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List of prominent operas: Difference between revisions

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====1600 – 1699==== ====1600 – 1699====

{| class="prettytable"
⚫ *1600 '']'' (]) (Florence); the first opera that survives to the present day.
! Year

! Title
⚫ *1607 '']'' (]) (Mantua); first operatic masterwork<ref>Howard Goodall, ''Big Bangs''</ref>.
! Composer

! Note
*1625 '']'' (]) (Florence); first opera by a woman.
! Place

|-
⚫ *1627 ''Dafne'' (]) (Torgau); first German opera. Music now lost.
| ]

| ]
⚫ *1632 '']'' (]) (Rome); first opera on a historical rather than mythological subject, that breaks new dramatic and musical ground in a number of ways.
| ]

⚫ | the first opera that survives to the present day.
⚫ *1640 '']'' (]) (Venice); Monteverdi's second surviving opera, based on the '']''.
| ]

|-
*1642 '']'' (]) (Venice); often regarded as Monteverdi's masterpiece.
| ]

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*1683 '']'' (]) (London or Windsor); arguably the first English-language opera.
| ]

⚫ | first operatic masterwork<ref>Howard Goodall, Big Bangs</ref>.
⚫ *1686 '']'' (Paris); ]'s masterpiece in the form of a ], a genre he invented.
| ]

|-
⚫ *1689 '']'' (]) (London); the earliest English-language opera still in regular performance. Considered a masterwork.
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| ]
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| first opera by a woman.
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|-
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| Dafne
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⚫ | first German opera. Music now lost.
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|-
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| ]
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⚫ | first opera on a historical rather than mythological subject, that breaks new dramatic and musical ground in a number of ways.
| ]
|-
| ]
| ]
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⚫ | Monteverdi's second surviving opera, based on the '']''.
| ]
|-
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| often regarded as Monteverdi's masterpiece.
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|-
| ]
| ]
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| arguably the first English-language opera.
| ] or ]
|-
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⚫ | ]'s masterpiece in the form of a ], a genre he invented.
| ]
|-
| ]
| ]
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⚫ | the earliest English-language opera still in regular performance. Considered a masterwork.
| ]
|}


====1700 – 1799==== ====1700 – 1799====

Revision as of 09:04, 16 December 2006

This page lists important operas by date of first performance, together with brief notes on their importance. (Important in this context is used of works that are significant for historical or artistic reasons, or because of the position that they occupy in the repertory.)

1600 – 1699

  • 1632 Sant'Alessio (Stefano Landi) (Rome); first opera on a historical rather than mythological subject, that breaks new dramatic and musical ground in a number of ways.

1700 – 1799

  • 1711 Rinaldo (Paris); George Frideric Handel's first opera for the London stage, set during the Crusades, containing the aria Lascia ch'io pianga.
  • 1738 Serse (London); one of Handel's last operatic masterpieces before he abandoned the genre for oratorio, containing perhaps his most famous aria, Ombra mai fu. Francesco Cavalli had written a major opera to the same libretto in 1654.
  • 1767 Alceste (Vienna); Gluck's follow-up, today better known in the version he revised for Paris in 1776. The preface set out his project for reforming opera.
  • 1791 The Magic Flute (Vienna): a German Singspiel by Mozart. Premiered less than three months before his death, the Freemasonry-influenced fairy tale for adults has become one of the composer's most enduring and best loved works. It was also a seminal work in the development of German opera.

1800 – 1849

  • 1805 Fidelio (Ludwig van Beethoven) (Vienna): The story of Beethoven's only opera reflected the composer's passionate feelings about the struggle for political liberty that was sweeping Europe.
  • 1829 Guillaume Tell (Paris): Gioacchino Rossini's final opera, and the first of the Grand Operas to remain in the repertory, although its length, together with the difficulty of the tenor role (Arnold), mean that revivals are infrequent. The overture and the summoning of the men of the three cantons are its most famous passages.
  • 1842 Nabucco (Milan): Giuseppe Verdi's third opera, and the one which established his reputation, featuring the (now) famous Hebrews' Chorus, Va' pensiero, sull'ali dorate (Fly, thought, on golden wings).
  • 1842 Ruslan and Lyudmila (Mikhail Glinka) (Saint Petersburg); Glinka founded the Russian operatic tradition with this work based on a Pushkin fairy tale, and his patriotic A Life for the Tsar.
  • 1843 The Flying Dutchman (Richard Wagner) (Dresden): With the premiere of this work, Wagner started to move away from more conventional models of opera towards his own musico-dramatic form of symphonic commentary interlinked by leitmotifs.
  • 1843 Don Pasquale (Gaetano Donizetti) (Paris): One of the prolific composer's last operas, this engaging comedy contains some lovely, lilting melodies.

1850 – 1899

  • 1850 Lohengrin (Richard Wagner) (Weimar) One of Wagner's most popular operas, Lohengrin also marks the beginning his move toward through-composed operas.
  • 1851 Rigoletto (Giuseppe Verdi) (Venice): The censors almost succeeded in preventing its premiere, and the libretto had to be remodeled to accommodate them. It contains a few of Verdi's most famous pieces, such as "La donna è mobile" and the quartet.
  • 1853 Il trovatore (Giuseppe Verdi) (Rome); containing the famous "Anvil Chorus", in which the Gypsies' song is accompanied by the clanging of their anvils, Arturo Toscanini is attributed as saying that all the opera needs is "the four best singers in the world".
  • 1868 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Munich): Richard Wagner’s monumental comedy of the burgher mastersingers of 16th century Nuremberg was used by the Nazis to glorify German nationalism, but today the universal humanity of the work is emphasized in productions that have reinforced its continuing great popularity.
  • 1874 Boris Godunov (Modest Mussorgsky) (Saint Petersburg): The opera draws on Russian folk music, rejecting the influence of German and Italian opera. It begins with a brutal murder, continues with a clever lie and a great invasion, and ends in guilt-stricken madness and death.
  • 1875 Carmen (Georges Bizet) (Paris): This Spanish story of a gypsy seductress and her doomed lover is one of the most popular operas of all time. Its enduring popularity is due to it being dramatic and psychologically believable, and not without touches of humour.
  • 1876 Der Ring des Nibelungen (complete tetralogy: Bayreuth): A monumental tetraology, based on ancient Norse and Germanic myths, in which Wagner created a new model of opera based on leitmotifs. Also famous for being extremely long.
  • 1878 HMS Pinafore (London): This was Gilbert and Sullivan's first great success, and contains examples of their affectionate parodies of nineteenth-century Italian opera.
  • 1881 Les contes d'Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach) (Paris): Offenbach wrote almost 100 operettas, but this last work was his only grand opera. Posthumously produced, it tells three colourful stories about how the devil spoiled his chances for true love.
  • 1882 Parsifal (Richard Wagner) (Bayreuth) Wagner's final stage work was intended not as opera but as a "festival play for the consecration of the stage". He and his descendants prohibited its staging outside Bayreuth until 1903.
  • 1887 Otello (Giuseppe Verdi) (Milan): Shakespeare's tragic Moor is given a dramatic musical setting to match the famous story of jealousy and treachery. Iago's "Credo" and many other chilling and touching moments add to the impact of the opera.
  • 1890 Prince Igor (Saint Petersburg): Alexander Borodin’s tuneful epic of Russian history contrasts with the darker mood of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, both of which were left unfinished for Rimsky-Korsakov to orchestrate. Better known for its parts than the whole, Prince Igor remains an essential part of the Russian repertory.
  • 1892 Pagliacci (Ruggiero Leoncavallo) (Milan): This beloved story of the tragic clown involves a play within a play. But fiction turns to reality as the jealous husband kills his wife and her lover onstage and declares "The comedy is over".
  • 1893 Manon Lescaut (Giacomo Puccini) (Turin): This opera brought Puccini to the international stage and prominence in the opera community, especially since it preceded his previous opera, Edgar, which was considered a fiasco at the time.
  • 1893 Falstaff (Giuseppe Verdi) (Milan): Verdi's last opera, and his only frequently performed comedy.
  • 1896 La bohème (Giacomo Puccini) (Turin): Perhaps the opera with most popular appeal, La bohème masterfully mixes comedy with tragedy and romance, containing a few of Puccini's most popular melodies.

1900 – 1944

  • 1900 Tosca (Giacomo Puccini) (Rome): one of the composer's most beloved operas, based on a Sardou play, "this shabby little shocker" is now more famous than the original. It's the tragic tale of a trio of protagonists: Tosca the opera diva; Cavaradossi, her lover, a painter caught up in political intrigue; and the wicked police chief, Baron Scarpia, who desires Tosca and is determined to have her.
  • 1904 Madame Butterfly (Giacomo Puccini) (Milan): one of the composer's most popular operas, along with La Boheme and Tosca. It's the tragedy of a Japanese geisha (Cio-Cio-San) who marries an American navy lieutenant, Pinkerton. Pinkerton is called back to America, and despite Cio-Cio-San's faith, he returns to Japan with an American wife.
  • 1905 Salome (Richard Strauss) (Dresden): This operatic version of Oscar Wilde's infamous play mixes the outrageous and the sensual, culminating in a grotesquely beautiful and shocking ending.
  • 1910 La fanciulla del West (New York): Giacomo Puccini’s cowboy opera version of David Belasco’s The Girl of the Golden West. Tightly integrated musically, it has fewer extractable highlights than the earlier operas, but is one of Puccini’s best works in the theatre.
  • 1935 Porgy and Bess (George Gershwin) (New York); The music is strongly influenced by jazz styles. The opera's treatment of race relations is controversial, but it is still performed regularly.

From 1945

  • 1945 War and Peace (Moscow); Prokofiev's synthesis of the lyrical scenes of Eugene Onegin and the historical tableaux of Boris Godunov into a massive opera which sets love and personal tragedy against the background of the Russian people's defiance in the face of the invader.
  • 1945 Peter Grimes (London): the opera which raised Benjamin Britten to fame. An outsider is ground down by small-town narrow-mindedness and his own recklessness; especially notable for the important part played by the chorus.
  • 1951 Amahl and the Night Visitors (Gian Carlo Menotti) (New York); first opera composed for television. The one-act opera contains both drama and humour, and the music is tuneful. These qualities make it a good first opera for children. It is frequently presented by small opera companies with a modest budget.
  • 1987 Nixon in China (Houston): in the words of composer John Adams, "part epic, part satire, part a parody of political posturing, and part serious examination of historical, philosophical, and even gender issues", also an interplay of "six extraordinary personalities".

Useful lists are either complete lists or selective lists. This page is a selective list.

Principal reference

Other sources

  • The Viking Opera Guide (1994), 1,328 pages, ISBN 0-670812927
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992), 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5
  • Opera, the Rough Guide, by Matthew Boyden et al. (1997), 672 pages, ISBN 1-85828-138-5
  1. Howard Goodall, Big Bangs

See also

  • The Opera Corpus – A list of more than 1,250 operas by more than 400 individual opera composers, arranged by composer, giving a general idea of the present depth and consistency of coverage of opera on Misplaced Pages.
  • List of operas – A list of operas with entries in Misplaced Pages sorted alphabetically by title.

External links


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