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Clear filtersThe maid Serpina has become so assertive that her employer, the elderly bachelor Uberto, orders his servant Vespone to find him a wife. Serpina and Vespone trick Uberto by having Vespone pose as a suitor who demands a large dowry. Uberto agrees to marry Serpina, then realizes he loves her and accepts her as mistress of the household.
A three-act opéra comique by Daniel Auber with a libretto by Eugène Scribe.
Amina is engaged to Elvino in a Swiss village. Count Rodolfo, the long-lost son of the former lord, returns and recognizes the area. That night, Amina sleepwalks into his room; Rodolfo leaves without disturbing her, but villagers find her there and Elvino rejects her as unfaithful. Elvino plans to marry Lisa instead. Rodolfo explains that Amina is a sleepwalker, but Elvino demands proof. As Amina crosses a mill bridge in her sleep, she relives her grief at his rejection and safely reaches the other side. Elvino restores her ring, she wakes, and they reconcile.
Rosinella and Pasqualino are separated when their ship is wrecked near the Marchese del Vento Ponente’s home. The Marchese and Count Lelio desire Rosinella, but she remains faithful to Pasqualino.
In Damascus, wealthy Sélim meets Margyane and falls in love, but leaves to seek a buried treasure. Spirits promise him a thirteenth jeweled statue if he marries an innocent girl and delivers her to them. In Mecca, he marries Margyane, unaware she is the girl from the desert. Torn between his vow and love, he refuses to surrender her, but Amgiad takes her away while Sélim sleeps. He returns to claim the treasure and plans to smash the statue; Margyane appears in its place, and Amgiad reveals that love is a greater treasure than gold.
Count Arturo falls in love with Alaide, a mysterious woman living in exile, despite his engagement to Isoletta. He mistakenly believes Alaide and Valdeburgo are lovers and wounds Valdeburgo in a duel, only to learn he is Alaide’s brother; Alaide is then tried for murder. At Arturo’s wedding, Alaide reveals herself as Queen Agnes, but the news that she must return to Paris drives Arturo to suicide.
A three-act Spanish zarzuela by Pablo Sorozábal with libretto by Federico Romero and Guillermo Fernández-Shaw. The roles include barmaid Marola, her father Juan de Eguía, her lover Leandro and a former sailor named Simpson.
Méhul's one-act French comédie lyrique was composed in 1797–1798, but its planned 1799 staging was prevented by political censorship.
An Italian-language opera adapting Shakespeare’s The Tempest, with roles including Prospero, Miranda, Ariel and Caliban. The entry does not summarize the plot.
A hermit struggles against temptation as demons repeatedly try to ensnare him. They create Miranda, who is marked by a black spot, but she is moved by the hermit’s prayer and the mark disappears. At the end she joins Marie in prayer; Astaroth’s forces kill Miranda, and angels carry the hermit to heaven.
Jason and the Argonauts reach Colchis after Jason defeats fire-breathing bulls. His wife Hypsipyle, who followed him, learns Medea is expected to marry him. Medea discovers Jason is already married and vows revenge. Jason and Hypsipyle reconcile, but Medea summons a storm that wrecks the fleet and stabs Hypsipyle. Later, Medea plans to kill Jason but instead helps the Argonauts defeat earth-born giants and puts the dragon guarding the Golden Fleece to sleep, allowing Jason to take it. Medea asks to accompany Jason to Greece; when he refuses, she curses him and flies away in a dragon-drawn chariot.
Violetta Valéry, a celebrated Parisian courtesan, meets Alfredo Germont and begins to imagine a different life. Their relationship is tested by social expectations, family pressure, and Violetta’s failing health in Verdi’s intimate opera.
Widow Rosaura is courted by four suitors from different countries. She disguises herself to test their fidelity, discovers that three are willing to deceive her, and chooses the one who resists her advances; he accepts her for love and their shared nationality.
Three-act dramma giocoso about fisherwoman Rosina and Count Errico, her secret husband who has abandoned her.
Rosina is secretly married to Count Errico and has a young son, but he has left her. Baroness Irene pressures her to marry Villotto so Irene can marry Marquis Ernesto. Misunderstandings lead Errico to believe Rosina is unfaithful, and he orders her and her brother killed. After learning the truth, he finds Rosina and their child and repents. The Baroness later tries to separate the couple with forged letters, but they see through the deception and reconcile; she accepts them and agrees to marry Ernesto.
During Madrid’s La Paloma festival, jealous Julián suspects that Susana is seeing Don Hilarión. Their argument follows them through the crowds and brings in the police, but Susana ultimately reconciles with Julián and the festival continues.
Sultan Mamud had his sons exchanged at birth, leaving Melindo believed to be the heir although Zelim has the rightful claim. When Melindo is to marry Rosane, whom Zelim loves, Mamud decides to reveal the truth. After further complications, Zelim receives the larger part of the empire, while Melindo takes Rosane’s kingdom and marries her.
After returning victorious to Rome, Licinius finds that Julia has become a Vestal Virgin. He tells her he intends to reclaim her. At the temple, they reunite and the sacred flame goes out; Julia refuses to identify Licinius and is sentenced to death. As she is about to be buried alive, a thunderstorm begins and lightning reignites the flame. The high priest interprets this as divine approval, releases Julia, and she marries Licinius.
Emilia becomes a Vestal Virgin after believing her lover Decio is dead. When Decio returns victorious, the two renew their love and arrange a secret meeting in the Temple of Vesta. The sacred flame goes out, and Emilia is tried and condemned to death. Her friend Giunia offers to take the blame, but Emilia refuses. Emilia regains her reason as she approaches her tomb; Decio arrives too late and commits suicide.
Young Salud, a Romani woman from Granada, is passionately in love with Paco, a well-to-do man who is already engaged to a woman of his social class. Her uncle Sarvaor and grandmother try to prevent her from interrupting Paco’s wedding after she learns the truth. Salud and Sarvaor gate-crash the celebration. Paco says he does not know her and orders her removed; Salud collapses and dies at his feet.
After singer Métella rejects them, Parisian dandies Gardefeu and Bobinet decide to pursue more respectable mistresses. Gardefeu takes the place of a Swedish couple’s guide and deceives them about their lodgings so he can court the baroness, while Bobinet stages a party with servants impersonating aristocrats. At a masquerade, Métella reconciles with Gardefeu, and the baron’s anger subsides when his wife intervenes; the company toasts Paris.
At a pre-wedding banquet, the Count becomes attracted to Mandina, lures her from her bridegroom Pippo and abducts her while she is drugged. After experiencing the Count’s luxuries, Mandina establishes her innocence and marries Pippo.
Pallante loves Cleria, while Meonte's love for Cleria leaves his former lover Erabena disguised as her servant. Love is redirected through the arrows of Cupid: Erabena wounds Cupid with one, and Cleria accidentally pricks herself with another. Pallante frees Darete from the sorceress Ericlea; it is then revealed that Pallante and Meonte are brothers. The separated lovers reunite, and Cupid reconciles with Psyche.
A three-act pasticcio based on Pietro Andrea Bernardoni’s libretto, with music by Benedetto Micheli, Antonio Vivaldi, and Nicola Romaldi. The available text does not summarize the complete plot.
Alone in her bedroom, Elle answers a call from the lover who has left her. She initially hides that she took twelve sleeping pills the previous night and was rescued by a friend and doctor. As interruptions and suspicions about his location unsettle her, the call repeatedly fails; she eventually wraps the telephone cord around her neck, tells him she loves him, and drops the receiver.
Argilla, a clever gypsy girl, helps Ines and Fernando reunite, saves the Duke of Alziras, and frees Don Sebastiano, who proves to be her father. Meanwhile, Don Ranuccio’s servant searches in vain for gold in an old cistern. All ends happily.
A one-act opera created specifically for television by Gian Carlo Menotti, with an English libretto by the composer. It was designed to use screen effects that could not be recreated on a live stage.
Katerina lives unhappily with her husband Zinovy and his father Boris. She begins an affair with Sergei, a worker on the family estate. After Boris catches Sergei leaving Katerina’s room and has him beaten, Katerina poisons Boris. When Zinovy discovers the affair, Katerina and Sergei kill him and hide his body. They marry, but the corpse is found and both are sent to a Siberian prison camp. Sergei pursues another convict, Sonyetka, and tricks Katerina into giving up her stockings for her. After the other convicts mock her, Katerina pushes Sonyetka into an icy river and falls in herself.
Weinberg's Russian-language comic opera adapts George Bernard Shaw's play Passion, Poison and Petrifaction. It is a one-act work with opus number 112.
Across nine tableaux, Lady Sarashina narrates her life using fragments of her 11th-century diary, reflecting on nature and landscapes, travels and pilgrimages, dreams, life, and death.
Lajla, raised as the daughter of Sami leader Laagje, is promised to Mellet but loves Norwegian Olav Lind. Mellet plots against Lind. As Lajla’s wedding to Mellet begins, Lind arrives, and Laagje reveals that Lajla is the child of Lind’s uncle, found after her parents died in a snowstorm. Laagje approves their marriage, and Lajla leaves with Lind.
In British-ruled India, Lakmé, daughter of the Brahmin priest Nilakantha, meets British officer Gérald after he remains behind to sketch her jewellery. They fall in love, and Nilakantha vows revenge for the officer’s intrusion. At a bazaar, Nilakantha makes Lakmé sing the Bell Song to expose Gérald, then stabs him. Lakmé hides and nurses him in the forest. When Gérald’s fellow officer reminds him of his military duty, Lakmé realizes he will leave her. She takes poison from a datura leaf; she and Gérald drink from a spring said to grant eternal love, and Lakmé dies.
Mughal princess Lalla-Roukh travels to marry the King of Samarkand, accompanied by her confidantes. She falls in love with Nourreddin, a poet-singer in her caravan, and plans to refuse the arranged marriage. At the palace, she discovers that Nourreddin is the king she was promised to wed.
An Arthurian opera about Lancelot by Victorin de Joncières.
An opera by Paul Dessau based on Evgeny Schwartz’s play Der Drache (The Dragon).
Eleonore falls in love with a hanged neighbor, Saturn, while her mother expects the handsome Satan to visit. Satan declares love for both women and marries Eleonore to Saturn. When Saturn does not return Eleonore’s affection, Satan appears as a cyclist; Eleonore and her mother are attracted to him until his head cracks and reveals the devil. Eleonore stabs herself, but Saturn comes to life and she revives. She embraces him, then his head bursts open to reveal Satan, who flees after kissing both women.
A zarzuela, described in a cited reference as a three-act lyric drama.
Blake, a musician recently out of rehab, is pressured to return to touring while surrounded by people who intensify the chaos around him. A shotgun remains onstage throughout the opera and is eventually used by Blake to end his life. The work’s focus is Blake’s isolation and the pressures around him, rather than a biographical portrayal of Kurt Cobain.
Two impoverished travelers, Grittly and Frantz, meet a pedlar on their way to Strasbourg. Frantz believes he has won a large lottery prize with ticket 66, but the number is 99; the pedlar is a wealthy relation staging a lesson against extravagance.
A French-language opera based on Jules Verne’s novel Le Château des Carpathes, with roles including La Stilla, Franz de Télek, an innkeeper and Baron de Garz.
Rodrigue kills Chimène’s father to avenge an insult to his own father, then leads the king’s forces against the Moors. Believed dead after battle, he returns victorious; Chimène finally pardons him and declares her love.
Princess Micaëla and Prince Gaëtan are ordered into an arranged marriage, though each secretly falls in love with the other while Micaëla is disguised as a gardener. Their wedding night is repeatedly disrupted by mistaken identities and the gardener Joséfa’s new husband; Gaëtan eventually learns that his beloved is his royal bride, and the court celebrates their marriage and expected heir.
The devil offers a young lover wealth and an old man renewed youth. Both have been rejected in love, and the bargain allows the devil to stay in Paris.
In the imaginary country of Breughelland, Nekrotzar, the figure of Death, announces that the world will end and recruits the drunken Piet as his companion. They head toward the palace, where the bumbling Prince Go-go and his officials are caught up in political and personal disorder. Nekrotzar drinks so much wine that he cannot carry out the apocalypse; the characters survive, and the opera ends with a chorus urging people not to fear death.
Set in Brittany, the opera concerns a love affair between a local girl and a man raised by the Huron people in America.
Alfred Bruneau’s four-act opera in eight tableaux adapts a story by Hans Christian Andersen.
In Portugal, Don Braseiro awaits the bride chosen by proxy while he guards the border. His steward Miguel’s fiancée Manola arrives fleeing the prime minister and pretends to be Braseiro’s bride. The real bride, Béatrix, agrees to help the couple by exchanging places with Manola in the dark. A series of disguises and mistaken identities culminates in a confrontation at an inn. Once the deception is explained, Braseiro accepts Béatrix, the king dismisses the prime minister, and both couples are happy.
A French grand opera by Fromental Halévy, with a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges, loosely based on Eugène Sue’s novel. The opera begins in Amsterdam in 1190 and makes the Wandering Jew, Ahasuerus, a leading character; no plot synopsis is supplied.
At his daughter’s wedding, innkeeper Mathias hears sleigh bells that recall a Polish Jew he murdered 15 years earlier. In a dream, he is tried for the murder and confesses the attack and disposal of the body. He dies of a heart attack.
The Persian general Zarastra loves the captive Turanian queen Anahita, while Varedha loves Zarastra. After the high priest Amrou engineers Zarastra’s banishment, Anahita refuses a forced marriage, a revolt destroys the city, and Zarastra and Anahita are reunited while Varedha dies.
After fifteen years away, a sailor returns wealthy but unrecognized and visits his wife disguised as a stranger. He tells her that her husband is coming home, then rents a room at her bar. When she later finds him asleep, she kills him with a hammer and takes his valuables, while her father-in-law helps conceal the body. Still believing her husband will return, she sings of his approaching homecoming.
After a shipwreck, Breton fisherman Tual recovers in Iceland at the home of Jörgen and his daughter Kaethe. Tual and Kaethe fall in love and marry, but Tual grows homesick for Brittany. Although Kaethe tells him she is pregnant and he promises they will stay together, news of fishermen from his home awakens his longing. He dreams of Brittany and tries to cross the Hrafuaga swamp; it breaks beneath him and swallows him as Kaethe watches.
The very young Duke of Parthenay and Blanche have been married by their families but are sent away from one another: she to a school and he to command a regiment. The duke disguises himself as a peasant girl to reach the school; when war forces him to leave, Blanche escapes and joins him at the front, where his regiment helps secure victory and the couple reunites.
In 1594, Henri IV seeks to capture Paris without battle. Disguised as a soldier, he persuades the boatman Claude to ferry him across the Seine; a convoy that appears to carry supplies instead contains the King’s army, and the city is taken peacefully.
Angélique, adopted by Hubert and Hubertine, falls in love with Félicien, whose father is a bishop. The bishop refuses to let his son marry. Angélique falls gravely ill, but the bishop’s change of heart and prayer precede her recovery and reunion with Félicien.
An operatic setting of François Villon’s 1461 Le Testament, characterized by sparse instrumentation and detailed rhythmic notation intended to reproduce the text’s rhythms.
Roberto and Anna celebrate their engagement before Roberto leaves to collect an inheritance. He is enchanted by a siren and forgets Anna, who waits through the seasons and dies in winter. Her father calls on the Villi, spirits who punish those who betray women who die of heartbreak. When Roberto returns, penniless and remorseful, Anna and the Villi lure him into the forest and dance him to death.
A four-act Italian dramma giocoso with roles including Bellina, her tutor Dottor Romualdo, her lover Filandro, and her friend Ersilia.
This three-act opéra bouffon by four composers premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1803 and ran for four performances.
During the 1558 siege of Calais, the Duc de Guise disguises himself as sailor André to enter the city and bring in French troops. The English governor surrenders, restoring Calais to France; a subplot follows the Countess’s prediction that she may become Guise’s duchess.
Marco Tutino’s Italian-language opera is based on Sándor Márai’s novel Embers. The available text does not provide plot details.
The Cadi neglects his wife Fatime while flirting with other women. Zelmire, who loves Nuradin, disguises herself as Omar’s supposedly unattractive daughter Ali and tricks the Cadi into planning to divorce Fatime and marry her. The deception is eventually exposed.
The Cadi neglects his wife Fatime while flirting with other women. Zelmire, who loves Nuradin, disguises herself as Omar’s daughter Ali and tricks the Cadi into planning to divorce Fatime and marry her. The deception is eventually exposed.
Caliph Isaoun roams Baghdad in disguise as Il Bondocani. Zétulbé loves him after he rescued her from brigands, but her mother Lémaïde refuses the match because he appears shabby. When Isaoun’s followers bring gifts, Lémaïde suspects he is a brigand and the police try to break in. Isaoun eventually reveals that he is the caliph, allowing him and Zétulbé to marry.
Three country women aspire to become bel canto singers with help from the ignorant choirmaster Don Bucefalo and would-be singer Don Marco. Their plans are complicated when Carlino, a soldier thought lost in Spain, returns as Rosa’s jealous husband.
During Carnival in Venice, Léandre chooses Isabelle over Léonore, who joins the jealous Rodolphe in plotting revenge. Rodolphe’s attempt to kill Léandre fails, and the lovers plan to flee. A staged tale of Orpheus and Euridice ends with the couple separated forever after Orpheus looks back.
In French-controlled Algeria, the miserly caïd Aboul-y-far offers his daughter Fathma to the hairdresser Birotteau in exchange for a supposed protective talisman, overlooking Birotteau’s engagement to Virginie. The caïd’s steward encourages Fathma’s romance with drum-major Michel, and the complications end with the talisman revealed as a baldness-curing pomade. Virginie and Birotteau marry, as do Fathma and Michel, while the caïd regrets the expense.
Daniel believes Bettly has accepted his love, but she reveals that friends forged her letter and rejects marriage. When her brother Max returns with soldiers, he conceals his identity and frightens Bettly into thinking she is at their mercy. Daniel offers himself to enlist in her defense; impressed by his courage, Bettly signs a marriage contract, and Max secretly signs too, ensuring their union.
Péki loves the poor farmhand Yan-Ko, who vanished into the sky on a bronze horse, and resists an arranged marriage to the polygamous mandarin Tsing-Sing. Yan-Ko returns but is later turned to stone along with Tsing-Sing and Prince Yang. Péki rides the horse to Princess Stella’s palace on Venus and obtains a magic bracelet that frees Yan-Ko and Yang, securing her marriage to Yan-Ko.
After losing his position when the regent Philippe d’Orléans succeeds Louis XIV, Raoul d’Harmental joins the Cellamare conspiracy to seize the regent and give power to Philip V of Spain. The plot fails, but Raoul falls in love with Bathilde; Buvat pleads for Raoul’s life and their marriage.
Toto returns to Normandy after squandering his fortune and puts his ancestral castle up for auction. His neighbor plans to seize it, but Pitou disguises himself as a general and wins the sale with Jeanne’s dowry. After a series of disguises and courtships, Jeanne marries Toto, who keeps the castle and returns to country life.
In Metastasio’s drama, Lisinga and her friends Tangia and Sivene entertain her brother Silango with contrasting performances, including tragic, pastoral, and comic scenes.
Lisinga and her friends Tangia and Sivene entertain Lisinga’s brother Silango, recently returned from Europe. They perform a tragic scene as Andromache, a pastoral duet, and a comic aria about a Parisian dandy. Tangia’s jealousy of Silango and Sivene’s affection informs her satire. They conclude that each style has its shortcomings and finish with a ballet about the Judgment of Paris.
Manuel García’s chamber opera is a comic setting of Metastasio’s libretto Le cinesi, composed for his students. The available text does not provide the plot.
Count Ory disguises himself as a hermit to pursue Countess Adèle, while her page Isolier unwittingly reveals his own plan to win her. Ory later returns disguised as a nun with his men; when the crusaders return, Isolier helps expose the imposture and the men escape.
At an imagined congress in Prussia, European monarchs plan to divide France. Cagliostro and six women secretly manipulate the gathering, while staged ghosts foretell revolution. French patriots seize the palace, the monarchs flee in disguise, and the patriots celebrate the republic and the fall of tyranny.
A provincial opera company struggles through rehearsals of a seria, as its diva refuses to cooperate and its German tenor cannot learn the music. Mamma Agata demands a solo for her daughter and dictates its arrangement; when the tenor quits, the company’s performance collapses, and the troupe flees town rather than repay its investors.
Major Frankenstein hopes to marry Sophie but cannot tolerate the noise at the wedding celebration. He persuades his nephew Alphonse, whom Sophie loves, to marry her instead, fulfilling Sophie’s plan.
In a forest, the once-powerful sorcerer Krakamiche lives in a hut with his daughter Stella as the elves torment him. The Queen of the Elves gives Prince Lelio a flower to approach Stella unseen, but Krakamiche discovers him and attempts a spell that produces a goat instead of a monster. He finally consents to their marriage and agrees to leave the forest.
Colin and Colette, each suspecting the other of infidelity, seek the village soothsayer’s help to renew their love. After a series of deceptions, they reconcile and marry.
In a Dutch village, a devil makes the clock strike thirteen, then turns the bell-ringer’s holy music into a jig and leads villagers toward a canal before stopping them. In a second tableau set in Italy, the villagers are wilder, but bell-ringer’s son Jean is immune to the devil’s magic because of his love for the mayor’s daughter. He climbs the belfry and prays, breaking the spell; the devil vanishes and the villagers return to normal as the clock strikes twelve.
An ill-tempered Marquise refuses shelter to an astrologer, who transforms her into the wife of Jacques, a surly cobbler. Jacques’s kind-natured wife takes the Marquise’s place. After learning her lesson, the Marquise is restored to her former life.
A separate 1756 setting of the same French-language libretto as Gluck’s Le diable à quatre. The available description identifies its composers but provides no distinct plot summary.
At a theatre in Avignon, the French director Casanova claims to love Italian music although he cannot speak Italian and is musically illiterate. After dismissing his French musicians, he auditions supposed Italian singers who are the same performers in disguise. The theatre’s singing director also poses as Italian while courting Casanova’s daughter; the disguises are exposed, and the company agrees to draw on both French and Italian traditions.
In the lethargic town of Quiquendonne, Dr Ox plans to enliven the citizens with a new gas while trying to evade his former fiancée, Princess Prascovia. The experiment intensifies the townspeople’s passions and romantic entanglements; after the gas drives the town toward war, a laboratory explosion restores the old calm, and Ox reunites with Prascovia.
Novice nun Angèle slips out of her convent in a black mask to attend a royal birthday ball, where she meets Horace, who has loved her since their encounter a year earlier. After missing the convent’s curfew, she hides in Count Juliano’s house, where Horace recognizes her but keeps her identity secret. She returns to the convent and is freed from her vows by the Queen, allowing her to marry Horace; her rival Ursule becomes abbess.
In eighteenth-century Venice, two wives investigate what their husbands do at their club.
An Italian comic opera based on Molière’s play Les Femmes Savantes.
A two-act Italian intermezzo by Domenico Cimarosa with five named roles, including Fernando, Laurina, Sempronio Pippistrelli, Don Annibale, and Emilia.
A two-part Italian musical farce intended to be performed between the acts of an opera seria. The four roles are Count Bellezza, Lindora, Ferramonte, and Aurelia.
Governor Folbach must provide an heir to receive a patent of nobility. His nephew Tancred is captured by gypsies, while his niece Falka elopes with Arthur and disguises herself as Tancred to attend the Governor. Mistaken identity sets the gypsies and the Governor's arranged marriage plans against her; eventually Falka is pardoned and made heir, and Tancred marries Edwige, the gypsy chief's sister.
The opera centers on the assassination of the Duke of Guise during the 1588 Council of Blois, with Henri III, Catherine de Médicis, Guise’s officers and the marquise de Sauve among its characters.
In Spanish-ruled Flanders, the Duke of Alba discovers that the rebel leader Marcello is his long-lost son and arrests him. Marcello accepts his father to save Amelia and their fellow rebels, but Amelia remains determined to kill the Duke. At Antwerp, Marcello shields Alba from Amelia’s attack and is killed by her.
A two-act dramma semiserio set in Saxon England during the reign of Edgar the Peaceful, adapted from Louis-Charles Caigniez’s melodrama Edgar ou La chasse aux loups. The plot is not described in the entry.
Soldier Alexis deserts after his fiancée Louise pretends she will marry his cousin instead. He is captured and condemned to execution, while Louise pleads with the king for mercy. She obtains a reprieve but faints before delivering it; the king arrives in person and frees Alexis.
In a grotto near Cyprus, fairy queen Ulina loves Brunello, an earthly man who does not return her love. When soldiers threaten Ulina, Brunello defends her, but she dies before he can save her; he declares his love just in time.
Federigo, a nobleman who has spent most of his fortune trying to win the wealthy widow Elvira, retreats to his farm. When Elvira visits to borrow his falcon to entertain her sick son, Federigo confesses he cooked the bird because he had nothing else to serve. Elvira falls in love with him, and their servants Pedrillo and Marina are also paired.
For a ducal wedding, a prologue celebrates Apollo and predicts prosperity. The three acts recount Jupiter rewarding Baucis and Philemon, Aristaeus atoning for pursuing Eurydice and marrying Cydippe, and a shortened reworking of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.
The cobbler Larfaillou asks financier Belazor for his daughter Aubépine’s hand. Belazor schemes to drive him away, but Aubépine loves the cobbler; a card game reverses their fortunes, leaving Larfaillou rich enough to marry her and Belazor in the cobbler’s clothes.
At the end of the seventeenth century in Saint-Malo, old sailor Legoëz and his granddaughter Janik await the return of Pierre, who left home as a child. When Pierre’s former comrade Jacquemin arrives with some of his belongings, Legoëz mistakes him for Pierre. Jacquemin and Janik fall in love, but the real Pierre soon returns and rejects his friend as a traitor. After Pierre learns the misunderstanding was accidental, he reconciles with Jacquemin, and Legoëz agrees to Janik’s marriage.
A three-act comic opera satirizing the amorous relationships between a marquis and several peasant girls on his estate.
In the Kingdom of Delhi in 1750, Crown Prince Mignapour falls in love with Frenchwoman Irma, while his cousin Bengaline and Grand Vizier Nicobar plot to prevent their marriage. Captain Crakson joins the plot because he also wants Irma. The conspirators arrange for Mignapour’s magic pearl necklace to turn black, supposedly disqualifying him from the throne. Joquelet finds a document revealing that the necklace’s power was invented. Mignapour can become Grand Mogul and marry Irma; Bengaline is forced to marry Crakson.
This two-act comédie mêlée de musique is based on an episode from the life of Henri IV of France. Its overture, known as La chasse du jeune Henri, depicts a hunt from dawn to the killing of a stag; the opera itself has no plot summary in the source.
Cliton, a teenager intent on appearing wise, wants to arrange a marriage between his libertine father Merval and the sensible Rose, while he plans to marry Rose’s prudish aunt Élise. Rose is secretly in love with Cliton, so Merval persuades his son to marry her while he takes Élise; after comic confusion, Élise accepts the arrangement.
Jean, a traveling juggler, joins a monastery after the prior sees his remorse over performing a profane song. Though he feels unable to offer the Virgin a fitting gift, he performs his juggling and dance before her statue. The statue comes to life and blesses him; Jean dies as it ascends, while the monks and angels sing.
Two French peasants visit Paris to do good works for the needy, but they are frustrated and rejected by the people they try to help.
Apollo, cast down from heaven for mocking Jupiter, disguises himself as shepherd Alexis and charms Palémon’s household. He courts both daughters, upsetting their arranged matches with the village musicians Pan and Marsias. A singing contest judged by Midas ends with Apollo exposing the magistrate’s foolish taste, giving him donkey’s ears, and revealing his divine identity before departing for Parnassus with the two women.
Grand opera set in the Harz Mountains and based on a German ballad.
In Naples, the lazy Beppo loves flower-seller Baptista. The poet Mirobolante and wealthy Corvo discover that she is an heiress and court her, but she prefers Beppo. They try to block the marriage by claiming she is underage; her birth certificate shows she has just turned 21.
In fifteenth-century Burgundy, Alice loves a stranger who saved her from drowning, while her guardian has arranged her marriage to Bertrand. The stranger is actually exiled Count Albéric, whose wolf-haunted village fears a werewolf. Alice rejects him when she believes he is the beast, but later declares her love even if he is; the count’s identity is revealed, and Alice and Albéric, and Bertrand and Catherine, become engaged.
Clémentine loves Octave, known as Le Magnifique, while her tutor Aldorandin tries to marry her. Octave has secretly rescued her father Horace and servant Laurence from slavery. Laurence exposes Aldorandin’s role in their capture. Horace reunites with Clémentine and gives his blessing to her marriage to Octave.
Three-act French opera after Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. The source says the opera follows the play with some textual transpositions and omits Lancelot Gobbo and Old Gobbo; it gives no further plot detail.
Artist Florestan, rejected by Justine Patouillard’s parents, travels to Kokistan and enters a contest to marry Queen Asella. Justine and her parents arrive, and the law is set aside so Asella can reunite with Yacoub while Florestan marries Justine.
Farmer Guillot secretly loves his orphan cousin Denise but hides his feelings by treating her harshly. When a letter from their uncle promises treasure under a great tree, two widows scheme to marry Guillot, but Denise’s letter reveals that she is the promised treasure. Guillot and Denise agree to marry beneath the lanterns of the curious villagers.
A village farce involving two young couples, a sleeping potion, and mistaken identities. This two-act French opéra comique combines spoken dialogue, Philidor’s music, and vaudeville songs.
A travelling commedia dell’arte troupe introduces the characters it will play. In the story, Florindo and Rosaura, aided by Colombina and Arlecchino, prevent Rosaura’s father Pantalone from arranging her marriage to another man.
At mason Roger’s wedding to Henriette, officer Léon de Mérinville explains he is going to rescue Irma, a young Greek held by Turks. Cloaked figures abduct Roger and his friend Baptiste, a locksmith. At the château, Léon and Irma are captured; Roger and Baptiste are forced to build a prison for Léon. The repentant Turk Rica tries to help the prisoners escape, but Baptiste’s cowardice leads to their recapture, and Roger and Baptiste are made to wall the three up alive. Blindfolded and returned home, the craftsmen are exposed by Henriette’s discovery that they had entered the Turkish ambassador’s château. Roger and Baptiste rush back, find the Turks gone and free the prisoners.
Set near Milan in 1797, the opera follows chapelmaster Barnabé, who hopes to stage his opera Cléopâtre but fears that the invading French army may take it from him.
A one-act farsa opera by Gaspare Spontini, with a libretto by Giuseppe Foppa. The work, once considered lost, was rediscovered in the Duke of Ursel’s collection in 2016. No plot description is available in the reviewed text.
Martine, mistreated by her husband Sganarelle, tells two servants that he is a doctor who must be beaten before he will practice. Forced into the role, Sganarelle is taken to treat Lucinde, who is pretending to be mute to avoid an unwanted marriage; he helps her and her lover Léandre arrange an elopement, and Léandre's new inheritance appeases her father Géronte.
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