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EspañolLIST OF IMPORTANT OPERAS
This list provides a guide to the most important operas, as determined by their presence on a majority of compiled lists of significant operas: see the "Lists Consulted" section for full details. The operas listed cover all important genres, and include all operas regularly performed today, from seventeenth-century works by Monteverdi, Cavalli, and Purcell to late twentieth-century operas by Messiaen, Berio, Glass, Adams, Birtwistle, and Judith Weir. The brief accompanying notes offer an explanation as to why each opera has been considered important. For an introduction to operatic history, see Opera. The organisation of the list is by year of first performance, or, if this was long after the composer's death, approximate date of composition.
1600 – 1699
Portrait of Claudio Monteverdi in Venice, 1640, by Bernardo Strozzi.
★ 1607 ''L'Orfeo'' (Claudio Monteverdi). This is widely regarded as the first operatic masterwork.[1]
★ 1640 ''Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria'' (Claudio Monteverdi). Monteverdi's first opera for Venice, based on Homer's Odyssey, displays the composer's mastery of portrayal of genuine individuals as opposed to stereotypes.[2]
★ 1642 ''L'incoronazione di Poppea'' (Claudio Monteverdi). Monteverdi's last opera, composed for a Venetian audience, is often performed today. Its Venetian context helps to explain the complete absence of the moralizing tone often associated with opera of this time.[3]
★ 1644 ''Ormindo'' (Francesco Cavalli). One of the first of Cavalli's operas to be revived in the 20th century, ''Ormindo'' is considered one of his more attractive works.[2]
★ 1649 ''Giasone'' (Francesco Cavalli). In ''Giasone'' Cavalli, for the first time, separated aria and recitative.[2]''Giasone'' was the most popular opera of the 17th century.[6]
★ 1651 ''La Calisto'' (Francesco Cavalli). The ninth of the eleven operas that Cavalli wrote with Faustini is noted for its satire of the deities of classical mythology.[7]
★ 1689 ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Henry Purcell). Often considered to be the first genuine English-language operatic masterwork.[8]
★ 1692 ''The Fairy-Queen'' (Henry Purcell). A semi-opera rather than a genuine opera, this is often thought to be Purcell's finest dramatic work.[9]
1700 – 1749
The composer George Frideric Handel (1733).
★ 1710 ''Agrippina'' (George Frideric Handel). Handel's last opera that he composed in Italy was a great success,[10] and established his reputation as a composer of Italian opera.[11]
★ 1711 ''Rinaldo'' (George Frideric Handel). Handel's first opera for the London stage was also the first all-Italian opera performed on the London stage.[11]
★ 1724 ''Giulio Cesare'' (George Frideric Handel). This Handel opera is noted for the richness of its orchestration.[11]
★ 1724 ''Tamerlano'' (George Frideric Handel). This work is described by Anthony Hicks, writing in ''Grove Music Online'', as possessing a "taut dramatic power".[11]
★ 1725 ''Rodelinda'' (George Frideric Handel). ''Rodelinda'' is often praised for the fullness of the melodic writing among Handel's output.[11]
★ 1728 ''The Beggar's Opera'' (John Gay and Johann Christoph Pepusch). A satire of Italian ''opera seria'', the ballad opera format of ''The Beggar's Opera'' has proved popular even up the current time.[16]
★ 1731 ''Acis and Galatea'' (George Frideric Handel). This is Handel's only work for the theatre that is set to an English libretto.[17]
★ 1733 ''Orlando'' (George Frideric Handel). An opera that is described by Anthony Hicks as "remarkable"[11] and by Orrey as one of Handel's "best works".[17]
★ 1733 ''La serva padrona'' (Giovanni Battista Pergolesi). ''La serva padrona'' became a model for many of the ''opera buffas'' that followed it, including those of Mozart.[20]
★ 1733 ''Hippolyte et Aricie'' (Jean-Philippe Rameau). Rameau's first opera caused great controversy at its premiere.[21]
★ 1735 ''Ariodante'' (George Frideric Handel). Both this opera and ''Alcina'' enjoy high critical reputations today.[11]
★ 1735 ''Alcina'' (George Frideric Handel). Both this work and ''Ariodante'' were part of Handel's first opera season at Covent Garden.[11]
★ 1735 ''Les Indes galantes'' (Jean-Philippe Rameau). In this work Rameau added emotional depth and power to the traditionally lighter form of ''opera-ballet''.[21]
★ 1737 ''Castor et Pollux'' (Jean-Philippe Rameau). Initially only a moderate success, when it was revived in 1754 ''Castor et Pollux'' was regarded as Rameau's finest achievement.[21]
★ 1738 ''Serse'' (George Frideric Handel). A deviation from the usual model of ''opera seria'', ''Serse'' contains many comic elements rare in Handel's other works.[11]
★ 1744 ''Semele'' (George Frideric Handel). Originally performed as an oratorio, Semele's dramatic qualities have often lead to the work being performed on the opera stage in modern times.[27]
★ 1745 ''Platée'' (Jean-Philippe Rameau). Rameau's most famous comic opera. Originally a court entertainment, a 1754 revival proved extremely popular with French audiences.[21]
1750 – 1799
"Bologna Mozart" - Mozart age 21 in 1777.
★ 1760 ''La buona figliuola'' (Niccolò Piccinni). Piccinni's work was initially immensely popular throughout Europe. By 1790 over 70 productions of the opera had been produced and it had been performed in all the major European cities.[29]
★ 1762 ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' (Christoph Willibald Gluck). Gluck's most popular opera. The first work in which the composer tried to reform the excesses of Italian ''opera seria''.[30]
★ 1767 ''Alceste'' (Christoph Willibald Gluck). Gluck's second "reform" opera, nowadays usually given in its French revision of 1776.[31]
★ 1768 ''Bastien und Bastienne'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). Mozart's one-act ''Singspiel'' was set to a parody of Rousseau's ''Le Devin du Village''.[32]
★ 1770 ''Mitridate, re di Ponto'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). Composed when Mozart was 14, ''Mitridate'' was written for a demanding cast of star singers and is over 6 hours long in production.[32]
★ 1772 ''Lucio Silla'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). This opera from Mozart's teenage years was not revived until 1929 after its initial run of 25 performances.[32]
★ 1774 ''Iphigénie en Aulide'' (Christoph Willibald Gluck). Gluck's first opera for Paris.[35]
★ 1775 ''La finta giardiniera'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). This work is generally recognised as Mozart's first ''opera buffa'' of significance.[32]
★ 1775 ''Il re pastore'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). Mozart's last opera of his adolescence was set to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio.[32]
★ 1777 ''Il mondo della luna'' (Joseph Haydn). This opera was the last of three that Haydn set to libretti by Carlo Goldoni.[38]
★ 1777 ''Armide'' (Christoph Willibald Gluck). Gluck used a libretto originally set by Lully for this French work, his favourite among his own operas.[39]
★ 1779 ''Iphigénie en Tauride'' (Christoph Willibald Gluck). Gluck's "last and perhaps greatest masterpiece".[40]
★ 1781 ''Idomeneo'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). Usually thought of as Mozart's first mature opera, ''Idomeneo'' was composed after a lengthy break from the stage.[41]
★ 1782 ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). Often thought of as the first of Mozart's comic masterpirces, this work is frequently performed today.[42]
★ 1782 ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' (Giovanni Paisiello). Paisiello's most famous comic opera, later eclipsed by Rossini's work of the same name.[43]
★ 1786 ''Der Schauspieldirektor'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). Another ''Singspiel'' with much spoken dialogue taken from plays of that time, the plot of ''Der Schauspieldirektor'' features two sopranos vying to become ''prima donna'' in a newly-assembled company.[32]
★ 1786 ''Le nozze di Figaro'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). The first of the famous series of Mozart operas set to libretti by Lorenzo Da Ponte is now Mozart's most popular opera.[32]
★ 1787 ''Don Giovanni'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). The second of the operas that Mozart set to Da Ponte's libretti, Don Giovanni has provided a puzzle for writers and philosophers ever since its composition.[32]
★ 1790 ''Così fan tutte'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). The third and last of the operas that Mozart set to libretti by Da Ponte, ''Così fan tutte'' was scarcely performed throughout the 19th century, as the plot was considered to be immoral.[47]
★ 1791 ''La clemenza di Tito'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). Mozart's last opera before his early death was extremely popular until 1830, after which the work's popularity and critical reputation began to decline; they did not return to their former levels until after the Second World War.[32]
★ 1791 ''Die Zauberflöte'' (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). A work that has been described as "the apotheosis of the ''Singspiel''", ''Die Zauberflöte'' was denigrated during the 19th century as confused and lacking in definition.[49]
★ 1792 ''Il matrimonio segreto'' (Domenico Cimarosa). Usually regarded as Cimarosa's best opera,[50] Leopold II enjoyed the three-hour-long premiere so much that, after dinner, he compelled the singers to repeat the opera later during that same day.[51]
★ 1797 ''Médée'' (Luigi Cherubini). The only French opera of the Revolutionary period to be regularly performed today. A famous showcase for sopranos such as Maria Callas.[52]
1800 – 1832
A portrait of Rossini.
★ 1805 ''Fidelio'' (Ludwig van Beethoven). Beethoven's only opera was inspired by the composer's passion for political liberty. [53]
★ 1807 ''La vestale'' (Gaspare Spontini). Spontini's opera about a vestal virgin in love was a great influence on Berlioz and a forerunner of French grand opera.[54]
★ 1812 ''La scala di seta'' (Gioacchino Rossini). An early Rossini work, this opera is outright ''farsa comica''.[55]
★ 1813 ''L'italiana in Algeri'' (Gioacchino Rossini). This opera is described by Richard Osborne, writing in Grove Music Online, as "Rossini’s first ''buffo'' masterpiece in the fully fledged two-act form".[55]
★ 1813 ''Tancredi'' (Gioacchino Rossini). This ''melodramma eroico'' was described by poet Giuseppe Carpani thus: "It is cantilena and always cantilena: beautiful cantilena, new cantilena, magic cantilena, rare cantilena".[55]
★ 1814 ''Il turco in Italia'' (Gioacchino Rossini). This opera stands out among Rossini's output for its frequent ensembles and absence of aria.[55]
★ 1816 ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' (Gioacchino Rossini). This work has become Rossini's most popular ''opera buffa''.[55]
★ 1816 ''Otello'' (Gioacchino Rossini). The composer Giacomo Meyerbeer described the third act of ''Otello'' thus: "The third act of Otello established its reputation so firmly that a thousand errors could not shake it".[55]
★ 1817 ''La Cenerentola'' (Gioacchino Rossini). Rossini's comedy was composed in just over three weeks.[55]
★ 1817 ''La gazza ladra'' (Gioacchino Rossini). In this opera Rossini drew upon the French genre of rescue opera.[55]
★ 1818 ''Mosè in Egitto'' (Gioacchino Rossini). This work was originally conceived of as a sacred drama suitable for performance during Lent.[55]
★ 1819 ''La donna del lago'' (Gioacchino Rossini). Another Romantic-era opera inspired by the works of Sir Walter Scott.[55]
★ 1821 ''Der Freischütz'' (Carl Maria von Weber). Weber's masterpiece was the first great German Romantic opera.[65]
★ 1823 ''Euryanthe'' (Carl Maria von Weber). Despite its weak libretto, ''Euryanthe'' had a great influence on later German operas, including Wagner's ''Lohengrin''.[66]
★ 1823 ''Semiramide'' (Gioacchino Rossini). This is the last opera that Rossini composed in Italy.[55]
★ 1825 ''La dame blanche'' (François-Adrien Boieldieu). Boieldieu's most successful ''opéra comique'' was one of many 19th century works inspired by the novels of Sir Walter Scott.[68]
★ 1826 ''Le siège de Corinthe'' (Gioacchino Rossini). For this work Rossini heavily revised his earlier ''Maometto II'', placing the action in a different setting.[55]
★ 1826 ''Oberon'' (Carl Maria von Weber). Weber's last opera before his early death.[70]
★ 1827 ''Il pirata'' (Vincenzo Bellini). Bellini's second professional production established his international reputation.[71]
★ 1828 ''Der Vampyr'' (Heinrich Marschner). Marschner was a key link between Weber and Wagner, as this Gothic opera shows.[72]
★ 1828 ''Le comte Ory'' (Gioacchino Rossini). Rossini's opera has enjoyed a high critical reputation throughout the years: 19th-century critic Henry Chorley said that "there is not a bad melody, there is not an ugly bar in ''Le comte Ory''", and Richard Osborne, writing in Grove Music Online, calls details that the work is one of the "wittiest, most stylish and most urbane of all comic operas".[55]
★ 1829 ''La straniera'' (Vincenzo Bellini). ''La straniera'' is rare among ''bel canto'' operas in that it offers remarkably few opportunities for vocal ostentation.[71]
★ 1829 ''William Tell'' (Gioacchino Rossini). Rossini's last opera before his retirement is a tale of liberty set in the Swiss Alps. It helped to establish the genre of French grand opera.[75]
★ 1830 ''Anna Bolena'' (Gaetano Donizetti). This was Donizetti's first success on the international scene and helped greatly to establish his reputation.[76]
★ 1830 ''Fra Diavolo'' (Daniel Auber). One of the most popular ''opéra comiques'' of the 19th century, Auber's tale of a Neapolitan bandit even inspired a film by Laurel and Hardy.[77]
★ 1830 ''I Capuleti e i Montecchi'' (Vincenzo Bellini). Bellini's version of ''Romeo and Juliet''.[78]
★ 1831 ''La sonnambula'' (Vincenzo Bellini). The concertato "D'un pensiero e d'un accento" from the finale of Act 1 of this work was later parodied by Arthur Sullivan in ''Trial by Jury''.[79]
★ 1831 ''Norma'' (Vincenzo Bellini). The final act of this work is often noted for the originality of its orchestration.[80]
★ 1831 ''Robert le diable'' (Giacomo Meyerbeer). Meyerbeer's first grand opera for Paris caused a sensation with its ballet of dead nuns.[81]
★ 1832 ''L'elisir d'amore'' (Gaetano Donizetti). This work was the most often performed opera in Italy between 1838 and 1848.[76]
1833 – 1849
★ 1833 ''Beatrice di Tenda'' (Vincenzo Bellini) Bellini's tragedy is notable for its extensive use of the chorus.[83]
★ 1833 ''Hans Heiling'' (Heinrich Marschner) Another important Gothic horror opera from Marschner.[84]
★ 1833 ''Lucrezia Borgia'' (Gaetano Donizetti) One of Donizetti's most popular scores.[85]
★ 1834 ''Maria Stuarda'' (Gaetano Donizetti) This work was dismissed as a failure in the 19th century, but since its revival in 1958 it has made frequent appearances on stage.[86]
★ 1835 ''Das Liebesverbot'' (Richard Wagner) An early work by Wagner loosely based on Shakespeare's ''Measure for Measure''. The composer later disowned it.[87]
★ 1835 ''I puritani'' (Vincenzo Bellini) Bellini's drama, set during the English Civil War, is one of his finest achievements.[88]
★ 1835 ''La Juive'' (Fromental Halévy) This grand opera rivalled the works of Meyerbeer in popularity. The tenor aria "Rachel quand du seigneur" is particularly famous.[89]
★ 1835 ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' (Gaetano Donizetti) Donizetti's most famous serious opera, notable for Lucia's mad scene.[90]
★ 1836 ''A Life for the Tsar'' (Mikhail Glinka) Glinka established the tradition of Russian opera with this historical work and the later ''Ruslan and Lyudmila''.[91]
★ 1836 ''Les Huguenots'' (Giacomo Meyerbeer) Perhaps the most famous of all French grand operas, widely regarded as Meyerbeer's masterpiece.[92]
★ 1837 ''Roberto Devereux'' (Gaetano Donizetti) Donizetti wrote this work as a distraction from the grief he felt at the death of his wife.[93]
★ 1838 ''Benvenuto Cellini'' (Hector Berlioz) Berlioz's first opera is a virtuoso score which is still highly difficult to perform. [94]
★ 1839 ''Oberto'' (Giuseppe Verdi) Verdi's first opera is a sensational melodrama.[95]
★ 1840 ''La favorite'' (Gaetano Donizetti) A grand opera in the French tradition.[96]
★ 1840 ''La fille du régiment'' (Gaetano Donizetti) Donizetti's venture into French ''opéra comique''.[96]
★ 1840 ''Un giorno di regno'' (Giuseppe Verdi) Verdi's only comedy apart from his last opera, ''Falstaff''.[95]
★ 1842 ''Der Wildschütz'' (Albert Lortzing) Lortzing's "comic masterpiece", intended to show a German work could rival Italian ''opera buffa'' and French ''opéra comique''.[99]
★ 1842 ''Nabucco'' (Giuseppe Verdi). Verdi described this opera as the genuine beginning of his artistic career.[100]
★ 1842 ''Rienzi'' (Richard Wagner) Wagner's contribution to the grand opera tradition.[101]
★ 1842 ''Ruslan and Lyudmila'' (Mikhail Glinka) This episodic version of a Pushkin fairy tale was a major influence on later Russian composers.[102]
★ 1843 ''The Flying Dutchman'' (Richard Wagner) Wagner regarded this German Romantic opera as the true beginning of his career.[103]
★ 1843 ''Don Pasquale'' (Gaetano Donizetti) Donizetti's "comic masterpiece" is one of the last great ''opera buffas''.[104]
★ 1843 ''I Lombardi alla prima crociata'' (Giuseppe Verdi) Verdi's follow-up to ''Nabucco'' was the first of his operas to be performed in America.[105]
★ 1843 ''The Bohemian Girl'' (Michael Balfe) One of the few notable 19th century English operas apart from the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.[106]
★ 1844 ''Ernani'' (Giuseppe Verdi) One of the most dramatically effective of Verdi's early works.[107]
★ 1845 ''Tannhäuser'' (Richard Wagner) Wagner's "most medieval work" depicts the conflict between pagan love and Christian virtue.[108]
★ 1846 ''Attila'' (Giuseppe Verdi) Verdi was troubled by ill health during the writing of this piece, which was only a moderate success at the premiere.[109]
★ 1846 ''The Damnation of Faust'' (Hector Berlioz) Frustrated at his lack of opera commissions, Berlioz composed this "dramatic legend" for concert performance. In recent years, it has been successfully staged as an opera, though the critic David Cairns describes it as "cinematic".[110]
★ 1847 ''Macbeth'' (Giuseppe Verdi) Verdi's first venture into Shakespeare.[109]
★ 1847 ''Martha'' (Friedrich von Flotow) Flotow unashamedly aimed at satisfying popular taste in this comic and sentimental work set in the England of Queen Anne.[112]
★ 1849 ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' (Otto Nicolai) Nicolai's only German opera has been his most lasting success.[113]
★ 1849 ''Le prophète'' (Giacomo Meyerbeer) A grand opera about the life of the religious fanatic, John of Leiden.[114]
★ 1849 ''Luisa Miller'' (Giuseppe Verdi) Fans of Verdi think that this setting of Schiller's "bourgeois tragedy" has been underrated.[115]
1850 – 1875
A performance of Wagner's ''Das Rheingold'' at Bayreuth.
★ 1850 ''Genoveva'' (Robert Schumann) Schumann's only excursion into opera was a relative failure, though the work has had its admirers from Liszt to Nikolaus Harnoncourt. [116]
★ 1850 ''Lohengrin'' (Richard Wagner)The last of Wagner's "middle period" works.[117]
★ 1850 ''Stiffelio'' (Giuseppe Verdi) Verdi's tale of adultery among members of an American Protestant sect fell foul of the censors.[118]
★ 1851 ''Rigoletto'' (Giuseppe Verdi) The first - and most innovative- of three middle period Verdi operas which have become staples of the repertoire.[119]
★ 1853 ''Il trovatore'' (Giuseppe Verdi) This Romantic melodrama is one of Verdi's most tuneful scores.[120]
★ 1853 ''La traviata'' (Giuseppe Verdi) The role of Violetta, the "fallen woman" of the title, is one of the most famous vehicles for the soprano voice.[121]
★ 1855 ''Les vêpres siciliennes'' (Giuseppe Verdi) Verdi's opera displays the strong influence of Meyerbeer.[122]
★ 1858 ''Der Barbier von Bagdad'' (Peter Cornelius) An oriental comedy drawing on the tradition of German Romantic opera.[123]
★ 1858 ''Orphée aux enfers'' (Jacques Offenbach) The world's first operetta, this cynical and satirical piece is still immensely popular today. [124]
★ 1858 ''Les Troyens'' (Hector Berlioz) Berlioz's greatest opera and the culmination of the French Classical tradition.[110]
★ 1859 ''Faust'' (Charles Gounod) Of all the musical settings of the Faust legend, Gounod's has been the most popular with audiences, especially in the Victorian era.[126]
★ 1859 ''Un ballo in maschera'' (Giuseppe Verdi) By the time he came to write ''Un ballo in maschera'', Verdi was rich enough not to have to work for a living. This opera ran into trouble with the censors because it originally dealt with the assassination of a monarch.[127]
★ 1862 ''Béatrice et Bénédict'' (Hector Berlioz) The last opera Berlioz wrote is the fruit of his lifelong admiration for Shakespeare.[128]
★ 1862 ''La forza del destino'' (Giuseppe Verdi) This tragedy was commissioned by the Imperial Theatre, Saint Petersburg, and Verdi may have been influenced by the Russian tradition in the writing of his work.[129]
★ 1863 ''Les pêcheurs de perles'' (Georges Bizet) Though a relative failure at its premiere, this is Bizet's second most performed opera today and is particularly famous for its tenor/baritone duet.[130]
★ 1864 ''La belle Hélène'' (Jacques Offenbach) Another operetta by Offenbach which pokes fun at Greek mythology.[131]
★ 1864 ''Mireille'' (Charles Gounod) Gounod's work is based on the epic poem by Frédéric Mistral and makes use of Provençal folk tunes.[132]
★ 1865 ''L'Africaine'' (Giacomo Meyerbeer) Meyerbeer's last grand opera received a posthumous premiere.[133]
★ 1865 ''Tristan und Isolde'' (Richard Wagner) This romantic tragedy is Wagner's most radical work and one of the most revolutionary pieces in music history. The "Tristan chord" began the breakdown of traditional tonality.[134]
★ 1866 ''Mignon'' (Ambroise Thomas) A lyrical work inspired by Goethe's novel ''Wilhelm Meister'', this was Thomas's most successful opera along with ''Hamlet''.[135]
★ 1866 ''The Bartered Bride'' (Bedřich Smetana) Smetana's folk comedy is the most widely performed of all his operas.[136]
★ 1867 ''Don Carlos'' (Giuseppe Verdi) Verdi's take on French grand opera is now one of his most highly regarded works.[137]
★ 1867 ''La jolie fille de Perth'' (Georges Bizet) Bizet turned to a novel by Sir Walter Scott for this ''opéra comique''.[138]
★ 1867 ''Roméo et Juliette'' (Charles Gounod) Gounod's version of Shakespeare's tragedy is his second most famous work.[139]
★ 1868 ''Dalibor'' (Bedřich Smetana) One of the most successful of Smetana's operas exploring themes from Czech history.[140]
★ 1868 ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' (Richard Wagner) Wagner's only comedy among his mature operas concerns the clash between artistic tradition and innovation.[141]
★ 1868 ''Hamlet'' (Ambroise Thomas) Thomas's opera takes many liberties with its Shakespearean source.[142]
★ 1868 ''La Périchole'' (Jacques Offenbach) Set in Peru, this operetta mixes comedy and sentimentality.[143]
★ 1868 ''Mefistofele'' (Arrigo Boito) Though most famous as a librettist for Verdi, Boito was also a composer and he spent many years working on this musical version of the Faust myth.[144]
★ 1869 ''Das Rheingold'' (Richard Wagner) The "preliminary evening" to Wagner's epic ''Ring'' cycle tells how the ring was forged and the curse laid upon it.[145]
★ 1870 ''Die Walküre'' (Richard Wagner) The second part of the ''Ring'' tells the story of the mortals Siegmund and Sieglinde and of how the valkyrie Brunnhilde disobeys her father Wotan, king of the gods.[146]
★ 1871 ''Aida'' (Giuseppe Verdi) This celebrated grand opera was originally intended to mark the opening of the Suez Canal.[147]
★ 1874 ''Boris Godunov'' (Modest Mussorgsky) Mussorgsky's great historical drama shows Russia's descent into anarchy in the early 17th century.[148]
★ 1874 ''Die Fledermaus'' (Johann Strauss II) Probably the most popular of all operettas.[149]
★ 1874 ''The Two Widows'' (Bedřich Smetana) Another comedy by Smetana, the only one of his operas with a non-Czech subject.[150]
★ 1875 ''Carmen'' (Georges Bizet) Probably the most famous of all French operas. Critics at the premiere were shocked by Bizet's blend of romanticism and realism.[151]
1876 – 1899
Giuseppe Verdi, the celebrated portrait by Giovanni Boldini, 1886 (National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome).
★ 1876 ''Siegfried'' (Richard Wagner) The third part of the ''Ring'' sees the hero Siegfried slay the dragon Fafner, win the ring and free Brunhilde from her enchantment.[152]
★ 1876 ''Götterdämmerung'' (Richard Wagner) In the final part of the ''Ring'', the curse takes effect leading to the deaths of Siegfried and Brunnhilde and the destruction of the gods themselves.[153]
★ 1876 ''La Gioconda'' (Amilcare Ponchielli). Apart from Verdi's ''Aida'', this is the only Italian grand opera to have stayed in international repertory.[79]
★ 1877 ''L'étoile'' (Emmanuel Chabrier) This comic piece has been described as "a cross between ''Carmen'' and Gilbert and Sullivan, with plenty of Offenbach thrown in".[155]
★ 1877 ''Samson and Delilah'' (Camille Saint-Saëns). An opera with that was heavily influenced by those of Wagner.[156]
★ 1879 ''Eugene Onegin'' (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) Tchaikovsky's most popular opera, based on the verse novel by Pushkin. The composer strongly identified with the heroine Tatyana.[157]
★ 1881 ''Hérodiade'' (Jules Massenet) An opera telling the Biblical story of Salome, Massenet's work was eclipsed by Richard Strauss's treatment of the same subject.[158]
★ 1881 ''Les contes d'Hoffmann'' (Jacques Offenbach) Offenbach's attempt at writing a more serious work remained unfinished at his death. Nevertheless, this is his most widely performed opera today.[143]
★ 1881 ''Simon Boccanegra'' (Giuseppe Verdi). Verdi heavily revised this opera over twenty years after it was first performed.[100]
★ 1882 ''Parsifal'' (Richard Wagner) Wagner's last opera is a "festival play" about the legend of the Holy Grail.[161]
★ 1882 ''The Snow Maiden'' (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) One of Rimsky-Korsakov's most lyrical works.[162]
★ 1883 ''Lakmé'' (Léo Delibes) This ''opéra comique'' set in the British Raj in India is famous for its "Flower Duet" and "Bell Song".[163]
★ 1884 ''Le Villi'' (Giacomo Puccini) An early operatic work by Puccini with plenty of opportunity for dance.[164]
★ 1884 ''Manon'' (Jules Massenet) Massenet's most enduringly popular work along with ''Werther''.[165]
★ 1885 ''The Gypsy Baron'' (Johann Strauss II) Strauss's operetta was intended to soothe tensions between Austrians and Hungarians in the Habsburg empire.[166]
★ 1886 ''Khovanshchina'' (Modest Mussorgsky) Mussorgsky's second great epic of Russian history was left unfinished at his death.[167]
★ 1887 ''Le roi malgré lui'' (Emmanuel Chabrier) Ravel claimed he would rather have written this comic opera than Wagner's ''Ring'' cycle, though the plot is notoriously confused.[168]
★ 1887 ''Otello'' (Giuseppe Verdi). The first of Verdi's late-period masterpieces was set to an unusually fine libretto by Arrigo Boito.[100]
★ 1888 ''Le roi d'Ys'' (Édouard Lalo) A Breton folk tale with music heavily influenced by Wagner.[170]
★ 1890 ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (Pietro Mascagni) A perennial favourite with audiences around the world, this one-acter is usually performed alongside Leoncavallo's ''I pagliacci''.[171]
★ 1890 ''Prince Igor'' (Alexander Borodin) Borodin spent 17 years working on this opera off and on, yet never managed to finish it. Most famous for its "Polovtsian dances".[172]
★ 1890 ''The Queen of Spades'' (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky). In a letter to his brother and librettist the composer said that "the opera is a masterpiece".[173]
★ 1891 ''L'amico Fritz'' (Pietro Mascagni). This work has been thought of as a late example of ''opera semiseria''.[174]
★ 1892 ''Iolanta'' (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) Tchaikovksy's last, lyrical opera set to a libretto by his brother Modest.[175]
★ 1892 ''La Wally'' (Alfredo Catalani). Usually thought of as Catalani's masterpiece.[176]
★ 1892 ''Pagliacci'' (Ruggero Leoncavallo) One of the most famous verismo operas, usually paired with Mascagni's ''Cavalleria rusticana''.[177]
★ 1892 ''Werther'' (Jules Massenet). Along with ''Manon'', this is Massenet's most popular opera.[178]
★ 1893 ''Falstaff'' (Giuseppe Verdi). Verdi's final opera was set to another of Boito's fine libretti.[100]
★ 1893 ''Hänsel und Gretel'' (Engelbert Humperdinck). The well-known fairy-tale received a full Wagnerian operatic adaptation at Humperdinck's hands.[180]
★ 1893 ''Manon Lescaut'' (Giacomo Puccini). The success of this work established Puccini's reputation as a composer of contemporary music of the first rank.[79]
★ 1894 ''Thaïs'' (Jules Massenet). The opera that contains the famous ''Méditation'' interlude.[178]
★ 1896 ''Andrea Chénier'' (Umberto Giordano). Set to a libretto by Luigi Illica, this ''verismo'' drama is Giordano's most popular opera.[79]
★ 1896 ''La bohème'' (Giacomo Puccini). Debussy is alleged to have said, as a result of La bohème, that no one had detailed Paris at that time better than had Puccini.[79]
★ 1897 ''Königskinder'' (Engelbert Humperdinck). Originally a melodrama that blended song and spoken dialogue, the composer adapted the work into an opera proper in 1907.[180]
★ 1898 ''Fedora'' (Umberto Giordano). Giordano's second most popular opera.[79]
★ 1898 ''Sadko'' (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov). The Viking Trader's song from this opera has become extremely popular in Russia.[173]
★ 1899 ''Cendrillon'' (Jules Massenet). An immediate success at the time of the premiere, the opera enjoyed 50 performances in 1899 alone.[178]
★ 1899 ''The Devil and Kate'' (Antonín Dvořák) The lack of a love interest makes the plot of this work almost unique among Czech comic operas.[189]
1900 – 1920
★ 1900 ''Louise'' (Gustave Charpentier) An attempt to provide a French equivalent for Italian verismo, ''Louise'' is set in a working-class district of Paris.[190]
★ 1900 ''Tosca'' (Giacomo Puccini). ''Tosca'' is the most Wagnerian of Puccini's operas, with its frequent use of ''leitmotif''.[79]
★ 1901 ''Rusalka'' (Antonín Dvořák) Dvořák's most successful opera with international audiences, based on a folk tale about a water sprite. [192]
★ 1902 ''Adriana Lecouvreur'' (Francesco Cilea). Unique among Cilea's operas in that it has remained in the international repertory up to the present time.[79]
★ 1902 ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' (Claude Debussy) Debussy's elusive Symbolist drama is one of the most significant operas of the 20th century.[194]
★ 1902 ''Saul og David'' (Carl Nielsen) This Biblical tragedy was the first of Nielsen's two operas.[195]
★ 1904 ''Jenůfa'' (Leoš Janáček) Janáček's first great success, a naturalistic depiction of Czech peasant life.[196]
★ 1904 ''Madama Butterfly'' (Giacomo Puccini). The first performance of Puccini's now-popular opera was a disaster involving accusations of plagiarism.[79]
★ 1905 ''The Merry Widow'' (Franz Lehár) One of the most famous Viennese operettas.[198]
★ 1905 ''Salome'' (Richard Strauss) A scandalous success at its premiere, Strauss's "decadent" opera is still immensely popular with today's audiences.[199]
★ 1906 ''Maskarade'' (Carl Nielsen) Nielsen's high-spirited comedy looks back to the world of ''The Marriage of Figaro'' and has become a classic in the composer's native Denmark.[200]
★ 1907 ''A Village Romeo and Juliet'' (Frederick Delius) A tragedy of unhappy love set in Switzerland; the most famous music is the interlude "The Walk to the Paradise Garden".[201]
★ 1907 ''Ariane et Barbe-bleue'' (Paul Dukas) Dukas's only opera, based like Debussy's ''Pelléas'', on a Symbolist drama by Maeterlinck. [202]
★ 1907 ''The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya'' (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) A mystical retelling of an old national legend. Sometimes called the Russian ''Parsifal''.[203]
★ 1907 ''Destiny'' (Leoš Janáček). An important transitional work in Janáček's career as the composer began to look beyond the traditional themes of Czech opera.[204]
★ 1909 ''Elektra'' (Richard Strauss) This dark tragedy took Strauss's music to the borders of atonality. It was the composer's first setting of a libretto by his long-term collaborator Hugo von Hofmannsthal.[205]
★ 1909 ''Il segreto di Susanna'' (Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari) A comic intermezzo. Susanna's secret is that she smokes.[206]
★ 1909 ''The Golden Cockerel'' (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) Often considered Rimsky's greatest work, this satire on military incompetence got the composer into trouble with the censors after Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.[207]
★ 1910 ''Don Quichotte'' (Jules Massenet) Massenet's last great success is a gentle comedy inspired by Cervantes's ''Don Quixote''.[208]
★ 1910 ''La fanciulla del West'' (Giacomo Puccini). Described by Puccini as his best work.[79]
★ 1911 ''Der Rosenkavalier'' (Richard Strauss) Strauss and Hofmannsthal's most popular work, this comedy is set in 18th century Vienna.[210]
★ 1911 ''L'heure espagnole'' (Maurice Ravel) Ravel's first opera is a bedroom farce set in Spain.[211]
★ 1912 ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' (Richard Strauss) A mixture of comedy and tragedy with an opera within an opera.[212]
★ 1912 ''Der ferne Klang'' (Schreker). The success of this work established Schreker's reputation as an opera composer.[213]
★ 1913 ''La vida breve'' (Manuel de Falla) A passionate Spanish drama influenced by verismo.[214]
★ 1914 ''The Immortal Hour'' (Rutland Boughton) Boughton's Celtic fairy tale opera enjoyed great popularity in Britain between the world wars.[215]
★ 1914 ''The Nightingale'' (Igor Stravinsky) Stravinsky's style changed radically during the composition of this short opera, moving away from the influence of his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov towards the spiky modernism of the ''The Rite of Spring''.[216]
★ 1916 ''Savitri'' (Gustav Holst) Holst's interest in Hinduism led him to set this episode from the ''Mahabharata''.[217]
★ 1917 ''Arlecchino'' (Ferruccio Busoni) Busoni drew on the tradition of Italian puppet theatre for this one-act piece.[218]
★ 1917 ''Eine florentinische Tragödie'' (Alexander von Zemlinsky) Zemlinsky's "decadent" one-acter is based on a short play by Oscar Wilde.[219]
★ 1917 ''La rondine'' (Giacomo Puccini). Not an initial success, Puccini heavily revised the opera twice.[79]
★ 1917 ''Palestrina'' (Hans Pfitzner) A Wagnerian drama exploring the clash between innovation and tradition in music.[221]
★ 1918 ''Bluebeard's Castle'' (Béla Bartók) Bartok's only opera, this intense psychological drama is one of his most important works.[222]
★ 1918 ''Gianni Schicchi'' (Giacomo Puccini). One act in structure, Puccini's work is based on an extract from Dante's ''Inferno''.[79]
★ 1918 ''Il tabarro'' (Giacomo Puccini). The first of the operas that make up ''Il trittico'' - along with ''Gianni Schicchi'' and ''Suor Angelica''
★ 1918 ''Suor Angelica'' (Giacomo Puccini). Described by the composer as his favourite among the three operas that comprise ''Il trittico''.[79]
★ 1919 ''Die Frau ohne Schatten'' (Richard Strauss). The third full collaboration between Strauss and the librettist Hofmannsthal gestated for six years before completion, and another two years passed before the first performance.[225]
★ 1920 ''Die tote Stadt'' (Erich Wolfgang Korngold). Korngold's most well-renowned work for the stage.[226]
★ 1920 ''The Excursions of Mr. Broucek on the Moon and in the 15th Century'' (Leoš Janáček) A comic fantasy set on the moon and in 15th century Bohemia.[192]
1921 – 1944
★ 1921 ''Káťa Kabanová'' (Leoš Janáček) The first of the great operas of Janáček's late maturity, based on an Ostrovsky play about religious fanaticism and forbidden love in provincial Russia.[228]
★ 1921 ''The Love for Three Oranges'' (Sergei Prokofiev) A comic opera based on a fairy tale by Carlo Gozzi.[229]
★ 1922 ''Der Zwerg'' (Alexander von Zemlinsky) Another short Zemlinsky opera inspired by a work by Oscar Wilde. The composer personally identified with the dwarf of the title.[230]
★ 1924 ''Erwartung'' (Arnold Schoenberg) An intense atonal monodrama.[231]
★ 1924 ''Hugh the Drover'' (Ralph Vaughan Williams) A ballad opera, much of which is based on folksongs.[232]
★ 1924 ''Intermezzo'' (Richard Strauss). A light operetta-style work based on an incident from the composer's own marriage.[225]
★ 1924 ''The Cunning Little Vixen'' (Leoš Janáček) One of the composer's most popular works, the story is based on a cartoon strip about animals in the Czech countryside.[234]
★ 1925 ''Doktor Faust'' (Ferruccio Busoni) Busoni intended this opera to be the climax of his career, but it was left unfinished at his death.[235]
★ 1925 ''L'enfant et les sortilèges'' (Maurice Ravel). Originally conceived of as a fairy ballet, the plot of the opera is that of children's fairy-tale.[236]
★ 1925 ''Wozzeck'' (Alban Berg). One of the key operas of the 20th century. Based on a strikingly unheroic plot, Berg's work blends atonal techniques with more traditional ones.[237]
★ 1926 ''Cardillac'' (Paul Hindemith) An opera in Hindemith's neo-classical style about a psychopathic jeweller. [238]
★ 1926 ''Háry János'' (Zoltán Kodály). János's ''singspiel'' incorporated many Hungarian folksongs and dances.[239]
★ 1926 ''King Roger'' (Karol Szymanowski) One of the most important Polish operas, this piece is full of Oriental harmonies.[240]
★ 1926 ''The Makropulos Affair'' (Leoš Janáček). The first performance of ''The Makropulos Affair'' was the last that Janáček survived to see among his operas.[241]
★ 1926 ''Turandot'' (Giacomo Puccini). Puccini's last opera was left unfinished at his death.[79]
★ 1927 ''Oedipus Rex'' (Igor Stravinsky) Set to a Latin libretto by Jean Cocteau, this highly stylised piece fuses opera and oratorio. [243]
★ 1927 ''Jonny spielt auf'' (Ernst Krenek) A "jazz opera" which enjoyed tremendous success in its day.[244]
★ 1928 ''The Threepenny Opera'' (Kurt Weill). A modern adaptation of Gay and Pepusch's ''The Beggar's Opera''.[245]
★ 1929 ''The Nose'' (Dmitri Shostakovich) Gogol's strange short story provided the plot for this grotesque satire.[246]
★ 1930 ''Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny'' (Kurt Weill) The composition of this opera was problematic, due to tension between the composer and his librettist, Bertolt Brecht.[245]
★ 1930 ''From the House of the Dead'' (Leoš Janáček). Janáček's last opera inspired by Dostoyevsky's account of life in a Russian prison camp.[241]
★ 1932 ''Moses und Aron'' (Arnold Schoenberg). Left unfinished at his death, Schoenberg's opera frequently employs serialist techniques.[249]
★ 1933 ''Arabella'' (Richard Strauss). This opera was the last that Strauss set to a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.[225]
★ 1934 ''Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District'' (Dmitri Shostakovich). An attack on the music and subject matter of the opera in the Soviet Union's government journal ''Pravda'' meant that this work was Shostakovich's last opera.[251]
★ 1935 ''Die schweigsame Frau'' (Richard Strauss) A comic opera based on a play by Ben Jonson.[252]
★ 1935 ''Porgy and Bess'' (George Gershwin). Initially a financial failure, a 1941 production that replaced the work's recitatives with spoken dialogue was a success.[253]
★ 1937 ''Lulu'' (Alban Berg). Berg's second opera was unfinished at his death, but a completion by Friedrich Cerha was successfully performed in 1979.[254]
★ 1937 ''Riders to the Sea'' (Ralph Vaughan Williams) Often rated as Vaughan Williams's finest opera, this short, fatalistic tragedy is set on the Aran Isles in the west of Ireland.[255]
★ 1938 ''Daphne'' (Richard Strauss) A mythological opera with lyrical, pastoral music.[256]
★ 1938 ''Julietta'' (Bohuslav Martinů) This dreamlike work set in a town where people have lost their memory is "Martinu's operatic masterpiece".[257]
★ 1938 ''Mathis der Maler'' (Paul Hindemith) Hindemith's most highly regarded opera is a parable about an artist surviving in a time of crisis, reflecting the composer's own experience under the Nazis.[258]
★ 1941 ''Paul Bunyan'' (Benjamin Britten) Britten's first venture into opera was a light piece about an American folk hero with a libretto by W.H.Auden.[259]
★ 1942 ''Capriccio'' (Richard Strauss) Strauss's final opera is a conversation piece about the genre itself.[260]
★ 1943 ''Der Kaiser von Atlantis'' (Viktor Ullmann) Written in the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt and not performed until 1975. The composer and his librettist died in Auschwitz.[261]
From 1945
Igor Stravinsky
★ 1945 ''Peter Grimes'' (Benjamin Britten) A landmark in the history of British opera, this work marked Britten's arrival on the international music scene.[262]
★ 1945 ''War and Peace'' (Sergei Prokofiev) Prokofiev returned to the tradition of Russian historical opera for this epic work based on Tolstoy's novel.[263]
★ 1946 ''Betrothal in a Monastery'' (Sergei Prokofiev) A romantic comedy with music drawing on the ''opera buffa'' style of Rossini.[264]
★ 1946 ''The Medium'' (Gian Carlo Menotti). Considered by many to be Menotti's finest work.[265]
★ 1946 ''The Rape of Lucretia'' (Benjamin Britten). Britten's first chamber opera.[266]
★ 1947 ''Albert Herring'' (Benjamin Britten). Britten's comic opera is heavily based upon use of the ensemble.[267]
★ 1947 ''Dantons Tod'' (Gottfried von Einem) Einem's opera is a compressed setting of Georg Büchner's play about the "Reign of Terror" during the French Revolution.[268]
★ 1947 ''Les mamelles de Tirésias'' (Francis Poulenc) Poulenc's first opera is a short surrealist comedy based on the play by Guillaume Apollinaire.[269]
★ 1947 ''The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois'' (Gian Carlo Menotti). An ''opera buffa'' just 22 minutes in length.[265]
★ 1949 ''Il prigioniero'' (Luigi Dallapiccola). Much of the music for this opera is based on 3 12-note tone rows, which represent the themes of prayer, hope and freedom that dominate the opera.[271]
★ 1950 ''The Consul'' (Gian Carlo Menotti). This opera contains some of Menotti's most dissonant music.[272]
★ 1951 ''Amahl and the Night Visitors'' (Gian Carlo Menotti) This Christmas story was the first opera specifically written for television. [273]
★ 1951 ''Billy Budd'' (Benjamin Britten). The plot for Britten's large-scale opera was based on a story by Herman Melville.[267]
★ 1951 ''The Pilgrim's Progress'' (Ralph Vaughan Williams). Set to his own libretto, Vaughan Williams's work was inspired by John Bunyan's famous allegory of the same name.[232]
★ 1951 ''The Rake's Progress'' (Igor Stravinsky) Stravinsky's most important operatic work looks back to Mozart musically and has a libretto by W.H. Auden inspired by the engravings of William Hogarth. [276]
★ 1952 ''Boulevard Solitude'' (Hans Werner Henze) Henze's first full-length opera is an updating of the story of ''Manon Lescaut'', also the source for important operas by Massenet and Puccini.[277]
★ 1953 ''Gloriana'' (Benjamin Britten) Composed for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, this opera looks back to the relationship between her namesake Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex.[278]
★ 1954 ''The Fiery Angel'' (Sergei Prokofiev). Prokofiev never saw what is often regarded as his most ''avant-garde'' composition performed on the operatic stage.[173]
★ 1954 ''The Turn of the Screw'' (Benjamin Britten) A chamber opera based on the ghost story by Henry James. It is remarkable for its tightly laid out key scheme and active orchestral role.[267]
★ 1954 ''Troilus and Cressida'' (William Walton) Walton's opera about the Trojan War was initially a failure.[281]
★ 1955 ''The Midsummer Marriage'' (Michael Tippett). Tippett's first full-scale opera was set to his own libretto.[282]
★ 1956 ''Candide'' (Leonard Bernstein). Based on Voltaire, the soprano aria "Glitter and Be Gay" is a parody of Romantic-era jewel songs.[283]
★ 1957 ''Dialogues of the Carmelites'' (Francis Poulenc) Poulenc's major opera is set in a convent during the French Revolution.[284]
★ 1958 ''Vanessa'' (Samuel Barber). ''Vanessa'' won its composer a Pulitzer Prize in 1958.[285]
★ 1959 ''La voix humaine'' (Francis Poulenc) A short opera with a single character: a despairing woman on the telephone to her lover.[286]
★ 1960 ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (Benjamin Britten). Set to a libretto adapted from the Shakespeare play by himself and his partner Peter Pears, Britten's work is rare in operatic history in that it features a countertenor in the male lead role.[267]
★ 1961 ''Elegy for Young Lovers'' (Hans Werner Henze). Henze asked his librettists, W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, for a scenario that would inspire him to compose "tender, beautiful noises".[288]
★ 1962 ''King Priam'' (Michael Tippett). Tippett's second opera, set to another of his own "recondite" libretti, [289] was inspired by Homer's ''Iliad''.[282]
★ 1964 ''Curlew River'' (Benjamin Britten). A modern liturgical "church opera" intended for performance in an ecclesiastical setting.[267]
★ 1965 ''Der junge Lord'' (Hans Werner Henze). The last composition produced during Henze's dwelling in Italy is considered to be the most Italianate of his dramatic works.[288]
★ 1965 ''Die Soldaten'' (Bernd Alois Zimmermann). The first version of the opera was rejected by Cologne Opera as impossible for them to stage: Zimmermann was required to reduce the orchestral forces required and to cut some of the technical demands previously required.[288]
★ 1966 ''Antony and Cleopatra'' (Samuel Barber). The first version of the opera was set to a libretto consisting entirely of the words of Shakespeare and deemed a failure.[285] Later it was revised by Menotti and became a success.
★ 1966 ''The Bassarids'' (Hans Werner Henze). Henze's opera is set to a libretto by Auden and Kallman, who required that the composer listen to ''Götterdämmerung'' before starting to compose the music.[288]
★ 1967 ''The Bear'' (William Walton). The libretto for Walton's extravaganza was based on Chekov.[288]
★ 1968 ''Punch and Judy'' (Harrison Birtwistle). Birtwistle's first opera was commissioned by the English Opera Group.[288]
★ 1968 ''The Prodigal Son'' (Benjamin Britten). The third of Britten's parables for church performance.[298]
★ 1969 ''The Devils of Loudun'' (Krzysztof Penderecki). Penderecki's first opera is also his most popular.[298]
★ 1970 ''The Knot Garden'' (Michael Tippett). Tippett created his own modern scenario for the libretto of this work, his third opera.[282]
★ 1971 ''Owen Wingrave'' (Benjamin Britten) Britten's anti-war opera was written especially for BBC television.[301]
★ 1972 ''Taverner'' (Peter Maxwell Davies) Davies was one of the most significant figures to emerge in British music the 1960s. This opera is based on a legend about the 16th century composer John Taverner.[302]
★ 1973 ''Death in Venice'' (Benjamin Britten). Britten's last opera was first performed three years before his death.[289]
★ 1978 ''Le Grand Macabre'' (György Ligeti). First performed at Stockholm in 1978, Ligeti heavily revised the opera in 1996.[304]
★ 1978 ''Lear'' (Aribert Reimann) An Expressionist opera based on Shakespeare's tragedy. The title role was specifically written for the famous baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.[305]
★ 1980 ''The Lighthouse'' (Peter Maxwell Davies). Davies's second chamber opera was set to his own libretto.[288]
★ 1983 ''Saint-François d'Assise'' (Olivier Messiaen) 120 orchestral players are required for this opera, as well as a sizable chorus.[304]
★ 1984 ''Un re in ascolto'' (Luciano Berio). This opera was set to a libretto assembled by the composer from three different texts by three different authors: Friedrich Einsiedel, W.H. Auden and Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter.[308]
★ 1984 ''Akhnaten'' (Philip Glass). Unlike his first opera ''Einstein on the Beach'', the writing and style are more conventional and lyrical and much of the music of ''Akhnaten'' is some of the most dissonant that Glass has composed.[309]
★ 1986 ''The Mask of Orpheus'' (Harrison Birtwistle) Birtwistle's most ambitious opera examines the myth of Orpheus from several different angles.[310]
★ 1987 ''A Night at the Chinese Opera'' (Judith Weir) This piece is based on a Chinese play of the Yuan dynasty.[311]
★ 1987 ''Nixon in China'' (John Adams) Musically Minimalist in style, this "news opera" recounts Richard Nixon's 1972 meeting with Mao Zedong.[312]
★ 1991 ''Gawain'' (Harrison Birtwistle). Birtwistle's opera is based on the medieval English poem ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''.[288]
Significant firsts in opera history
Operas not included in the above list, but which were important milestones in operatic history.
★ 1598 ''Dafne'' (Jacopo Peri) The first ever opera, performed in Florence (music now lost).[314]
★ 1600 ''Euridice'' (Jacopo Peri) The first opera whose music survives to the present day.[314]
★ 1625 ''La liberazione di Ruggiero'' (Francesca Caccini) First opera by a woman.[316]
★ 1627 ''Dafne'' (Heinrich Schütz) First German opera. Music now lost.[317]
★ 1673 ''Cadmus et Hermione'' (Jean-Baptiste Lully) Generally regarded as the first true French opera.[318]
★ 1808 ''Le Due Gemelle'' (José Maurício Nunes Garcia). Music now lost. First opera by a non-european composer.
See also
★ List of major opera composers
★ The opera corpus – A list of nearly 1,600 operas by more than 430 individual opera composers, arranged by composer, giving a general idea of the present depth and consistency of coverage of opera on Wikipedia.
★ List of operas – A list of operas with entries in Wikipedia sorted alphabetically by title.
★ List of Orphean operas
Notes
1. John Whenham, writing in Grove
2. Ellen Rosand, writing in Grove
3. Elllen Rosand, writing in Grove
4. Ellen Rosand, writing in Grove
5. Ellen Rosand, writing in Grove
6. Viking p.191
7. Martha Novak Clinkscale, writing in Grove
8. Curtis Price, writing in Grove
9. Curtis Price, writing in Grove
10. Viking p.418: ''According to John Mainwaring, Handel's first biographer, 'The theatre at almost every pause resounded with shouts of "Viva il caro Sassone". They were thunderstruck by the sublimity of his style: for never had they known till then all the powers of harmony and modulation so closely arrayed and forcibly combined'"''.
11. Anthony Hicks, writing in Grove
12. Anthony Hicks, writing in Grove
13. Anthony Hicks, writing in Grove
14. Anthony Hicks, writing in Grove
15. Anthony Hicks, writing in Grove
16. Robert D. Hume, writing in Grove
17. Orrey p.64
18. Anthony Hicks, writing in Grove
19. Orrey p.64
20. Orrey pp.90-91
21. Graham Sadler, writing in Grove
22. Anthony Hicks, writing in Grove
23. Anthony Hicks, writing in Grove
24. Graham Sadler, writing in Grove
25. Graham Sadler, writing in Grove
26. Anthony Hicks, writing in Grove
27. Stanley Sadie, writing in Grove
28. Graham Sadler, writing in Grove
29. Mary Hunter, writing in Grove
30. Viking pp.375-6
31. Viking pp.378-9
32. Julian Rushton, writing in Grove
33. Julian Rushton, writing in Grove
34. Julian Rushton, writing in Grove
35. Viking p.381
36. Julian Rushton, writing in Grove
37. Julian Rushton, writing in Grove
38. Caryl Clark, writing in Grove
39. Viking p.393
40. Viking p.370
41. Orrey p.110
42. Orrey p. 113
43. Viking p.752
44. Julian Rushton, writing in Grove
45. Julian Rushton, writing in Grove
46. Julian Rushton, writing in Grove
47. Orrey p.107
48. Julian Rushton, writing in Grove
49. Orrey p.113
50. Orrey p.114
51. Gordana Lazarevich, writing in Grove
52. Viking pp.210-211
53. Viking p.59
54. Viking p.1002-1004
55. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
56. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
57. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
58. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
59. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
60. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
61. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
62. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
63. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
64. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
65. Viking p.1212-14
66. Viking p.1214-15
67. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
68. Oxford Illustrated p.136
69. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
70. Clive Brown, writing in Grove
71. Simon Maguire, writing in Grove
72. A. Dean Palmer, writing in Grove
73. Richard Osborne, writing in Grove
74. Simon Maguire, writing in Grove
75. Viking p.884; pp.917-18
76. William Ashbrook, writing in Grove
77. Viking p.38
78. Viking p.66
79. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
80. Orrey p.132
81. Viking p.659-60
82. William Ashbrook, writing in Grove
83. Viking p.70
84. Viking p.609
85. Viking p.277
86. Viking p.278
87. Viking p.1176
88. Viking p.71
89. Viking p.412
90. Viking p.280
91. Oxford Illustrated p.246 ff.
92. Viking pp. 660
93. Viking p.282
94. Viking p.92
95. Viking p.1125
96. Viking p.285
97. Viking p.285
98. Viking p.1125
99. Viking p.584
100. Roger Parker, writing in Grove
101. Viking p.1177
102. Viking p.368
103. Viking p.1179
104. Viking p.288
105. Viking p.1127
106. Viking p.48
107. Viking p.1128
108. Viking p.1181
109. Viking p.1132
110. Viking p.94
111. Viking p.1132
112. Viking p.328
113. Viking p.726
114. Viking p.661
115. Viking p.1138
116. Viking p.968
117. Viking p.1184-86
118. Viking p.1139
119. Oxford Illustrated p.192
120. Oxford Illustrated p.193
121. Viking p.1143
122. Viking p.1144
123. Viking p.228
124. Viking p.735
125. Viking p.94
126. Penguin Guide to Opera on CD p.114
127. Viking p.1147
128. Viking p.97
129. Viking p.1149
130. Viking p.115
131. Viking p.736
132. Viking p.397
133. Viking p.664
134. Viking p.1196
135. Viking p.1098
136. Viking p.988
137. Viking p.1152
138. Viking p.116
139. Viking p.398
140. Viking p.990
141. Viking p.1198
142. Viking p.1099
143. Viking p.738
144. Viking p.131
145. Viking p.1188
146. Viking p.1190
147. Viking p.1155
148. Viking p.718
149. Viking p.1020
150. Viking p.992
151. Viking p.118
152. Viking p.1191
153. Viking p.1192
154. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
155. Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Discs p.53
156. Hugh MacDonald, writing in Grove
157. Viking p.1087
158. Viking p.624
159. Viking p.738
160. Roger Parker, writing in Grove
161. Viking p.1201
162. Viking p.866
163. Viking p.252
164. Viking p.807
165. Viking p.625
166. Viking p.1022
167. Viking p.720
168. Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Discs p.54
169. Roger Parker, writing in Grove
170. Oxford Illustrated p.164-5
171. Viking p.618
172. Viking p.134
173. Richard Taruskin, writing in Grove
174. Peter Ross, writing in Grove
175. Viking p.1094
176. Michele Girardi, writing in Grove
177. Viking p.564
178. Rodney Milnes, writing in Grove
179. Roger Parker, writing in Grove
180. Amanda Glauert, writing in Grove
181. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
182. Rodney Milnes, writing in Grove
183. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
184. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
185. Amanda Glauert, writing in Grove
186. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
187. Richard Taruskin, writing in Grove
188. Rodney Milnes, writing in Grove
189. Jan Smaczny, writing in Grove
190. Viking p.203
191. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
192. Oxford Illustrated p.269
193. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
194. Oxford Illustrated pp.281-7
195. Viking p.728
196. Oxford Illustrated p.304
197. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
198. Viking p.559
199. Viking p.1026
200. Viking p.729
201. Viking p.256
202. Oxford Illustrated p.285
203. Viking p.871
204. Viking p.502
205. Viking p.1028
206. Viking p.1241
207. Viking p.872
208. Viking p.635
209. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
210. Viking p.1029
211. Viking p.849
212. Viking p.1031
213. Peter Franklin, writing in Grove
214. Viking p.314
215. Viking p.137
216. Viking p.1045
217. Viking p.485
218. Viking p.168
219. Viking p.1251
220. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
221. Viking p.773
222. Oxford Illustrated p286-7
223. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
224. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
225. David Murray, writing in Grove
226. Christopher Palmer, writing in Grove
227. Oxford Illustrated p.269
228. Viking p.505
229. Oxford Illustrated p.306
230. Viking p.1252
231. Viking p.953
232. Michael Kennedy, writing in Grove
233. David Murray, writing in Grove
234. Viking p.506
235. Oxford Illustrated p.297,297
236. Roger Nichols, writing in Grove
237. Orrey p.218
238. Viking p.477
239. Tibor Tallián, writing in Grove
240. Viking p.1076
241. John Tyrrell, writing in Grove
242. Julian Budden, writing in Grove
243. Oxford Illustrated p.310-11
244. Viking p.542
245. Stephen Hinton, writing in Grove
246. Viking p.980
247. Stephen Hinton, writing in Grove
248. John Tyrrell, writing in Grove
249. Orrey p.220
250. David Murray, writing in Grove
251. Laurel E. Fay, writing in Grove
252. Viking p.1039
253. Richard Crawford, writing in Grove
254. Orrey p.219
255. Viking p.1120
256. Viking p.1041
257. Viking p.613
258. Viking p.480
259. Viking p.143
260. Oxford Illustrated p.316
261. Viking p.1115
262. Viking p.144
263. Viking p.803
264. Viking p.802
265. Bruce Archibald, writing in Grove
266. Arnold Whittal, writing in Grove
267. Arnold Whittall, writing in Grove
268. Viking p.307
269. Viking p.793
270. Bruce Archibald, writing in Grove
271. Anthony Sellors, writing in Grove
272. Bruce Archiblad, writing in Grove
273. Viking p.649
274. Arnold Whittall, writing in Grove
275. Michael Kennedy, writing in Grove
276. Viking p.1050
277. Viking p.462
278. Viking ref.152
279. Richard Taruskin, writing in Grove
280. Arnold Whittall, writing in Grove
281. Viking p.1208
282. Geraint Lewis, writing in Grove
283. Jon Alan Conrad, writing in Grove
284. Viking p.794
285. Barbara B. Heyman, writing in Grove
286. Viking p.795
287. Arnold Whittall, writing in Grove
288. Andrew Clements, writing in Grove
289. Orrey p.234
290. Geraint Lewis, writing in Grove
291. Arnold Whittall, writing in Grove
292. Andrew Clements, writing in Grove
293. Andrew Clements, writing in Grove
294. Barbara B. Heyman, writing in Grove
295. Andrew Clements, writing in Grove
296. Andrew Clements, writing in Grove
297. Andrew Clements, writing in Grove
298. Adrian Thomas, writing in Grove
299. Adrian Thomas, writing in Grove
300. Geraint Lewis, writing in Grove
301. Viking p.159
302. Viking p.243
303. Orrey p.234
304. Paul Griffiths, writing in Grove
305. Viking p.854
306. Andrew Clements, writing in Grove
307. Paul Griffiths, writing in Grove
308. David Osmond-Smith, writing in Grove
309. Tim Page, writing in Grove
310. Viking p.108
311. Viking p.1232
312. Viking p.18
313. Andrew Clements, writing in Grove
314. Oxford Illustrated p.8
315. Oxford Illustrated p.8
316. Viking p.174
317. Oxford Illustrated p.31
318. Viking p.589
References
Lists consulted
This list was compiled by consulting nine lists of great operas, created by recognized authorities in the field of opera, and selecting all of the operas which appeared on at least five of these (i.e. all operas on a majority of the lists). The lists used were:
# ''A-Z of Opera'' by Keith Anderson, Naxos, 2000
# "The Standard Repertoire of Grand Opera 1607-1969", a list included in Norman Davies's ''Europe: a History'' (OUP, 1996; paperback edition Pimlico, 1997) ISBN 0-7126-6633-8.
# Operas appearing in the chronology by Mary Ann Smart in ''The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera'' (OUP, 1994) ISBN 0-19-816282-0.
# Operas with entries in ''The New Kobbe's Opera Book'', ed. Lord Harewood (Putnam, 9th ed., 1997) ISBN 0-370-10020-4
# Table of Contents of ''The Rough Guide to Opera'' by Matthew Boyden. (2002 edition) ISBN 1-85828-749-9.
# Operas with entries in ''The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera'' ed. Paul Gruber (Thames and Hudson, 1993) ISBN 0393034445 and/or ''Metropolitan Opera Stories of the Great Operas'' ed. John W Freeman (Norton, 1984) ISBN 0393018881
# List of operas and their composers in ''Who's Who in British Opera'' ed. Nicky Adam (Scolar Press, 1993) ISBN 0 859 67 894 6
# Entries for individual operas in The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, , John, and Ewan West, Warrack, Oxford University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
# Entries for individual operas in ''Who's Who in Opera: a guide to opera characters'' by Joyce Bourne (Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0192100238
'Note:'
★ The 93 operas included in all nine lists cited are: ''Adriana Lecouvreur, Aida, Arabella, Ariadne auf Naxos, Un Ballo in Maschera, The Barber of Seville, The Bartered Bride, Billy Budd, Bluebeard's Castle, La bohème, Boris Godunov, Capriccio, Carmen, Cavalleria rusticana, La cenerentola, La clemenza di Tito, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Così fan tutte, The Cunning Little Vixen, Dido and Aeneas, Don Carlos, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale, Elektra, L'elisir d'amore, L'enfant et les sortilèges, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Eugene Onegin, Falstaff, Faust, Fidelio, The Flying Dutchman, La forza del destino, Der Freischütz, Giulio Cesare, The Golden Cockerel, Götterdämmerung, L'heure espagnole, Les Huguenots, Idomeneo, L'incoronazione di Poppea, L'Italiana in Algeri, Jenůfa, Káťa Kabanová, Lakmé, The Marriage of Figaro, Il matrimonio segreto, Lohengrin, Louise, Lucia di Lammermoor, Macbeth, Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute, Manon, Médée, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Mignon, Moses und Aron, Nabucco, Norma, Orfeo, Orfeo ed Euridice, Otello, Pagliacci, Parsifal, Les pêcheurs de perles, Pelléas et Mélisande, Peter Grimes, Prince Igor, I puritani, The Queen of Spades, The Rake's Progress, Das Rheingold, Rigoletto, Roméo et Juliette, Der Rosenkavalier, Salome, Samson and Delilah, Semiramide, Siegfried, Simon Boccanegra, La sonnambula, Tannhauser, Tosca, La traviata, Tristan und Isolde, Il trovatore, Les Troyens, Turandot, The Turn of the Screw, Die Walküre, Werther, Wozzeck
Other references
★ Various entries on operas, composers and genres from: ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed 19 January 2007), grovemusic.com, subscription access.
★ ''The Viking Opera Guide'' (1993) ISBN 0-670-81292-7 Contributions are by noted specialists in their fields.
★ The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, , John, Warrack, , 1992, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
★ Opera, the Rough Guide, , Matthew, ''et al.'', Boyden, , 1997, ISBN 1-85828-138-5
★ Opera: A Concise History, , , Orrey, Leslie and Milne, Rodney, World of Art, Thames & Hudson, , ISBN 0500202176
★ ''Encyclopedia Britannica: Macropedia Volume 24, 15th edition.'' "Opera" in "Musical forms and genres". ISBN 0-85229-434-4
★ The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera, , , Parker, Roger (ed), Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-19-816282-0
★ ''The Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Discs '' ed. Greenfield, March and Layton (1993 edition) ISBN 0-14-046957-5.
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