Opera
- John Coolidge Adams
- Ludwig von Beethoven
- Vincenzo Bellino
- Leonard Bernstein
- Georges Bizet
- Alexander Borodin
- Benjamin Britten
- Gaetano Donizetti
- George Gershwin
- Arthur Sullivan
- Phillip Glass
- Ruggero Leoncavallo
- Gyorgy Ligeti
- Jules Massenet
- Claudio Monteverdi
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Modest Mussorgsky
- Jacques Offenbach
- Giacomo Puccini
- Henry Purcell
- Jean-Philippe Rameau
- Gioacchino Rossini
- Bedrich Smetana
- Johann Strauss II
- Richard Strauss
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
- Giuseppe Verdi
- Richard Wagner
This is the homepage for the Opera category, a subcategory of Performative Fine Arts Arts.
John Coolidge Adams
Nixon in China
- Plane called the Spirit of ’76
Doctor Atomic
On the Transmigration of Souls
The Death of Klinghoffer
Ludwig von Beethoven
Fidelio
- Beethoven’s only opera, about a woman (Leonore) who disguises herself as a prison guard
Vincenzo Bellino
Adelson e Salvini
I puritani
- “The Puritans”
Norma
Leonard Bernstein
Candide
- Operetta not to be confused with Voltaire’s book
Georges Bizet
Carmen
- Toreador Song
- See Qwiz5’s article for more information
Les pecheurs de perles
- “The Pearl Fishers”
Alexander Borodin
Prince Igor
Benjamin Britten
Albert Herring
Peter Grimes
The Turn of the Screw
[See Qwiz5’s article for more information]
Gaetano Donizetti
Lucia di Lammermoor
- “Lucy of Lammermoor”
L’elisir d’amore
- “The Elixir of Love”
La fille du regiment
- “The Daughter of the Regiment”
George Gershwin
Porgy and Bess
Arthur Sullivan
- often with W. S. Gilbert, “Gilbert & Sullivan”
The Mikado
The Pirates of Penzance
- “I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General,” “all things vegetable, animal, and mineral”
H. M. S. Pinafore
Phillip Glass
- minimalism
Einstein on the Beach
- first of the Portrait Trilogy
- 5 “knee plays”
Satyagraha
- second of the Portrait Trilogy
- sung in Sanskrit
Akhenaten
- third of the Portrait Trilogy
The Lost
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Pagliacci
Gyorgy Ligeti
Le Grand Macabre
Jules Massenet
Thais
Manon
Claudio Monteverdi
- one of the earliest opera developers
L’Orfeo
- Opera in which Eurydice fails to return from the underworld
L’Arianna
- Opera in which Ariadne repeats “let me die”
The Coronation of Poppea
- Opera in which Drusilla confesses to protect her lover Ottone, who attempted to kill the future wife of Nero
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro
- “The Marriage of Figaro”
- the wedding day of the servant from Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, follows chronologically
- Cherubino hides in a closet before breaking Antonio’s flowerpots. Susanna is about to marry the title character
- See Qwiz5’s article for more information
Don Giovannni
- opera whose catalog aria shows Leporello describing the title character’s lovers to Donna Elvira. Zerlina ties a character to a chair before leaving to find Masetto, and Don Giovannni is dragged to hell by the Commendatore
Die Zauberflote
- “The Magic Flute”
- opera with a quest to rescue the daughter of the Queen of Night, Pamina, Tamino passes the necessary trials, includes the aria “Der Holle Rache”
- See Qwiz5’s article for more information
Cosi fan tutte
- “Thus do they all”/“All do likewise”/“All women do the same”
Modest Mussorgsky
Boris Godunov
- operatic version of Pushkin’s play of the same name
See Qwiz5’s article for more information
Jacques Offenbach
Les contes d’Hoffman
- “The Tales of Hoffman”
Orphee aux enfers
- “Orpheus in the Underworld”
Giacomo Puccini
Le Boheme
- “Bohemian Life”
Madama Butterfly
- opera in which Cio-Cio San commits suicide when Pinkerton arrives in Japan
Turandot
- Unfinished opera in which Calaf attempts to solve riddles to marry the title Chinese princess, which includes Ping, Pong, and Pang as ministers
- See Qwiz5’s article for more information
Tosca
- Opera in which the title character kills Baron Scarpia and jumps to her death after discovering that her lover Mario was actually executed
Henry Purcell
Dido and Aeneas
- Queen of Carthage kills herself and the trojan hero abandons her, the aria “When I am Laid to Earth” is known as Dido’s lament
The Fairy-Queen
King Arthur
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Castor et Pollux
Les indes galantes
- “The Gallant Indies”
Gioacchino Rossini
Il barbiere di Siviglia
- “The Barber of Seville”
- Opera in which Count Almaviva disguises as Lindoro and is sung “Largo al factotum,” marriage of Rosina
Guilliaume Tell
- “William Tell”
Bedrich Smetana
Prodana Nevesta
- “The Bartered Bride”
Johann Strauss II
Die Fledermaus
- “The Bat”
Richard Strauss
Salome
Die Schweigsame Frau
- “The Silent Women”
Der Rosenkavalier
- “The Knight of the Rose
- Octavian
Ariadne auf Naxos
- “Ariadne on Naxos”
- opera seria and commedia dell’arte must be performed simultaneously
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin
- operatic version of Pushkin’s novel of the same name
Giuseppe Verdi
Aida
- about Egyptian commander Radames’s love for the title Ethiopian princess
- See Qwiz5’s article for more information
Rigoletto
- The title hunchbacked jester realizes his daughter Gilda is dead instead of the Duke of Mantua, who he hears singing “La donna e mobile”
Falstaff
- inspired by the Shakespearean character which appears in Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and The Merry Wives of Windsor
Nabucco
- “Nebuchadnezzar”
- about the Jews time exiled in Babylon
Otello
- “Othello”
- inspired by the Shakespeare character in the play of the same name
La Traviata
- “The Fallen Woman”
- Alfredo woos the courtesan Violetta
Il Trovatore
- “The Troubadour”
- contains the “Anvil Chorus”
Richard Wagner
Parsifal
Lohengrin
Der Ring des Nibelungen
- Das Rheingold
- Die Walkure
- Siegfried
- Gotterdammerung
Tristun und Isolde
- Ends with the “Liebestod”