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This, his 2nd opera, was left incomplete at the death of Berg
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Considered an atonal opera, but has several sections that sound more or less tonal
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Borodin left the opera incomplete at his death in 1887
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3-act opera based on Goethe's story "Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre"
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Most famous example of the Italian genre of "Grande Opera" based on "Angelo" by Victor Hugo
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Based on the Faust legend, it is the only completed opera of Boito
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This second opera of eight by Smetana is a comedy
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Comic chamber opera written as a companion piece for "The Rape of Lucretia"
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Based on the Herman Melville novel; first performed in London in December, 1951
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Britten's last opera, 1973
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Britten's estranged collaborator, WH Auden dismissed it as "dreadful-pure Kensington"
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The first of Britten's operas to be a critical and popular success (1945)
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One-act opera lasts only a little over one hour
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Delilah is one of the great roles for mezzo-soprano
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Considered the first important German Romantic opera
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Based upon Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor"
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According to "Opera America" it is the 18th most-performed opera in North America
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5-act opera first performed at the Theatre Lyrique in Paris in 1867
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Ballad opera written by John Gay but the music was probably arranged by Pepusch
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The second "reform opera" of Gluck after Orfeo ed Ueridice
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Its premier sparked a huge controversy between "Gluckists" and "Piccinnists"
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First to emphasize drama over the star singers, it did away with dry recitative
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Debussy wrote only about 30 minutes of the opera (unfinished)
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Called an "impressionist" opera, based on the symbolist play by Maeterlinck
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Known for its role in the history of censorship by the Communist Party in 1936
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Often performed at Christmas time
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Title role is a favorite of sopranos
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Story takes place during the French Revolution
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Romantic muscial comedy or operetta from which comes "The Merry Widow Waltz"
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Based on the ballet "Lady Henrieete" by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges
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Featuring nine high C's, it's often called the "Mount Everest" for tenors
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An "opera buffa" or comic opera in three acts
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A melodramma giocoso, a genre of Italian comic opera
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One of the leading "bel canto" operas
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An "opera seria" in three acts about the mother of Nero
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Composed for Handel's first season at the Covent Garden Theatre in London
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The Italian libretto is anonymous and based on a work by Antonio Salvi
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Considered Handel's finest Italian opera
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Fashioned for presentation "in the manner of an oratorio"
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Considered Handel's most "Mozartian" opera
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Conceived as an American folk opera, it is considered racist by some
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Considered "immoral" and "superficial" it was considered a failure at its premier in 1875
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Features the famous tenor-baritone duet "Au fond du temple saint"
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Hard to cast, having seven leading roles
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"Gianni Schicchi", the most-popular 3rd act, is a comedic farce
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Toscanini's performance (1946) is the only recording of a Puccini opera led by its original conductor
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Bears some resemblance to Webber's "Phantom of the Opera"
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The most often-performed opera in North America
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Puccini's 3rd opera and his first great success
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Eighth most performed opera in North America
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Left unfinished at the composer's death and completed by Franco Alfano
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First opera composed for television, 1951
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1946
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Fifth most performed opera in North America
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Comic opera based on the fairy tale Cinderella
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Notable for its mixing of "opera seria" style in "opera buffa"
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Notable for its use of snare drums (in the overture)
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NOT written to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal
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First performance at the Paris Opera in March 1867
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An "operatic dramma lirico" in four acts
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Verdi's last opera (1893)
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17th most performed opera in North America
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Many old school Italian singers felt the opera was cursed and brought bad luck
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Third most-performed opera in North America behind Madame Butterfly and La Boheme
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Features a large female chorus of witches singing in 3-part harmony
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"Va, pensiero, sull'ali dorate" is its best-known number
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In Otello, Verdi tried to do away with the traditional recitative-aria structure of opera
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Based on a play by Hugo, it is the ninth most-performed opera in North America
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Based on the play by Antonio Gutierrez
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"A Masked Ball", set in Boston; composed, 1857-8 and first performed 17 Feb. 1859, Teatro Apollo, Rome
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Depicts Parisian working-class life circa 1900
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Updating of the story of Manon Lescaut (operas by Massenet and Puccini)
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Opera in five acts to his own libretto after Virgil's "Aeneid"
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Remembered as one of Purcell's foremost operatic works, no score in his hand exists
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Based loosely on 8 paintings of William Hogarth, first performed in 1951
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Source of the famous "Can-Can"
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Most famous piece is "Barcarolle" from the third act and featured in the movie "Life Is Beautiful"
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Premiered in San Francisco, 2000
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Despite being an operetta, it is among the top twenty most performed "operas" in North America
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First performed 1991
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Popular example of "opera comique" of the Parisian Belle Epoque
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Role of the heroine, Esclarmonde, is notoriously difficult to sing
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Based on the German novella "The Sorrows of Young Werther" by J Wolfgang von Goethe
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1969
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(1930) A political-satirical opera with a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht
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Most famous for its popular overture often performed alone as a concert piece
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At the composer's request, the final scene was performed at his funeral in 1928
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Janacek's last opera, it premiered two years after his death on April 12, 1930
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A grim story of infanticide and redemption
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Originally a play by Karel Capek; it was turned into an opera by Janacek in 1925
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Most famous excerpt is "The Flower Duet" used in The Simpsons, Nip/Tuck, and a popular British Airways commercial
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Beethoven's only opera, it is the central work of his so-called "middle period"
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Based on Homer's "Iliad" with Tippett's own libretto (1962)
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First performed, 1985; influenced by the verse drama of TS Eliot
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1836
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1842
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Mussorgsky's only completed opera, it is considered his masterpiece
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Setting is the Moscow Uprising of 1682; Rimsky-Korsakov finished the opera after Mussorgsky's death
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Almost exclusively sung in Russian
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It was the composer's own favorite work
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Ushered in the "Verismo" movement in Italian operatic music, its premier caused a great sensation in Europe
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Well-known example of lyric opera, based on the novel by Alexander Pushkin
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Main hero demands a singer with much skill and endurance. It's about gambling addiction
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Based on John Bunyan's allegory
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A reworking of the Greek myth of Ariadne and Bacchus
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Takes place in the 1740's, in the first years of the reign of Empress Maria Therese in Vienna
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Considered to be Strauss' finest operatic work, but it is rarely produced
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One-act opera premiered in 1909
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Famous for its "Dance of the Seven Veils", infamous at the time of its release
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Wagner took 26 years to write it (1848-1874)
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Requires around five hours to perform
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It was written to be performed without an intermission
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Famous for the Bridal Chorus known as "Here Comes the Bride"
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Wagner called it "A Festival Play for the Consecration of the Stage"
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The revised "Paris version" is the most frequently performed today
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Liszt made several piano transcriptions of the opera
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Famous tragedy of a jealous husband in a clown troupe
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The opera was never performed during the composer's lifetime
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The "March" is a popular orchestral selection
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Based on Tolstoy's novel
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Premiered by the Met, 2006
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Features "Come un bel di di Maggio"
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Story is set near Plymouth, during the wars between Cromwell and the House of Stuart
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"The Sleepwalker" is an "opera semiseria" based on a vaudeville by Eugene Scribe
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In the 20th century only a small number of sopranos were able to master the role of Amina
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Libretto by Gertrude Stein
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Libretto by Gertrude Stein
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The Emperor complained, "There are too many notes." Mozart replied, "There are just as many notes as there should be."
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Often translated, "Women are like that"
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Seventh most performed opera in North America
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Mozart's first mature "opera seria"
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Mozart's last opera
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Known for its prominent Masonic elements
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A sequel to "The Barber of Seville"
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Facts contributed by:
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