedroom. The Baron loses a wager and his fortune. Later, after learning Annibal deceived him, the Baron cannot prevent the divorce. Marjolaine rejects both the Baron and Annibal, chooses Frickel, and claims true virtue as her prize.
The opera seria's characters include Merope, the widowed queen of Messene, her son Epitide, and Polifonte, a tyrant of Messene.
La Mère coupable is a three-act opera by Darius Milhaud, with a libretto by Madeleine Milhaud. It is based on Beaumarchais' 1792 play of the same name, the third work in his Figaro trilogy.
Anita offers to assassinate an enemy commander to earn the dowry demanded by her beloved Araquil’s father. She succeeds, but Araquil dies before learning why she went to the enemy camp; on discovering the truth, he dies, and Anita loses her sanity.
A three-act opera seria featuring Amasi, king of Egypt; his son Sammete; the shepherdess Beroe; princess Nitteti; and Amenofi, ruler of Cyrene.
An experimental chamber mystery play structured as scenes rather than a coherent narrative. A mezzo-soprano portrays Justine and Juliette, figures from de Sade’s novels, while instrumentalists also act and sing.
San Carlo, secretly married to Graziella, hides her identity from the jealous Podestà of Bergamo, who once caught him with his own wife. At court, a chain of mistaken identities leads Rodolpho to believe he can seduce Graziella in revenge; after learning the truth and being persuaded to release the group, he lets the couple go, briefly making San Carlo fear that Graziella’s honor was the price.
Princess Liana inherits her father’s castle, but banker Pilade plans to sell it. Pilade’s son Wilfredo loves Liana, while his former lover, the Golden Scarab, seeks reconciliation. Liana goes to Monte Carlo with her aunt Clotilde, where they lose their winnings and agree to join Zozó’s circus. Pilade disinherits Wilfredo and says he will marry Lulú, but Lulú tells Liana that Wilfredo remained devoted to her. Liana’s equestrian act succeeds, and she and Wilfredo reunite after the Golden Scarab reveals her schemes.
A three-act comedy with ariettes inspired by the rosière festival tradition of the French village of Salency. André Grétry later presented a new version with a reworked libretto in 1774.
Leonardo Vinci’s 1725 opera setting of Silvio Stampiglia’s Partenope libretto, based largely on Domenico Sarro’s earlier setting and incorporating new arias by Vinci.
Emperor Alessandro’s mother Giulia grows jealous of his wife Salustia and plots against her. Salustia protects Giulia from two murder attempts by her father Marziano, who is arrested and sentenced to fight a wild beast; Salustia secures his pardon. Meanwhile Albina and Claudio reconcile and marry.
The three-act opera is based on Pietro Metastasio’s libretto Semiramide riconosciuta.
A three-act Italian pastoral opera. The source provides no plot summary.
The opera adapts Victorien Sardou’s play La Sorcière. The entry does not describe its plot.
Spinalba disguises herself as a man to discover whether her unfaithful lover Ippolito still cares for her. Her father Arsenio’s delusions create confusion, while her cousin Elisa falls for the disguised Spinalba; eventually the disguise is revealed, Arsenio recovers, and the lovers pair off.
Statira and Barsimo compete for the throne of Persia.
Amid the ruins of Mycenae, archaeologist Léonard, his sister Hebé, colleague Alexandre, and Alexandre’s wife Anne are caught in a web of lives and loves.
A distinct musical setting of Pietro Metastasio’s Siface re di Numidia libretto by Michelangelo Valentini. Performed during the 1761 Carnival at Teatro Omodeo, Pavia. The source provides no version-specific plot description.
Wally loves the hunter Giuseppe Hagenbach, but her father orders her to marry Vincenzo Gellner or leave home. After her father dies, Wally learns that Hagenbach is engaged to the innkeeper Afra. When Hagenbach wins a bet to kiss Wally, she becomes furious and orders Gellner to kill him. Gellner throws Hagenbach into a ravine, but Wally rescues him. Later, in the Alps, Hagenbach returns and confesses his love. As he seeks a safe path down the mountain, his call triggers an avalanche that carries him away. Wally throws herself from the precipice.
A three-act opéra comique by Daniel Auber and Eugène Scribe. The entry does not describe its plot.
Arrigo returns to Milan after being presumed dead and finds that Lida, his former love, has married his friend Rolando. Arrigo joins the Knights of Death to fight the German emperor Federico Barbarossa. When Rolando discovers Lida’s note to Arrigo, he locks the pair in a tower to keep Arrigo from battle. Arrigo escapes and fights; after the Lombard League’s victory, he dies after assuring Rolando that Lida was faithful.
The opera is based on Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty and features a princess, prince, king, queen, fairies, and other fairy-tale characters.
A French opéra comique, first presented in three acts and later revised into four.
In Paris, the poet Rodolfo meets Mimì, a seamstress, and they fall in love. They join his fellow bohemian artists at Café Momus, where Marcello reunites with Musetta. Later, Rodolfo and Mimì separate because he fears her illness will worsen in poverty, but they agree to stay together through the winter. When Mimì returns gravely ill, the friends try to comfort her; she dies in the garret as Rodolfo mourns.
In Paris, innkeeper Gaudenzio tries to evict the Bohemians, who cannot pay their bill, until Barbemuche pays for them. After Musette’s lover stops paying her debts, her furniture is seized, and the Bohemians gather in her courtyard, where a quarrel with the neighbors becomes a fight. Musette decides to leave Marcello, while Mimì leaves Rodolfo for Count Paul but later returns. In Rodolfo’s garret, Mimì arrives near death. Musette sells her jewels to buy fuel, but Mimì dies as the Christmas chimes sound.
Dorothée is tired of nannying and hopes marriage will make her mistress of her own home. While her employers are out, the fireman Mitouflard and chimney sweep Gargaillou both court her, leading to comic complications. She chooses Brin d’Amour, a trumpeter in the Royal Dragoons, and invites both suitors to the wedding.
Cecchina, a maid, is loved by the Marquis of Conchiglia, but their match is opposed because of her apparent social status. After jealous rivals and a succession of complications, a German soldier reveals that Cecchina is a baron’s daughter, allowing the couple to marry.
The two-act dramma per musica concerns the fall of the giants.
English merchant Tobias Mill arranges a marriage contract between his daughter Fanny and Canadian businessman Slook. Fanny is secretly in love with the poor Edoardo, and she rejects Slook when he arrives. Edoardo joins her in threatening Slook, who retreats. Learning that Fanny is already in love and that Mill is treating the marriage like a business deal, Slook refuses to go through with the contract. Mill challenges him to a duel. Slook discovers Fanny and Edoardo embracing, hears their situation and promises to make Edoardo his heir so they can marry. Before the duel, Slook secretly replaces Mill’s pistol with a peace pipe. With the household pleading for an end to Mill’s financial pretensions, Slook persuades him to consent to the marriage.
When the Faun throws Enrico’s church bell into a lake, the bell maker despairs. Elf Rautendelein enters the human world and restores his strength. They fall in love, and Enrico abandons his wife Magda, who kills herself by jumping into the lake. Hearing the bell ring underwater, Enrico rejects Rautendelein. She becomes Ondino’s wife; later, as Enrico is dying, she visits him once more and kisses him.
The singer Gasparina and her mother Apollonia take advantage of two suitors: Don Ettore, who courts Gasparina with stolen gifts, and Don Pelagio, her singing teacher and benefactor. The men discover the deception and threaten to evict the women. Gasparina persuades Don Pelagio to forgive them, then feigns a faint to secure more money and jewels. The men recognize her greed but still hand over their riches.
Over one day in a villa near Naples, the vain Ciprigna makes life miserable for her husband Bonario, his children, and their servants. Fiuta, Bonario's major domo, devises a series of schemes to curb her behavior. Ciprigna flirts with Lelio, who loves Isabella, and later plans to have Isabella abducted. Fiuta disguises himself as an ambassador who promises Ciprigna an imaginary kingdom. After being locked out in a storm, she asks forgiveness and agrees to change; the family reconciles.
On a caravan to Cairo, Saint-Phar wins his freedom by helping the slave trader Husca repel an attack, but Husca keeps Saint-Phar’s wife Zélime enslaved. The Pasha buys her for his harem, and Saint-Phar attempts to rescue her. The Pasha’s guest Florestan discovers that Saint-Phar is his lost son, and the Pasha releases the couple so the family can reunite.
Callisto uses an allegedly haunted house for smuggling and keeps the orphan Annetta there, hoping to marry her. The owner, Don Raimondo, offers the house rent-free to a poor tenant, and poet Eutichio arrives with his jealous wife. Disguises and mistaken identities expose Callisto’s schemes. Raimondo and Annetta agree to marry, while Eutichio and his wife reconcile.
Spanish-language opera by Gustavo Díaz-Jerez based on Pilar Mateos’s short story of the same title.
Adone flees from Mars and takes refuge in the realm of the enchantress Falsirena. She falls in love with him and keeps him captive with an invisible magic chain, then disguises herself as Venere to discover whom he loves. The real goddess arrives, frees Adone, and binds Falsirena to a rock with her own chain.
Alvar plans to elope with Léonore, but a coach accident delays him. Her fiancé, who is Alvar's friend, offers him a sedan chair. Meanwhile, Gil Blas robs Léonore's uncle Ambrosio. In a robbers' cavern, Gil Blas frees the kidnapped Léonore, and she and her rescuers escape. In the forest, the characters reunite amid gunshots, and the story ends to everyone's satisfaction.
Gil Blas is captured by robber Rolando’s band and held in their cavern with noblewoman Séraphine. Her husband is captured while searching for her in disguise. Rolando repents and discovers he is Séraphine’s brother. Gil Blas escapes and returns with a rescue party, who free the prisoners.
In Renaissance Florence, Giannetto engineers an elaborate revenge on Neri and Gabriello after they humiliate him and Neri takes his mistress Ginevra. Neri is driven to genuine madness; believing Gabriello is Giannetto, he kills both Gabriello and Ginevra, then realizes the truth.
The elderly lawyer Fortunio suspects his young wife Laurette of an affair with his clerk Valentin and plans to dismiss him. When the clerks sing the old song Fortunio once used to seduce his employer’s wife, Fortunio recognizes his own hypocrisy. The song then magically wins new girlfriends for the clerks.
Guido’s cat Minette is transformed into a woman by the conjurer Dig-Dig, who claims she contains a beautiful young woman’s soul. Minette behaves like a cat and repeatedly threatens to leave; Dig-Dig and Marianne eventually reveal that Minette is Guido’s cousin and Dig-Dig is his uncle’s intendant, prompting Guido to reconsider marriage.
Roderick Usher lives in his crumbling ancestral home with his twin sister Madeline and her doctor. Roderick’s friend arrives. After Madeline is found dead and buried in a vault, the friend reads Roderick a medieval tale as a storm rises. At its climax, Madeline appears bloodied: she was buried alive and drags her brother to his death. The house collapses as the friend escapes. Debussy’s version heightens Roderick’s incestuous feelings and makes the doctor, his rival for Madeline, more sinister.
Scottish lord Fideling searches for a lost noblewoman he once loved. Mayor’s daughter Lisotta is betrothed to Sandrino but believes she is the woman he seeks, while shepherdess Eurilla loves Fideling; Eurilla’s noble birth is revealed, and she and Fideling reunite.
In eighteenth-century Flanders, prudent Charlotte and impulsive Thérèse are cousins. Thérèse leaves the village for Bruges, becomes a florist and then an opera singer under a duke’s patronage. She discovers that the duke and Frantz have used her as cover for their affair with the duchess. Thérèse publicly exposes the deception and leaves the city. Months later, she returns exhausted and dreams that her family rejects her; they find and comfort her. Frantz’s love proves sincere, and Thérèse accepts his proposal.
Lieutenant Alexis Zouboff once escaped a Russian general’s advances by disguising himself as Prascovia. When he revives the disguise during an amateur play, he is captured with Olga by a Circassian sultan, but the sultan’s other wives help them escape. Back in Moscow, Alexis wins Olga’s hand, while their friend Lanskoi invents letters that convince Orsakoff that Prascovia has died for love of him.
Antonio Caldara’s original setting of Metastasio’s libretto La clemenza di Tito, featuring the Roman emperor Tito and the characters Sesto, Annio, Vitellia, Servilia, and Publio.
Set in Rome in 79 AD, Vitellia persuades Sextus, who loves her, to join a plot to assassinate Emperor Titus. The Capitol burns, but Titus survives. Sextus is exposed and condemned by the Senate; Titus tears up the death sentence. Vitellia confesses her role, and Titus pardons the conspirators, including her, and grants a double wedding for Sextus and Vitellia and for Annius and Servilia.
Vitellia plots revenge against Emperor Tito by persuading Sesto to assassinate him. The conspiracy fails, and the Senate condemns Sesto, but Tito tears up the death warrant and extends clemency to both Sesto and Vitellia after she confesses; marriages unite the two couples.
Vitellia, daughter of a deposed emperor, seeks revenge against Tito and persuades Sesto, who loves her, to join a plot against him. Sesto takes part in an attack on the Capitol, believing Tito has been killed, but the emperor survives. The Senate condemns Sesto, and Tito initially accepts the verdict. After wrestling with the decision, Tito destroys the execution warrant and chooses mercy. Vitellia confesses that she instigated the plot; Tito pardons her as well as Sesto, and the people praise his generosity.
A two-act Italian opera buffa, originally an intermezzo for four roles, composed by Antonio Sacchini to a libretto by Niccolò Tassi.
Princess Atalanta decides to free Kalydon from the Calydonian boar. She wounds it so Prince Meleagro can kill it, then insists he receive the credit. They ultimately dedicate the honor to Diana.
An Italian dramma per musica by Antonio Vivaldi, revived in 1718 under the title Artabano, re de’ Parti.
A widowed Countess enjoys the attention of twelve suitors, while her sister the Baroness disapproves. When the Countess’s engagement to the Commander is revealed, he and a new Chevalier challenge each other to a duel; the Countess keeps each suitor hoping until the Commander and Chevalier instead turn toward the Baroness, then accepts the Commander herself.
Henrique Oswald’s first opera is a three-act Italian work whose 237-page manuscript score contains recitatives, arias, duets, quartets, choruses, and intermezzi.
In 1685, sea-captain Adhémar plans to marry his ward Antoinette to his nephew René, though Antoinette loves the lawyer Frontignac and René longs for Dora, a Creole girl he met in Guadeloupe. When Adhémar returns with Dora, Antoinette and René pretend to be married to conceal their own arrangements. A letter aboard ship leads Adhémar to permit René and Dora to wed.
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s three-act commedia lirica adapts Lope de Vega’s 1613 play La dama boba. The available text does not provide the plot.
In Scotland, Anna disguises herself as the White Lady to protect the Avenel estate from steward Gaveston. She guides the English officer Georges Brown to buy the estate at auction and later discovers he is the missing Julien Avenel. With the Avenel treasure revealed, Julien and Anna are reunited.
At sunset shepherd Tirsi bids farewell to Nice, who is leaving to dance. He admits jealousy of her other admirers; after an argument, the lovers swear fidelity.
After Euridice dies from a snakebite on their wedding day, Orphée follows her to the underworld. His music soothes the condemned and persuades Pluton to let him return with Euridice, provided he does not look back at her before they leave the realm of the dead.
Poor lovers Giannino and Dorina scheme with innkeeper Falco to deceive treasure-seeker Don Poppone. Poppone mistakes them and the visiting Count and Countess for other guests, including Turks, amid a series of misunderstandings. Disguised as devils, Dorina and Giannino terrify and beat Poppone while pretending to search for his treasure. After the truth emerges, Falco explains the deception; Giannino inherits a fortune, Poppone forgives the couple, and agrees to marry Ghiandina.
After the Titans are defeated, the Olympian gods divide the world. Venus drives the central conflict by tempting the other gods into debauchery; Saturn is the exception.
King James, traveling in disguise as Uberto, falls in love with Elena, who loves Malcolm but is betrothed to rebel leader Rodrigo. During the Scottish uprising Rodrigo is killed, while Elena uses Uberto’s ring to plead for her father and Malcolm; the king pardons them and blesses Elena and Malcolm’s union.
King Altidòr falls in love with fairy Miranda. Her father curses him that if he curses her, she will turn into a snake.
The source identifies the principal characters as Albina, King Stellio, Uberto and Falena, and refers to a conflict between a virtuous king and an evil protagonist.
During the California Gold Rush, Minnie runs the Polka saloon and guards the gold the miners have collected. She becomes close to Dick Johnson, whom she had met earlier, and learns that he is the bandit Ramerrez. When Sheriff Jack Rance captures Johnson, Minnie wagers her future against Rance at poker and wins his release. Johnson is captured again, but Minnie persuades the miners to spare him by reminding them of all she has done for them. They forgive him, and Minnie and Johnson leave California to begin a new life.
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