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This page lists important operas by date of first performance, together with brief notes on their importance.

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

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 scene of the summoning of the men of the three cantons is justly famous, as is the overture.

  • 1835 Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti) (Naples): Dismissed until the 1950s as a "singer's opera", this work not only contains the dazzling "Mad Scene", but a moving sextet as well.

  • 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).

  • 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.

  • 1847 Macbeth (Florence): In Giuseppe Verdi’s powerful version of Shakespeare's Macbeth the three witches are transformed into a female chorus with arguably the best music, but the principal roles for baritone and dramatic soprano are among the most intense and demanding in the Italian repertory.

1850 – 1899

  • 1851 Rigoletto (Giuseppe Verdi) (Venice): The censors almost prevented this emotional roller coaster of an opera from getting to the public, so the libretto had to be remodeled to accomodate them. But once it premiered, everyone started singing "Questa o quella", "Caro nome" and "La donna è mobile" among other best-loved arias.

  • 1853 Il trovatore (Giuseppe Verdi) (Rome): This opera contains the famous "Anvil Chorus", in which the Gypsies' song is accompanied by the clanging of their anvils.

  • 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.

  • 1871 Aida (Giuseppe Verdi) (Cairo): A Pharoh's daughter, an enslaved Nubian princess, a love triangle among the pyramids, parades of elephants, horses and camels, and a dramatic story, with music to match, all guarantee an exciting night at the opera.

  • 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.

  • 1874 Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss) (Vienna): This operetta among operettas has it all: risque situations, practical jokes, mistaken identities, everybody getting thrown in jail, and the ultimate Viennese ball, where everyone and anyone can join in on the musical festivities.

  • 1875 Carmen (Georges Bizet) (Paris): This Spanish story of a Gypsy seductress and her doomed lover is full of amazing melodies, making it one of the most popular operas of all time. It is also very dramatic and psychologically believable, and is not without touches of humour.

  • 1876 Der Ring des Nibelungen (complete tetralogy: Bayreuth): German language series of operas with plots taken from ancient Norse and Germanic myths. A completely new model of opera that has overshadowed the art form ever since. Richard Wagner's model of continous music bound together by recurring leitmotifs has influenced countless opera composers during his life and after his death since.

  • 1878 HMS Pinafore (London): This was Gilbert and Sullivan's first great success, and contains the freshest and best of their affectionate parodies of nineteenth-century Italian opera.

  • 1881 Les contes d'Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach) (Paris): Offenbach wrote almost 100 operettas, but in the end he was going to write a grand opera, or die trying! In this posthumously produced gem, Hoffmann tells three colourful stories about how the devil spoiled his chances for true love. We won't reveal what happens in the Epilogue.

  • 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 lead the audience to the inevitable, heartrending conclusion.

  • 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".

1900 – 1944

  • 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 has a better score than many realize. Tightly integrated musically, it has fewer extractable highlights than the earlier operas, but is one of Puccini’s best works in the theatre.

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 proclaimed Benjamin Britten as the long-awaited British-born operatic successor to Henry Purcell. 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.

  • 1997 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.

See also

  • The Opera Corpus – A list of more than 1,250 operas by more than 360 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.

External links

Operas | Opera-related lists

Opera | Liste der Opern | Lista de óperas famosas | Liste des principaux compositeurs d'opéra | Popis poznatih opera | Lijst van opera's | オペラ作品一覧 | 歌剧剧目

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "List of important operas".

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