Opera

Ernani is an opera dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. First production: La Fenice Theatre, Venice, March 9, 1844. Ernani is a rarely-heard work. Most recently it was...

La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It takes as its basis the novel La dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, published in 1848. It was first performed at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, on...

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851. It is considered by many to be the first...

Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde or Tristin and Isolda) is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered on 10 June, 1865...

Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a Sicilian short story written by Giovanni Verga. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it...

Pagliacci (Players, or Clowns) is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe. (Its name is sometimes incorrectly rendered as I Pagliacci with a...

Die Entführung aus dem Serail (K. 384; in English The Abduction from the Seraglio; also known as Il Seraglio) is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie....

Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen (WWV 49) (Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes) is an early opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name. (The title is commonly shortened to Rienzi.) Written...

Lohengrin is a romantic opera (or music drama) in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner. The first production was in Weimar, Germany on 28 August 1850 under the direction of Franz Liszt, a close friend and early supporter of Wagner. The story of the...

Parsifal is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the medieval (13th century) epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his quest for the Holy Grail. During the first Act,...

Tannhäuser (full title Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf der Wartburg / Tannhäuser and the Singers' Contest at Wartburg) is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two Germanic legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg. The...

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg) is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is one of the most popular operas in the repertory, and one of the longest still commonly performed today, usually taking around five...

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) is a cycle of four epic music drama by the German composer Richard Wagner. The opera are based loosely on characters from the Norse saga and the Nibelungenlied. The works are often referred to as "The Ring Cycle", ...

The Magic Flute (German Die Zauberflöte, K. 620) is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The...

Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887. Most music critics consider Otello to be Verdi's greatest and...

Otello is an opera in three acts by Gioacchino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Berio di Salsi, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. First performance: Teatro del Fondo, Naples, 4 December, 1816. The opera deviates quite heavily from Shakespeare's...

Guillaume Tell (William Tell) is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. It was first performed at the Paris Opéra on August 3, 1829. Based on the legend of...

The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution (Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L'inutile precauzione) is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto (based on Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville) by Cesare Sterbini. The première (under...

Paradise Lost is an opera in two acts , with music by Krzysztof Penderecki and an English libretto by Christopher Fry. The opera is based on the epic poem of the same name by Milton. Penderecki himself characterized the work as a Sacra Rappresentazione (sacred...

Dido and Æneas is an opera by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell, from a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at a girls' school in the spring of 1689 and hence is given catalogue number Z. 626. It comprises three acts and lasts about an hour...

Madama Butterfly (Madame Butterfly) is an opera in three acts (originally two acts) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. The opera was based in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Luther Long—which was...

Les Troyens (in English: The Trojans) is a French opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself, based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid. Written between 1856 and 1858, Les Troyens was Berlioz's largest and most ambitious work, the...

The Little Prince, subtitled A Magical Opera, is an opera in two acts by Rachel Portman to an English libretto by Nicholas Wright, based on the 1943 book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. First performance: Houston, 2003. The Little Prince was...

Four Saints in Three Acts is an opera by American composer Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Written in 1927-8, it contains about twenty saints, and is in at least four acts. The subject was agreed on at Thomson's suggestion and the libretto as...

The Mother of Us All (1947) is an opera by Virgil Thomson to a libretto by Gertrude Stein. It chronicles the life of Susan B. Anthony, one of the major figures in the fight for women's suffrage in the United States. In fanciful style, it brings together characters,...

Siegfried is the third of the four opera that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring. Mime,...

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second of the four opera that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at Munich's National Theatre on 26 June 1870. It is the source of the famous piece Ride of the...

For the famous train, see Rheingold Express. For the beer, see Rheingold Beer. For the Grave Digger album, see Rheingold. For the research institute, see Rheingold institute. Das Rheingold ("The Rhine Gold") is the first of the four operas that comprise Der Ring des...

("Twilight of the Gods" – see Notes) is the last of the four operas that comprise Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 17 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance...

The Roman Unrest, or The Noble-Minded Octavia (German: Die römische unruhe, oder Die edelmütige Octavia), commonly called Octavia. Three part tragic opera by Reinhard Keiser, libretto by Barthold. Response to Handel's now-lost Nero, using the same period, material...