Introduction
These pages give a history of the world as represented in opera by listing chronologically dates on which the plots of operas are set. In constructing this chronology certain rules have been followed as set out below.
1. Where the date is specified precisely, no distinction is made between fact and fiction. If the opera covers several years either the limits are given or the date of the last act is given
2. If the date is only approximate the year is followed by a ‘c’.
3. If only the century is known, the date is given as ‘Nth c’.
4. If the opera is based on eg a literary source it is listed as the historical date on which that source is based. Thus La Traviata is given the date of the death of the courtesan Marie Duplessis, who inspired the novel La Dame aux Camélias. on which Violetta is based. Similarly Rigoletto on Triboulet the Court Jester who inspired Le Roi s’amuse which inspired Verdi or the suicide of the German soldier which inspired Büchner to write Woyzeck, the source of Berg’s Wozzeck.
5. Other operas are dated by reference to historical events referred to: Tosca to the battle of Marengo Lulu to Jack the Ripper, Lohengrin, ending of truce between Brabant and Hungary.
In some ways the entries can be regarded as newspaper reports of real historical events, of scandal in high places or of human interest stories, either reported directly or indirectly from a 'news agency' report in the form of a literary source. As with newspaper reports, they may be of dubious accuracy being spiced up or distorted to fit 'editorial' policy. In most entries the plot is added in the form of a newspaper headkline.
Sources
The main source of the data is Phaidon Book of the Opera (Phaidon Press Limited, Oxford 1979) which lists 780 operas, supplemented by Bloomsbury Dictionary of Opera and Operetta (James Anderson, Bloomsbury Publishing Limited, London 1989), other dictionaries and my own records. Historical dates and literary sources are very well covered in Wikipedia; where possible dates are confirmed from other sources.
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Chronology
1. BC 13th c Moses and Aaron (Schoenberg)
2. BC 13th c Mosè in Egitto (Rossini)
3. BC 1115 Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns)
4. BC760 Dido and Aeneas (Purcell), The Trojans at Carthage (Berlioz)
5. BC 562 Nabucco (Verdi) Jerusalem and Babylon
6. BC 522 L’Incoronazione di Dario (Vivaldi) Darius reigned over Persia until BC 486
7. BC 509 Rape of Lucretia (Britten) Only faithful wife arouses Tarqinius.
8. BC 486 Serse (Handel) Xerxes succeeded Darius
9. BC 465 Artaxerxes (Arne) Succeeded Xerxes d 424
10. )BC 333 Il Re Pastore (Mozart) Alexander discovers heir to Sidon is a shepherd
11. BC 326 Alessandro (Handel) Alexander the Great in India
12. BC326 Poro (Handel) Rè dell’Indie under Alexander
13. BC 210 Scipione (Handel) New Carthage. Events following Roman Scipione’s conquest of Carthage.
14. BC 2nd c Semiramide (Rossini et al) After Voltaire.Babylon, Queen kills husband with the aid of her lover but she fancies another who turns out to be her son. It all ends badly.
15. BC 137 Lucio Silla (Mozart) Roman dictator 178-138
16. BC 132 Mitridate Re di Ponte (Mozart) After Racine, Nymphaeum
17. BC108 Tolomeo (Handel) Ptolemy IX deposed by mother in favour of brother Ptolemy X.
18. BC 64 The Cataline Conspiracy (Iain Hamilton) Rome, Cataline conspires against Cicero
19. BC47 Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Handel) Caesar and Cleopatra combine to defeat Ptolemy
20. BC36c Antony and Cleopatra (Barber)
21. AD 28-29 Salome (R Strauss) After Oscar Wilde
22. 49 Agrippina (Handel) Wife of Claudius, scheming for her son Nero
23. 53 Radamisto (Handel) Son of King of Thrace. After Tacitus
24. 60c Nerone (Boito, Mascagni) Christians betrayed and condemned to die in circus.
25. 62 L’Incoonzione di Poppea (Monteverdi) Poppea schemes to replace Ottavia as wife of Nero
26. 79 L’Ultimo Giorno di Pompeii (Petrella)
27. 79-81 La Clemenza di Tito (Mozart) Roman Emperor forgives all who plot against him.
28. 1st c Norma (Bellini) Gaul. Druid priestess has two children with Roman soldier who leves her for a younger priestess. Does not end well.
29. 150 Il Mithridate Eupatore (A Scarlatti) Sinope. Family feud following murder of his father by his mother and banishment to Egypt.Finally murder avenged.
30. 222 Alessandro Severo (Handel) Roman Emperor Alexander Severus
31. 257 Poliuto (Donizetti) After Corneille..Armenia. Secret convert to Christianity condemned to death. His wife shares martyrdom.
32. 275 Auriliano in Palmira (Rossini) Roman Emperor Aurelianus
33. 304 Theodora (Handel) Antioch. Christian martyr condemned to prostitution
34. 4th c Thais (Massenet) after Anatole France, Alexandria. Monk falls for courtesan he has converted to Christianity
35. 452 Attila (Verdi) Invasion of Italy by the Hun
36. 5th c Ezio (Handel) Flavius Aetius returned from victory over Attila
37. 565 Belisario (Donizetti) Justinian I’s time
38. 7th c La Flamma (Respighi) Ravenna, witchcraft
39. 7th c Rodelinda (Handel) based on history of King of Lombards
40. 712 Rodrigo (Handel) last Visigoth king of Hispania
41. 900c Parsifal (Wagner) eventually father of Lohengrin
42. 933 Lohengrin (Wagner) ending of truce between Brabant and Hungary
43. 970 Ottone (Handel) based on Otto I and Otto II of Germany
44. 980-1015 Ruslan and Ludmila (Glinka) Vladimir the Great ruled Rus, capital Kiev
45. 10th c L’Amore dei tre Re (Montemezzi) Italy, Princess Flora forced to marry Manfredo son of blind king Archibaldo
46. 10th c The King’s Henchman (Taylor) Britain, King Eadgar sends Aethelwold to woo Aelfrida for him
47. 10th c Ugo Conte di Parigi (Donizetti) unsuccessful plot against Louis V
48. 2nd c Tancredi (Rossini) after Voltaire and Tasso Gerusalemme Liberata
49. 1057 Macbeth (Verdi)
50. 1096-7 I Lombardi (Verdi) Milan and Holy Land, First Crusade
51. 1099 Rinaldo (Handel), Armide (Gluck) First Crusade
52. 11th c Le Roi de Lahore (Massenet) India, after Mahabhrata
53. 1110 Euryanthe (Weber) Wager to seduce E, rescued by Louis VI
54. 1170 L’Assassinio nella Cattedrale (Pizzetti) Thomas a Becket
55. 1176 La Battaglia di Legnano (Verdi) Defeat of Barbarossa by Lombard League
56. 1185 Prince Igor (Borodin) Igor captured in losing to Tartars. Refusing freedom for undertaking not to take action again, he escapes and rallies his forces.
57. 1189-92 Aroldo (Verdi).Saxon Warrior returning from Crusades
58. 1190 The Talisman (Pacini, Loewe, Adam. Balfe) Walter Scott, Crusades
59. 1190 Le Juif Errant (Halévy) Amsterdam, Constantinople. Story of Wan dering Jew.
60. 1191 Riccardo Primo (Handel) Cyprus, R meets and marries ‘Constanza’ aka Berengaria of Navarre
61. 1192 Richard Coeur de Lion (Grétry) rescued by minstrel Blondel
62. 1194 Ivsnhoe (Pacini, Nocolai, Sullivan) Walter Scott, return with Richard 1 from Third Crusade
63. 12th c Brandenburgers in Bohemia (Smetena) To aid against the Habsburgs
64. 12th c Le Cid (Massenet) Seville after Corneille
65. 12th c Le Comte Ory (Rossini) Touraine during the Crusades
66. 12th c Feuersnot (R Strauss) Munich lights go out
67. 12th c Fra Gherardo (Pizzetti) Parma. Episode from Chronica of Fra Salimbene (b1221)
68. 12th c King Roger (Szymanovski) Sicily. Converted from Christianity to Dionysian cult by prophet from India
69. 1228 Oberto (Verdi) Bassano Killed in a duel with his daughter’s seducer
70. 1228c Crociato in Egitto (Meyerbeer) Sixth Crusade
71. 1282 Les Vêpres Siciliennes (Verdi) Sicilians murder unarmed French wedding guests
72. 1285 Francesca da Rimini (Zandonai) Ravenna and Rimini. After Dante
73. 1299 Gianni Schichi (Puccini) Dante
74. 13th c Bánk Bán (Erkel) Hungarian Wars
75. 13th c I Capulettti e I Montecci (Bellini) After novel by Bandello based on Shakespeare
76. 13th c Guillaune Tell (Rossini) Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell
77. 13th c Guntram (R Strauss) Germany. Kills Duke Robert in duel but has bad conscience
78. 13th c Il Pirata (Bellini) Sicily, after Charles Maturin
79. 13th c Robert le Diable (Meyerbeer) Sicily, Duke Robert of Normandy, son of the Devil, is redeemed by love.
80. 13th c Tannhauser (Wagner) Eisenach. Revealing misspent youth in choice of song in contest for Elizabeth and returning unforgiven from Rome pilgrimage, dies redeemed in her arms.
81. 13th c The Wandering Scholar (Holst) France.
82. 1302 Edgar (Puccini) Flanders after de Musset
83. 1303 Padmâvatî (Roussel) India
84. 1340 La Favorita (Donizetti) Castille. King Alfonso’s mistress falls for novice.
85. 1350 Rienzi (Wagner) Rome. Complications following failed abduction by patrician, of sister of Papal Notary, Rienzi
86. 1399- 1413? Falstaff (Verdi) Windsor
87. 14th c Il Giuramento (Mercadante) Syracuse. After Hugo’s Angelo, Tyran de Padove
88. 14th c La Jolie Fille de Perth (Bizet) After Walter Scott
89. 14th c Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame (Massenet) Cluny. After Anatole France L’Étui de Nacre
90. 14th c Simon Boccanegra (Verdi) Reluctant Doge of Genoa with daughter lost for twenty years.
91. 14th c La Straniera (Bellini) Brittany. Supposed witch Alaide, unlawfully wedded wife of French King. After Victor-Prévost
92. 1402 Tamerlano (Handel) Bithinia.Turkish Emperor Bajazet, captured by Tartar Tamburlaine is driven to suicide
93. 1418 Beatrice di Tenda (Bellini) Milan. Rejected wife of Duke Visconti to whom he owes title.
94. 1429 Giovanna d’Arco (Verdi) After Schiller’s version, Die Jungfrau von Orleans
95. 1450 – 1500 Christophe Colomb (Milhaud)
96. 1457 I due Foscari (Verdi) Venice. Doge Foscari fails to end exile of his son.
97. 1492 Les Abencérages (Cherubini) Final defeat of Moorish Abenceragi
98. 15th c L’Africaine (Meyerbeer) Vasco da Gama returns to Lisbon
99. 15th c Dalibor (Smetena) Prague. Tragic vendetta between knight Dalibor and King Vladislav
100. 15th c Gemma di Vergy (Donizetti) Paris. After Dumas’ Charles VII Chez ses Grands Vassaux
101. 15th c The Indian Queen (Purcell) Before Spanish Conquest, conflict between Peru and Mexico
102. 15th c Iolante (Tchaikowsky) Daughter of King René of Provence is unaware she is blind
103. 15th c La Juive (Halèvy) Constance. Rachel discovers her lover is married Prince Léopold
104. 15th c Die Lustige Weiber von Windsor (Nicolai)
105. 15th c Otello ( Verdi)
106. 15th c Il Trovatore (Verdi) Spain. Separated brothers Manrico, leader of rebel army against the King’s led by Conte di Luna both love Leonora with tragic consequences.
107. 1500c Loreley (Bruch, Catalani) Rhineland. Origin of Lorelei legend
108. 1509-36 Le Prophète (Meyerbeer) Dordrecht and Münster. Anabaptist uprising ends in disaster.
109. 1512 Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti) In revenge for bad treatment in Venice, Lucrezia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, poisons dinner guests inadvertently including her own son
110. 1519 Ernani (Verdi) Spain. After Hugo Hernani. Elvira loves Ernani but is betrothed to Siva and wooed by King Carlo. Carlo, succeeding Charlemagne as Emperor, blesses the union with Ernani who must kill himself because of an oath sworn to Silva.
111. 1519 Montezume (Graun, Sessions) Spanish landings in Mexico and fate of Montezuma at hands of own followers
112. 1520c La Donna del Lago (Rossini) Walter Scott. Elena is loved by disguised James V but he allows her to marry Malcom
113. 1524 Mathis der Mahler (Hindemith) Mainz. Painter Mattias Grünwald 1480-1528
114. 1532 Benvenuto Cellini (Berlioz) Cellini must complete statue of Perseus to escape prosecution over death of Pompeo while eloping with Teresa
115. 1536 Anna Bolena (Donizetti) Windsor. Replaced by Jane Seymour in Henry VIII’s affections and beheaded
116. 1536 Rigoletto (Verdi) Death of French Court Jester Triboulet inspiration for Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse.
117. 1549 Angelo (Cui) Padua. Tisbe ‘actress’,wronglly believed to be mistress of Venetian Governor, comes to a sticky end. After Victor Hugo.
118. 1553 Maria Regina d’Inghilterra (Pacini) After Hugo. Infatuated with unfaithful Lord Talbot
119. 1563 Palestrina (Pfitzner) Council of Trent plans to ban polyphonic music
120. 1567 Maria Stuarda (Donizetti) After Schiller. London and Fotheringay Cat fight between Queens ending in beheading of Maria.
121. 1568 Don Carlos (Verdi) Schiller. Events in Spain following end of war with France. Power of Inquisition
122. 1570 The Maid of Pskov (Rimsky-Korsakov) Revealed as daughter of Ivan the Terrible, being used to prevent destruction of Pskov
123. 1572 Les Huguenots (Meyerbeer) St Bartholemew’s Day massacre
124. 1574 Le Roi Malgré lui (Chabrier) Henri de Valois, King of France reluctant to become King of Poland also.
125. 1575 Elizabetta al Castello di Kenilworth (Donizetti) Walter Scott. Complications following Earl of Leicester’s marriage to Amelia Robsart.
126. 1575 Elizabetha Regina d’Inghilterra (Rossini) A different version of above
127. 1597-1601 Gloriana (Britten) After Lytton Strachey Elizabeth and Essex
128. 1598 Roberto Devereux (Donizetti) Elizabeth I loves Earl of Essex who loves Duchess of Nottingham, with tragic outcome. . After François Ancelot, Amelia Robsart
129. 1598- 1605 Boris Godunov (Moussorgsky) After Pushkin and Karamanzin.
130. 16th c Alzira (Verdi) After Voltaire. Peru. Alzira agrees to marry Christian to save life of Inca chief Zamoro whom she loves.
131. 16th c Béatrice et Bénédict (Berlioz) After Much Ado About Nothing.
132. 16th c Bomarzo (Ginastera) Duke of Bomarzo relives scandalous life while dying, poisoned by astrologer
133. 16th c Doktor Faust (Busoni) After Marlowe’s version
134. 16th c Le Duc d’Albe (Donizetti) Flanders. Attempting to murder the Duke, Amelia daughter of Egmont accidentally kills his son her lover.
135. 16th c Faust (Gounod) Regarded as travesty of Goethe
136. 16th c The Fiery Angel (Ptokofiev) Germany . Story of sorcery and demonic possession.
137. 16th c Die Gezeichneten (Schreker) Genoa After Wedekind Hidalla
138. 16th c Der Liebesverbot (Wagner) After Measure for Measure, Palermo
139. 16th c The Master of Clamency (Kabalevsky) Burgundy. Sculptor Colas takes revenge on Duke who destroys statue of his girl freind
140. 16th c Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner) ‘Singer of the year’ wins hand of heiress
141. 16th c Merrie England (German) Raleigh and Essex vie for hand of Elizabeth I
142. 16th c Il Prigioniero (Dallapicolla) Saragossa. Prisoner of Inquisition ‘released’ into arms of Grand Inquisitor
143. 16th c Le Prophète (Meyerbeer) Anabaptist uprising, Dordrecht and Münster
144. 16th c The Tsar’s Bride (Rimsky-Korsakov) Ivan the Terrible’s’ bride dies of slow poison by jealous mistress of her former lover.
145. 16th c Der Waffeenschmied (Lortzing) Worms. Daughter of the Armourer wooed by disguised apprentice. Her father has other ideas.
146. 16th c The Yeoman of the Guard (Sullivan) Tower of London. Condemned prisoner’s last wish is a ‘bride’ but then he is reprieved
147. 1600 Lodoïska (Cherubini) After Louvet de Couvray. Held prisoner on Polish border by intended husband until castle attacked by Tartar Tizikan and rescued by lover.
148. 1605 Dimitrijj (Dvořák) After Schiller. Successor to Boris Godunov. Denounced as a Pretender by his jealous wife and shot.
149. 1613 A Life for the Tsar (Glinka). Newly elected Tsar saved from Poles by patriotic Russian peasant, at the expense of his life.
150. 1630c Maria di Rohan (Donizetti) Paris. Wife of Enrico, imprisoned for murder of Richelieu’s nephew, falls for Riccardo whose intercession she has sought. Sources differ as to outcome.
151. 1640 I Puritani (Bellini) Walter Scott Old Morality Elvira driven mad on seeing widow of Charles I escaping wearing her wedding dress but recovers on Puritan victory
152. 1640c Cyrano de Bergerac (Alfano) After Rostand. Large-nosed Cyrano writes of his love to Roxane as if from her beloved Christian.Discovered too late
153. 1640c L’Hotellerie Portugugaise (Cherubini).Innkeeper confuses two ladies fleeing Lisbon with two trying to reach it. Resolved happily.
154. 1647 La Muette de Portici (Auber) Masaniello leads revolt against Spanish rule in Naples. When he is killed, his dumb sister kills herself in eruption of Vesuvius.
155. 1648c Der Trompeter von Säckingen (Nessler) End of Thirty Years’ War. Trumpeter falls for supposed socially superior Maria until birthmark reveals him to be of noble blood
156. 1648 Friedenstag (RStrauss) 24 October – last day of 30yrs war. Catholic Commander persuaded to accept Peace of Westphalia
157. 1648c Der Freischütz (Weber) Bohemia Max acquires magic bullets to win hand of Agathe with near tragic consequences.
158. 1651 Alice (Flotow) After Walter Scott Woodstock.
159. 1671c Alessandro Stradella (Flotow) Composer charms assassins seeking revenge for abduction of Leonore
160. 1682-89 Khovanschina (Moussorgski) Struggle for unification of Russia won by Peter the Great.
161. 1690c Cardillac (Hindemith) After ETA Hoffmann. Paris. Jeweller murders customers after sales until killed by lynch mob.
162. 1692 The Crucible (Ward) Salem witch trials after Miller
163. 1698 Zar und Zimmermann (Lortzing) Disguised Peter the Great in Dutch shipyards
164. 17th c L’Amore Medico (Wolf-Ferrari) After Molière L’Amour Médecin.
165. 17th c La Flamma (Respighi) Witchcraft in Ravenna
166. 17th c La Gioconda (Bellini) Venice
167. 17th c Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti) After Walter Scott, Lucia, loving Edgardo, is deceived into marriage to Arturo but murders him on wedding night
168. 17th c Luisa Miller (Verdi) After Schiller. Tyrol.
169. 17th c Mavra (Stravinsky) Russia, after Pushkin. Daughter introduces as cook her disguised boyfriend ‘Mavra’.. He is caught shaving.
170. 17th c Ruy Blas (Marchettti) After Victor Higo. Valet who becomes lover of Spanish Queen. Revealed as imposter, kills himself to save her honour
171. 17th c Suor Angelica (Puccini) Single mother becomes nun but kills herself when told her child is dead.
172. 17th c Zampa (Hérold) Sicily. Pirate Zampa foiled in attempt to abduct his brother’s fiancée by statue of his former wife.
173. 1709 Mazeppa (Tchaikovsky) Ukraine Based on Pushkin’s Poltava.
174. 1710 Martha (Flotow) Richmond. Lost heir to Earl of Derby falls for disguised lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne. Happy ending.
175. 1715 Rob Roy (Flotow) After Walter Scott
176. 1720 Grand Duchess of Gerulstein (Offenbach) Amorous Grand Duchess fancies private soldier Fritz and promotes him. He rejects her and is demoted. She settles for dull Prince with eyes open for future military conquests.
177. 1721 Manon (Massenet) After Prévost. On-off affair with de Grieux leads to deportation as prostitute. Dies in his arms on way to Le Havre.
178. 1721 Manon Lescaut (Puccini) France and America. As above but lovers make it to America where she dies in wilderness.
179. 1723 Maskerade (Nielsen) Copenhagen. Arranged marriage of reluctant young couple, who have in fact fallen in love at masked ball.
180. 1730 Lo Frato ‘nnanimato (Pergolesi) Nina and Nena both love Ascanio who turns out to be long lost brother, leaving him free to marry to marry his love.
181. 1730 Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea) Real Comédie-Française actress in love triangle with Saxon Count and a Princess who sends her bunch of poisoned violets.
182. 1733 Un Giorno di Regno (Verdi) Brest. Soldier poses as King of Poland for one day and takes opportunity to sort out affairs of the heart.
183. .1740c Der Rosenkavalier (R Strauss) Vienna. Marschallin cedes young lover to Sophie with whom it is love at first sight when acting as go-between for her betrothal to Baron Ochs.
184. 1750c La Forza del Destino (Verdi) After Schiller’s Wallenstein’s Lager. Encounters between Alvaro, his beloved Leonora and her brother Carlo who is seeking revenge for accidental killing of his father,, ending in deaths.
185. 1736 The Heart of Midlothian (Carafa, Ricci, MacCann) After Walter Scott. Against background of Porteous Riots in Edinburgh, a Helen Walker trsvels by foot to London to seek royal pardon for her sister.
186. 1750c Ruddigore (Sullivasn) Cornwall. Complicated life of accursed baronetcy.
187. 1755-57 I Masnadieri (Verdi) Schiller’s Die Räuber. Rivalry of two brothers, one forced to become a brigand. Seeks death with beloved rather than admit shame at the course of his life.
188. 1759 La Dame Blanche (Boieldieu) After Walter Scott, Guy Mannering and Old Morality. A mysterious white lady manipulates the disposal of the estate of the late Count Avenel, revealing herself to be the ward of Count’s steward.
189. 1760c Linda di Chamonix (Donizetti). Haute-Savoie and Paris. ‘Lucia di Lzmmermoor with happy ending’.
190. 1775c Capriccio (R Strauss) Countess fails to choose between composer and poet.
191. 1780c Werther (Masssenet) After Goethe. Frankfurt. Melancholy poet, obsessed by love for Charlotte, kills himself.
192. 1780c Die Schweigsame Frau (R Strauss) After Ben Johnson Epicoene. Irascible retired admiral seeks silent bride, goes through false marriage to wife of his nephew, disinherited for marrying her. He learns his lesson.
193. 1789-92 Dialogues des Carmélites (Poulenc) Compiègne and Paris. Convent attacked by mob and nuns martyred.
194. 1791 Mozart and Salieri (Rimsky Korsakov) After Pushkin. Perpetuates myth Salieri poisoned Mozart.
195. 1792 Ballo in Maschera (Verdi) Assassination of Gustavus III of Sweden
196. 1792-3 Thérèse (Massenet) Versailles and Paris. Torn between aristocrat and revolutionary, finally accompanies former to the guillotine.
197. 1792, and 1811 Madame Sans Géne (Giordani) After Sardou. Paris, Compiègne., Former laundress, now duchess, presents Napoleon with unpaid bill.
198. 1793 Jakobin (Dvořák) Czechoslovakia. Son of Count returning from Paris arrested as a Jakobin but saved by wife’s intercession
199. 1793 Il Piccolo Marat (Mascagni) Paris.Successful attempt by Prince de Fleury to rescue mother condemned to death as Jakobin.
200. 1794 Andrea Chénier (Giordano) Poet (1762-94) During French Revolution, goes to death with Madaleine de Coigny denounced by her former servant.
201. 1794 Dantons Tod (Einem) Danton denounces French Revolution and is executed on Robespierre’s orders.
202. 1797 Billy Budd (Britten) After Herman Melville. Tough naval discipline a Captain’s dilemma.
203. 18th c Arlecchino (Busoni) Bergamo. Domestic drama.
204. 18th c Ariadne auf Naxos – Prologue (R Strauss) Inspired by Molière Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Preparations for after-dinner entertainment.
205. 18th c Barbiere di Seviglia (Rossini) After Beaumarchais. Figaro aids Count Almaviva win Rosina.
206. 18th c Il Corsaro (Verdi) After Byron. Pirate captured by Turkish Pasha but freed after slave kills Pasha. Returning home finds partner poisoned believing him dead.
207. 18th c Cosi fan Tutte (Mozart) Naples. For a wager, two officers, disguised, successfully woo the other’s fiancée with ambiguous result.
208. 18th c Fidelio (Beethoven) Seville. Disguised wife rescues imprisoned husband.
209. 18th c Der Fliegende Holländer (Wagner) After Heine. Norway. Dutchman doomed to sail seas forever until redeemed by woman faithful to death.
210. 18th c Fra Diavolo (Auber) Naples. Bandit’s attempts to rob travelling Englishman until apprehended.
211. 18th c Goyescas (Granados) Inspied by Goya. Rosario’s lover killed in a duel after she is unfaithful with a bull-fighter.
212. 18th c L’Heure Espagnole (Ravel) Clockmaker spends days attending to town’s clocks allowing wife to pursue infidelities.
213. 18th c Il Matrimonio Segreto (Cimarosa) Bologna. Complications arising from secret marriage of Paulino to Carolina.
214. 18th c Mignon (Thomas) After Goethe’s Wiihelm Meister.Germany and Italy. Mignon, rescued from gypsies by Meister, is saved from fire set by her demented father to kill actress of whom she is jealous.
215. 18th c The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky) After Pushkin, St Petersberg. Addicted gambler kills Countess in attempt to learn secret of cards to win enough to marry her granddaughter.
216. 18th c La Périchole (Offenbach) After Prosper Mérimée. Peru. Street singer Périchole, separated from lover by Viceroy who then, unknowingly, tricks him into marriage with her. Lovers reunited but not without acrimony.
217. 18th c The Raske’s Progress (Stravinsky) After engravings by Hogarth. Tom Rakewell, inheritor of a fortune dragged down by the Devil in form of Nick Shadow.
218. 18th c Der Zigeunerbaron (J Strauss II) Banat (Hungary).Barinkay reclaims his ancestral lands from gypsies and falls for one of them who turns out to be a princess. This leaves his fiancé free to marry her lover.
219. 1800 – June Tosca (Puccini) After Sardou. Singer, caught up in fall of Roman Republic, murders Police Chief in unsuccessful attempt to save her lover
220. 1800c Don Procopio (Bizet) Attempts to get out of arranged marriage after friends and relations of bride convince him she would make life impossible for him.
221. 1800c La Wally (Catalani) Tyrol Wally’s suitor Gellner pushes into a ravine Hagenbach who has rejected her. She rescues him which changes his mind but both killed in an avalanche.
222. 1804 Le Corregidor (Wolf) Andalusia. Amorous elderly Corregidor, used to advance Frasquita’s nephew, arouses jealousy of her husband, leading to discomfort of both men.
223. 1812 War and Peace (Prokofiev) Scenes from Tolstoy’s novel
224. 1815c La Fille du Regiment (Donizetti) Tyrol. Orphan Marie, ‘adopted’ by 21st Regiment, loves Tonie who enlists to qualify for her hand. She is removed by Marquise, later revealed as her mother, to learn social graces but Tonie turns up with regiment and their union agreed.
225. 1815 Wiener Blut (J Strauss II) Congress of Vienna
226. 1820c Gugliemo Ratcliff (Mascagni) After Heine. Scotland. Obsessive lover of Maria who kills those wishing to marry her.
227. 1820-50 Der Evangellman (Kienzl) St Othmar, Austria. Johannes, jealous of Marthe’s love for his brother, a monk, arranges imprisonment for arson. On release becomes street preacher and forgives Johannes.
228. 1821 Wozzeck (Berg) After Büchner’s Woyzeck .inspired by suicide of German soldier in this year.
229. 1825 The Decembrists (Shaporin) At a ball to celebrate defeat of Decembrists, Elena encounters Tsar who allows her to go with her revolutionary lover Dmitri to Siberian exile.
230. 1825, May Il Viaggio a Reims (Rossini) Plombières. Travellers to coronation of Charles X held up by lack of horses amuse themselves with stories and song.
231. 1830 Carmen (Bizet) – After Prosper Merimèe’s encounter with Spanish gypsy
232. 1830 Bolivar (Milhaud) Ecents in life of Simón Bolivar (1783-1830).
233. 1830 Der Junge Lord (Henze) Hülsdorf-Gotha. Sir Edgar introduces a circus ape as a nephew whose eccentric behaviour is condoned by local community previously antagonised by his distant manner.
234. 1830c Peter Grimes (Britten) After George Crabbe. Fisherman loner loses an apprentice accidentally but when another dies Grimes is advised to sail out to sea and drown himself.
235. 1830c La Bohème (Puccini) After Henri Murger, Paris. On-off affair between impecunious artist and consumptive seamstress ends when she dies in his arms.
236. 1840 Il Segreto di Susanna (Wolf-Ferrari) Piedmont. Susanna has to confess to husband that she smokes when he accuses her of having a lover.
237. 1840c Halka (Moniuszco) Carpathia. Seduced by Januch who loves Zofia, Halka kills herself while they are marrying.
238. 1847 La Traviata (Verdi) After Dumas fils. Death of courtesan Marie Duplessis, inspiration for La Dame aux Camélias.
239. 1849 La Fanciulla del West (Puccini) Feisty saloon owner falls for bandit but wins a reprieve by cheating at cards. Later saves him from lynch mob.
240. 1852-70 La Rondine (Puccini) Paris and Nice. Puccini’s version of Traviata story
241. 1853 Lodoletta (Mascagni) After Ouida. Holland and Paris. French asylum seeker meets Dutch Lodoletta. When reprieved he returns to Paris, she follows but she dies of despair on seeing him again..
242. 1855-87 Peter Ibbetson (Taylor) After du Maurier. England and France. Sentenced to life after killing abusive uncle finds solace in dreams of childhood playmate. After forty years, hearing of her death, follows her.
243. 1860 Arabella (R Strauss) Vienna. For reasons of poverty, Arabella must marry money and sister Zdenka dress as man. Arabella falls for suitor’s son while Zdenka falls for her previous boy-friend/. Romantic complications end happily.
244. 1860c The Gambler (Prokofiev) After Dostoyevsky. German spa. Family of addicted gamblers await to inherit from aged aunt but she turns up and loses all her money at the tables.
245. 1860c Katya Kabanova (Janáček) With a tyrannical mother-in-law, Katya is unfaithful during husband’s absence. Confesses and drowns herself
246. 1860c I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) Jealousy and passion depicted by travelling players mirrors real life with tragic outcome.
247. 1865 Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich) Kills husband and father-in-law to marry lover. Caught with her lover and on way to Siberia, he falls for another. Jealous Katya drowns rival and herself in river.
248. 1867 La Vie Parisienne (Offenbach) Impecunious men, both rejected by Métella aim to rip off Swedish tourists and Brazilian millionaire After much confusion matters resolve at a masked ball.
249. 1870c La Navarraise (Massenet) Bilbao. Orphan Anita claims reward for killing a rebel to provide dowry to wed a sergeant. Due to misunderstanding sergeant loses life and Anita her reason.
250. 1880-99 The Ballad of Baby Doe (Moore) Colorado gold rush, from life of Baby Doe Tabor 1854-1935. Divorced Baby Doe marries Horace Tabor, also divorced Heis ruined and dies after collapse in price of silver. She retreats to his Matchless Mine.
251. 1888 Lulu (Berg) After Wedekind. Sexually-exploited Lulu with fatal effect on men in her life becomes victim of Jack the Ripper
252. 1890 The Bear (Walton) After Chekhov. Widow falls for boorish creditor of late husband..
253. 1890c Osud (Janáček) Moravia. Based on autobiographical incident, an unfinished opera recounts a composer’s wife killed trying to save mother’s life following a row, their son guessing the truth at a rehearsal.
254. 19th c L’Amico Fritz (Mascagni) Alsace. Rabbi David wins a wager that Fritz will not remain a bschelor.
255. 19th c The Bohemian Girl (Balfe) After Caervantes, Hungary. Supposed gypsy Arline, accused of theft is recognised by judge as his daughter. He marries exiled Polish aristocrat despite opposition of Gypsy Queen.
256. 19th c Die Dreigroschenoper (Weill) Soho. Re-working of John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera.
257. 19th c Fedora (Giordano) After Sardou. Russia. Fedora seeks revenge for murder of her fiancé by nihilist but falls for him on discovering motive. Kills herself when truth about to emerge.
258. 19th c La Fille de Masdame Angot (Lecocq) Paris. Engaged daughter of Mme Angot loves another but still plans to marry fiancé.
259. 19th c Hugh the Drover (Vaughan Williams) Hugh wins boxing match with John the Butcher who accuses him of espionage. Freed from stocks by John’s fiancé, they elope as Hugh’s name is cleared.
260. 19th c Iris (Mascagni) Japan. Innocent, abducted to brothel by spurned suitor, is cursed by blind father and drowns herself in sewer.
261. 19th c Lakmé (Delibes) India. Lakmé, daughter of Brhmin priest nurses her Bitish soldier lover after vengeful attack by father but comrade persuades lover to resume army duties. Lakmé takes poison.
262. 19th c Mireille (Gounod) Arles. Mireille loves Vincent but father wishes to marry Ourrias who attempts unsuccessfully to kill Vincent. Outcome unclear.
263. 19th c L’Oracolo (Leone) San Francisco’s Chinatown Lurid tale of kidnapping, murder, revenge and insanity..
264. 19th c Owen Wingrave (Britten) England. Pacifist Wingrave is disgrace to family’s military tradition. Challenged by fiancée to sleep in haunted room, is found dead in the morning.
265. 19th c Pirates of Penzance (Sullivan) Cornwall Apprentice to group of pirates, revealed to be no-good aristocrats, falls for daughter of snobbish Major-General who orders release of pirates who then marry his daughters
266. 19th c I Quadro Rusteghi (Wolf- Ferrari) After Goldoni. Venice. Four male chauvinists outwitted by their wives.
267. 19th c La Sonnambula (Bellini) Switzerland Sleep-walking Amina is discovered in Count’s bedroom causing break-up of her engagement, in favour of Lisa, also compromised by a handkerchief. Happily resolved when Amina is seen sleepwalking on the roof..
268. 19th c Stiffelio (Verdi) Germany. Cuckolded Protestant Minister magnanimously divorces wife but her lover is killed by his father.
269. 19th c Die Tote Stadt (Korngold) Bruges..Paul meets dancer reminding him of late wife with whom he has several encounters before strangling her for infidelity.
270. 19th c Turn of the Screw (Britten) Ghost story after Henry James
271. 19th c Village Romeo and Juliet (Delius) Switzerland Offspring of feuding farmers see no future and commit suicide.
272. 1900 Zazà (Leoncavallo) Music Hall singer, Paris. Falls in love with married man but returns to her partner.
273. 1900 Albert Herring (Britten) Loxford, Suffolk. After de Maupassant. Elected May King since no one eligible for Queen.
274. 1900 The Lighthouse (Maxwell Davies) Hebrides. Mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers.
275. 1900c Louise (Charpentier) Paris. Leaves home to live with lover.
276. 1900c Amica (Mascagni) Savoy
277. 1900c Madama Butterfly (Puccini) Nagasaki. Goes through marriage ceremony with American sailor and bears his child. He goes away for three years and returns with American wife.
278. 1900 c La Vida Breve (De Falla) Grenada. Paco feigns love for gypsy but marries another Gypsy falls dead at wedding.
279. 1910 Il Tabarro (Puccini) The Seine. Bargee takes revenge on wife’s lover.
280. 1910 Les Mamelles de Tirésias (Poulenc) ‘Zanzibar’ France. Converted feminist passes all duties to her husband including child-bearing before reverting to normal.
281. 1911 Death in Venice (Britten) After Thomas Mann. Aging writer’s obsession with boy seen on beach.
282. 1914-17 Quiet Flows the Don (Dzerzhinsky) Domestic drama foreshadowing fall of Tsar
283. 1920c Intermezzo (Richard Strauss) Vienna and Grundlsee. Domestic drama
284. 1920c The Macropolus Case (Janáček) Prague 300 -year old, tired of life, stops taking elixir.
285. 1930c Volo di Notte (Dallapicola) After Saint-Exupéry, Vol de Nuit,
286. 1920c Porgy and Bess (Gersshwin) Catfish Row. Porgy kills rival for han of Bess then follows her to New York
287. 1930c The Tender Land (Copland) Mid-West. Co-ed plans to run away with drifter but goes it alone when he changes mind.
288. 1934-90 Powder her Face (Adés) Duchess of Argyle scandal
289. 1940c Léonore 40/45 (Liebermann) Occcupied Paris. French girl meets German soldier, reunited after war.
290. 1942 The Story of a Real Man (Prokofiev) Russia.Aviator with amputated feet learns to fly again.
291. 1945 Doctor Atomic (Adams) Oppenheimer and Atom Bomb test
292. 1960c The Passenger (Weinberg) Polish radio play. .Liner passenger encounters concentration camp guard.
293. 1967-2007 Anna Nichole (Turnage) Rise and fall of Playboy model.
294. 1972 Nixon in China (Adams) Nixon’s meet Chou en Lai’s
295. 198? Death of Klinghofer (Adams) Hijacking of Israeli liner
296. 1994 Jerry Springer The Opera (Thomas and Lee) Reality TV pioneer
297. 1998-2006 Flight (Jonathon Dove) Iranian who lived in Ch de Gaulle Airport
298. 20th c Riders of the Sea (Vaughan Williams) After Synge
2. BC 13th c Mosè in Egitto (Rossini)
3. BC 1115 Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns)
4. BC760 Dido and Aeneas (Purcell), The Trojans at Carthage (Berlioz)
5. BC 562 Nabucco (Verdi) Jerusalem and Babylon
6. BC 522 L’Incoronazione di Dario (Vivaldi) Darius reigned over Persia until BC 486
7. BC 509 Rape of Lucretia (Britten) Only faithful wife arouses Tarqinius.
8. BC 486 Serse (Handel) Xerxes succeeded Darius
9. BC 465 Artaxerxes (Arne) Succeeded Xerxes d 424
10. )BC 333 Il Re Pastore (Mozart) Alexander discovers heir to Sidon is a shepherd
11. BC 326 Alessandro (Handel) Alexander the Great in India
12. BC326 Poro (Handel) Rè dell’Indie under Alexander
13. BC 210 Scipione (Handel) New Carthage. Events following Roman Scipione’s conquest of Carthage.
14. BC 2nd c Semiramide (Rossini et al) After Voltaire.Babylon, Queen kills husband with the aid of her lover but she fancies another who turns out to be her son. It all ends badly.
15. BC 137 Lucio Silla (Mozart) Roman dictator 178-138
16. BC 132 Mitridate Re di Ponte (Mozart) After Racine, Nymphaeum
17. BC108 Tolomeo (Handel) Ptolemy IX deposed by mother in favour of brother Ptolemy X.
18. BC 64 The Cataline Conspiracy (Iain Hamilton) Rome, Cataline conspires against Cicero
19. BC47 Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Handel) Caesar and Cleopatra combine to defeat Ptolemy
20. BC36c Antony and Cleopatra (Barber)
21. AD 28-29 Salome (R Strauss) After Oscar Wilde
22. 49 Agrippina (Handel) Wife of Claudius, scheming for her son Nero
23. 53 Radamisto (Handel) Son of King of Thrace. After Tacitus
24. 60c Nerone (Boito, Mascagni) Christians betrayed and condemned to die in circus.
25. 62 L’Incoonzione di Poppea (Monteverdi) Poppea schemes to replace Ottavia as wife of Nero
26. 79 L’Ultimo Giorno di Pompeii (Petrella)
27. 79-81 La Clemenza di Tito (Mozart) Roman Emperor forgives all who plot against him.
28. 1st c Norma (Bellini) Gaul. Druid priestess has two children with Roman soldier who leves her for a younger priestess. Does not end well.
29. 150 Il Mithridate Eupatore (A Scarlatti) Sinope. Family feud following murder of his father by his mother and banishment to Egypt.Finally murder avenged.
30. 222 Alessandro Severo (Handel) Roman Emperor Alexander Severus
31. 257 Poliuto (Donizetti) After Corneille..Armenia. Secret convert to Christianity condemned to death. His wife shares martyrdom.
32. 275 Auriliano in Palmira (Rossini) Roman Emperor Aurelianus
33. 304 Theodora (Handel) Antioch. Christian martyr condemned to prostitution
34. 4th c Thais (Massenet) after Anatole France, Alexandria. Monk falls for courtesan he has converted to Christianity
35. 452 Attila (Verdi) Invasion of Italy by the Hun
36. 5th c Ezio (Handel) Flavius Aetius returned from victory over Attila
37. 565 Belisario (Donizetti) Justinian I’s time
38. 7th c La Flamma (Respighi) Ravenna, witchcraft
39. 7th c Rodelinda (Handel) based on history of King of Lombards
40. 712 Rodrigo (Handel) last Visigoth king of Hispania
41. 900c Parsifal (Wagner) eventually father of Lohengrin
42. 933 Lohengrin (Wagner) ending of truce between Brabant and Hungary
43. 970 Ottone (Handel) based on Otto I and Otto II of Germany
44. 980-1015 Ruslan and Ludmila (Glinka) Vladimir the Great ruled Rus, capital Kiev
45. 10th c L’Amore dei tre Re (Montemezzi) Italy, Princess Flora forced to marry Manfredo son of blind king Archibaldo
46. 10th c The King’s Henchman (Taylor) Britain, King Eadgar sends Aethelwold to woo Aelfrida for him
47. 10th c Ugo Conte di Parigi (Donizetti) unsuccessful plot against Louis V
48. 2nd c Tancredi (Rossini) after Voltaire and Tasso Gerusalemme Liberata
49. 1057 Macbeth (Verdi)
50. 1096-7 I Lombardi (Verdi) Milan and Holy Land, First Crusade
51. 1099 Rinaldo (Handel), Armide (Gluck) First Crusade
52. 11th c Le Roi de Lahore (Massenet) India, after Mahabhrata
53. 1110 Euryanthe (Weber) Wager to seduce E, rescued by Louis VI
54. 1170 L’Assassinio nella Cattedrale (Pizzetti) Thomas a Becket
55. 1176 La Battaglia di Legnano (Verdi) Defeat of Barbarossa by Lombard League
56. 1185 Prince Igor (Borodin) Igor captured in losing to Tartars. Refusing freedom for undertaking not to take action again, he escapes and rallies his forces.
57. 1189-92 Aroldo (Verdi).Saxon Warrior returning from Crusades
58. 1190 The Talisman (Pacini, Loewe, Adam. Balfe) Walter Scott, Crusades
59. 1190 Le Juif Errant (Halévy) Amsterdam, Constantinople. Story of Wan dering Jew.
60. 1191 Riccardo Primo (Handel) Cyprus, R meets and marries ‘Constanza’ aka Berengaria of Navarre
61. 1192 Richard Coeur de Lion (Grétry) rescued by minstrel Blondel
62. 1194 Ivsnhoe (Pacini, Nocolai, Sullivan) Walter Scott, return with Richard 1 from Third Crusade
63. 12th c Brandenburgers in Bohemia (Smetena) To aid against the Habsburgs
64. 12th c Le Cid (Massenet) Seville after Corneille
65. 12th c Le Comte Ory (Rossini) Touraine during the Crusades
66. 12th c Feuersnot (R Strauss) Munich lights go out
67. 12th c Fra Gherardo (Pizzetti) Parma. Episode from Chronica of Fra Salimbene (b1221)
68. 12th c King Roger (Szymanovski) Sicily. Converted from Christianity to Dionysian cult by prophet from India
69. 1228 Oberto (Verdi) Bassano Killed in a duel with his daughter’s seducer
70. 1228c Crociato in Egitto (Meyerbeer) Sixth Crusade
71. 1282 Les Vêpres Siciliennes (Verdi) Sicilians murder unarmed French wedding guests
72. 1285 Francesca da Rimini (Zandonai) Ravenna and Rimini. After Dante
73. 1299 Gianni Schichi (Puccini) Dante
74. 13th c Bánk Bán (Erkel) Hungarian Wars
75. 13th c I Capulettti e I Montecci (Bellini) After novel by Bandello based on Shakespeare
76. 13th c Guillaune Tell (Rossini) Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell
77. 13th c Guntram (R Strauss) Germany. Kills Duke Robert in duel but has bad conscience
78. 13th c Il Pirata (Bellini) Sicily, after Charles Maturin
79. 13th c Robert le Diable (Meyerbeer) Sicily, Duke Robert of Normandy, son of the Devil, is redeemed by love.
80. 13th c Tannhauser (Wagner) Eisenach. Revealing misspent youth in choice of song in contest for Elizabeth and returning unforgiven from Rome pilgrimage, dies redeemed in her arms.
81. 13th c The Wandering Scholar (Holst) France.
82. 1302 Edgar (Puccini) Flanders after de Musset
83. 1303 Padmâvatî (Roussel) India
84. 1340 La Favorita (Donizetti) Castille. King Alfonso’s mistress falls for novice.
85. 1350 Rienzi (Wagner) Rome. Complications following failed abduction by patrician, of sister of Papal Notary, Rienzi
86. 1399- 1413? Falstaff (Verdi) Windsor
87. 14th c Il Giuramento (Mercadante) Syracuse. After Hugo’s Angelo, Tyran de Padove
88. 14th c La Jolie Fille de Perth (Bizet) After Walter Scott
89. 14th c Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame (Massenet) Cluny. After Anatole France L’Étui de Nacre
90. 14th c Simon Boccanegra (Verdi) Reluctant Doge of Genoa with daughter lost for twenty years.
91. 14th c La Straniera (Bellini) Brittany. Supposed witch Alaide, unlawfully wedded wife of French King. After Victor-Prévost
92. 1402 Tamerlano (Handel) Bithinia.Turkish Emperor Bajazet, captured by Tartar Tamburlaine is driven to suicide
93. 1418 Beatrice di Tenda (Bellini) Milan. Rejected wife of Duke Visconti to whom he owes title.
94. 1429 Giovanna d’Arco (Verdi) After Schiller’s version, Die Jungfrau von Orleans
95. 1450 – 1500 Christophe Colomb (Milhaud)
96. 1457 I due Foscari (Verdi) Venice. Doge Foscari fails to end exile of his son.
97. 1492 Les Abencérages (Cherubini) Final defeat of Moorish Abenceragi
98. 15th c L’Africaine (Meyerbeer) Vasco da Gama returns to Lisbon
99. 15th c Dalibor (Smetena) Prague. Tragic vendetta between knight Dalibor and King Vladislav
100. 15th c Gemma di Vergy (Donizetti) Paris. After Dumas’ Charles VII Chez ses Grands Vassaux
101. 15th c The Indian Queen (Purcell) Before Spanish Conquest, conflict between Peru and Mexico
102. 15th c Iolante (Tchaikowsky) Daughter of King René of Provence is unaware she is blind
103. 15th c La Juive (Halèvy) Constance. Rachel discovers her lover is married Prince Léopold
104. 15th c Die Lustige Weiber von Windsor (Nicolai)
105. 15th c Otello ( Verdi)
106. 15th c Il Trovatore (Verdi) Spain. Separated brothers Manrico, leader of rebel army against the King’s led by Conte di Luna both love Leonora with tragic consequences.
107. 1500c Loreley (Bruch, Catalani) Rhineland. Origin of Lorelei legend
108. 1509-36 Le Prophète (Meyerbeer) Dordrecht and Münster. Anabaptist uprising ends in disaster.
109. 1512 Lucrezia Borgia (Donizetti) In revenge for bad treatment in Venice, Lucrezia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, poisons dinner guests inadvertently including her own son
110. 1519 Ernani (Verdi) Spain. After Hugo Hernani. Elvira loves Ernani but is betrothed to Siva and wooed by King Carlo. Carlo, succeeding Charlemagne as Emperor, blesses the union with Ernani who must kill himself because of an oath sworn to Silva.
111. 1519 Montezume (Graun, Sessions) Spanish landings in Mexico and fate of Montezuma at hands of own followers
112. 1520c La Donna del Lago (Rossini) Walter Scott. Elena is loved by disguised James V but he allows her to marry Malcom
113. 1524 Mathis der Mahler (Hindemith) Mainz. Painter Mattias Grünwald 1480-1528
114. 1532 Benvenuto Cellini (Berlioz) Cellini must complete statue of Perseus to escape prosecution over death of Pompeo while eloping with Teresa
115. 1536 Anna Bolena (Donizetti) Windsor. Replaced by Jane Seymour in Henry VIII’s affections and beheaded
116. 1536 Rigoletto (Verdi) Death of French Court Jester Triboulet inspiration for Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse.
117. 1549 Angelo (Cui) Padua. Tisbe ‘actress’,wronglly believed to be mistress of Venetian Governor, comes to a sticky end. After Victor Hugo.
118. 1553 Maria Regina d’Inghilterra (Pacini) After Hugo. Infatuated with unfaithful Lord Talbot
119. 1563 Palestrina (Pfitzner) Council of Trent plans to ban polyphonic music
120. 1567 Maria Stuarda (Donizetti) After Schiller. London and Fotheringay Cat fight between Queens ending in beheading of Maria.
121. 1568 Don Carlos (Verdi) Schiller. Events in Spain following end of war with France. Power of Inquisition
122. 1570 The Maid of Pskov (Rimsky-Korsakov) Revealed as daughter of Ivan the Terrible, being used to prevent destruction of Pskov
123. 1572 Les Huguenots (Meyerbeer) St Bartholemew’s Day massacre
124. 1574 Le Roi Malgré lui (Chabrier) Henri de Valois, King of France reluctant to become King of Poland also.
125. 1575 Elizabetta al Castello di Kenilworth (Donizetti) Walter Scott. Complications following Earl of Leicester’s marriage to Amelia Robsart.
126. 1575 Elizabetha Regina d’Inghilterra (Rossini) A different version of above
127. 1597-1601 Gloriana (Britten) After Lytton Strachey Elizabeth and Essex
128. 1598 Roberto Devereux (Donizetti) Elizabeth I loves Earl of Essex who loves Duchess of Nottingham, with tragic outcome. . After François Ancelot, Amelia Robsart
129. 1598- 1605 Boris Godunov (Moussorgsky) After Pushkin and Karamanzin.
130. 16th c Alzira (Verdi) After Voltaire. Peru. Alzira agrees to marry Christian to save life of Inca chief Zamoro whom she loves.
131. 16th c Béatrice et Bénédict (Berlioz) After Much Ado About Nothing.
132. 16th c Bomarzo (Ginastera) Duke of Bomarzo relives scandalous life while dying, poisoned by astrologer
133. 16th c Doktor Faust (Busoni) After Marlowe’s version
134. 16th c Le Duc d’Albe (Donizetti) Flanders. Attempting to murder the Duke, Amelia daughter of Egmont accidentally kills his son her lover.
135. 16th c Faust (Gounod) Regarded as travesty of Goethe
136. 16th c The Fiery Angel (Ptokofiev) Germany . Story of sorcery and demonic possession.
137. 16th c Die Gezeichneten (Schreker) Genoa After Wedekind Hidalla
138. 16th c Der Liebesverbot (Wagner) After Measure for Measure, Palermo
139. 16th c The Master of Clamency (Kabalevsky) Burgundy. Sculptor Colas takes revenge on Duke who destroys statue of his girl freind
140. 16th c Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner) ‘Singer of the year’ wins hand of heiress
141. 16th c Merrie England (German) Raleigh and Essex vie for hand of Elizabeth I
142. 16th c Il Prigioniero (Dallapicolla) Saragossa. Prisoner of Inquisition ‘released’ into arms of Grand Inquisitor
143. 16th c Le Prophète (Meyerbeer) Anabaptist uprising, Dordrecht and Münster
144. 16th c The Tsar’s Bride (Rimsky-Korsakov) Ivan the Terrible’s’ bride dies of slow poison by jealous mistress of her former lover.
145. 16th c Der Waffeenschmied (Lortzing) Worms. Daughter of the Armourer wooed by disguised apprentice. Her father has other ideas.
146. 16th c The Yeoman of the Guard (Sullivan) Tower of London. Condemned prisoner’s last wish is a ‘bride’ but then he is reprieved
147. 1600 Lodoïska (Cherubini) After Louvet de Couvray. Held prisoner on Polish border by intended husband until castle attacked by Tartar Tizikan and rescued by lover.
148. 1605 Dimitrijj (Dvořák) After Schiller. Successor to Boris Godunov. Denounced as a Pretender by his jealous wife and shot.
149. 1613 A Life for the Tsar (Glinka). Newly elected Tsar saved from Poles by patriotic Russian peasant, at the expense of his life.
150. 1630c Maria di Rohan (Donizetti) Paris. Wife of Enrico, imprisoned for murder of Richelieu’s nephew, falls for Riccardo whose intercession she has sought. Sources differ as to outcome.
151. 1640 I Puritani (Bellini) Walter Scott Old Morality Elvira driven mad on seeing widow of Charles I escaping wearing her wedding dress but recovers on Puritan victory
152. 1640c Cyrano de Bergerac (Alfano) After Rostand. Large-nosed Cyrano writes of his love to Roxane as if from her beloved Christian.Discovered too late
153. 1640c L’Hotellerie Portugugaise (Cherubini).Innkeeper confuses two ladies fleeing Lisbon with two trying to reach it. Resolved happily.
154. 1647 La Muette de Portici (Auber) Masaniello leads revolt against Spanish rule in Naples. When he is killed, his dumb sister kills herself in eruption of Vesuvius.
155. 1648c Der Trompeter von Säckingen (Nessler) End of Thirty Years’ War. Trumpeter falls for supposed socially superior Maria until birthmark reveals him to be of noble blood
156. 1648 Friedenstag (RStrauss) 24 October – last day of 30yrs war. Catholic Commander persuaded to accept Peace of Westphalia
157. 1648c Der Freischütz (Weber) Bohemia Max acquires magic bullets to win hand of Agathe with near tragic consequences.
158. 1651 Alice (Flotow) After Walter Scott Woodstock.
159. 1671c Alessandro Stradella (Flotow) Composer charms assassins seeking revenge for abduction of Leonore
160. 1682-89 Khovanschina (Moussorgski) Struggle for unification of Russia won by Peter the Great.
161. 1690c Cardillac (Hindemith) After ETA Hoffmann. Paris. Jeweller murders customers after sales until killed by lynch mob.
162. 1692 The Crucible (Ward) Salem witch trials after Miller
163. 1698 Zar und Zimmermann (Lortzing) Disguised Peter the Great in Dutch shipyards
164. 17th c L’Amore Medico (Wolf-Ferrari) After Molière L’Amour Médecin.
165. 17th c La Flamma (Respighi) Witchcraft in Ravenna
166. 17th c La Gioconda (Bellini) Venice
167. 17th c Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti) After Walter Scott, Lucia, loving Edgardo, is deceived into marriage to Arturo but murders him on wedding night
168. 17th c Luisa Miller (Verdi) After Schiller. Tyrol.
169. 17th c Mavra (Stravinsky) Russia, after Pushkin. Daughter introduces as cook her disguised boyfriend ‘Mavra’.. He is caught shaving.
170. 17th c Ruy Blas (Marchettti) After Victor Higo. Valet who becomes lover of Spanish Queen. Revealed as imposter, kills himself to save her honour
171. 17th c Suor Angelica (Puccini) Single mother becomes nun but kills herself when told her child is dead.
172. 17th c Zampa (Hérold) Sicily. Pirate Zampa foiled in attempt to abduct his brother’s fiancée by statue of his former wife.
173. 1709 Mazeppa (Tchaikovsky) Ukraine Based on Pushkin’s Poltava.
174. 1710 Martha (Flotow) Richmond. Lost heir to Earl of Derby falls for disguised lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne. Happy ending.
175. 1715 Rob Roy (Flotow) After Walter Scott
176. 1720 Grand Duchess of Gerulstein (Offenbach) Amorous Grand Duchess fancies private soldier Fritz and promotes him. He rejects her and is demoted. She settles for dull Prince with eyes open for future military conquests.
177. 1721 Manon (Massenet) After Prévost. On-off affair with de Grieux leads to deportation as prostitute. Dies in his arms on way to Le Havre.
178. 1721 Manon Lescaut (Puccini) France and America. As above but lovers make it to America where she dies in wilderness.
179. 1723 Maskerade (Nielsen) Copenhagen. Arranged marriage of reluctant young couple, who have in fact fallen in love at masked ball.
180. 1730 Lo Frato ‘nnanimato (Pergolesi) Nina and Nena both love Ascanio who turns out to be long lost brother, leaving him free to marry to marry his love.
181. 1730 Adriana Lecouvreur (Cilea) Real Comédie-Française actress in love triangle with Saxon Count and a Princess who sends her bunch of poisoned violets.
182. 1733 Un Giorno di Regno (Verdi) Brest. Soldier poses as King of Poland for one day and takes opportunity to sort out affairs of the heart.
183. .1740c Der Rosenkavalier (R Strauss) Vienna. Marschallin cedes young lover to Sophie with whom it is love at first sight when acting as go-between for her betrothal to Baron Ochs.
184. 1750c La Forza del Destino (Verdi) After Schiller’s Wallenstein’s Lager. Encounters between Alvaro, his beloved Leonora and her brother Carlo who is seeking revenge for accidental killing of his father,, ending in deaths.
185. 1736 The Heart of Midlothian (Carafa, Ricci, MacCann) After Walter Scott. Against background of Porteous Riots in Edinburgh, a Helen Walker trsvels by foot to London to seek royal pardon for her sister.
186. 1750c Ruddigore (Sullivasn) Cornwall. Complicated life of accursed baronetcy.
187. 1755-57 I Masnadieri (Verdi) Schiller’s Die Räuber. Rivalry of two brothers, one forced to become a brigand. Seeks death with beloved rather than admit shame at the course of his life.
188. 1759 La Dame Blanche (Boieldieu) After Walter Scott, Guy Mannering and Old Morality. A mysterious white lady manipulates the disposal of the estate of the late Count Avenel, revealing herself to be the ward of Count’s steward.
189. 1760c Linda di Chamonix (Donizetti). Haute-Savoie and Paris. ‘Lucia di Lzmmermoor with happy ending’.
190. 1775c Capriccio (R Strauss) Countess fails to choose between composer and poet.
191. 1780c Werther (Masssenet) After Goethe. Frankfurt. Melancholy poet, obsessed by love for Charlotte, kills himself.
192. 1780c Die Schweigsame Frau (R Strauss) After Ben Johnson Epicoene. Irascible retired admiral seeks silent bride, goes through false marriage to wife of his nephew, disinherited for marrying her. He learns his lesson.
193. 1789-92 Dialogues des Carmélites (Poulenc) Compiègne and Paris. Convent attacked by mob and nuns martyred.
194. 1791 Mozart and Salieri (Rimsky Korsakov) After Pushkin. Perpetuates myth Salieri poisoned Mozart.
195. 1792 Ballo in Maschera (Verdi) Assassination of Gustavus III of Sweden
196. 1792-3 Thérèse (Massenet) Versailles and Paris. Torn between aristocrat and revolutionary, finally accompanies former to the guillotine.
197. 1792, and 1811 Madame Sans Géne (Giordani) After Sardou. Paris, Compiègne., Former laundress, now duchess, presents Napoleon with unpaid bill.
198. 1793 Jakobin (Dvořák) Czechoslovakia. Son of Count returning from Paris arrested as a Jakobin but saved by wife’s intercession
199. 1793 Il Piccolo Marat (Mascagni) Paris.Successful attempt by Prince de Fleury to rescue mother condemned to death as Jakobin.
200. 1794 Andrea Chénier (Giordano) Poet (1762-94) During French Revolution, goes to death with Madaleine de Coigny denounced by her former servant.
201. 1794 Dantons Tod (Einem) Danton denounces French Revolution and is executed on Robespierre’s orders.
202. 1797 Billy Budd (Britten) After Herman Melville. Tough naval discipline a Captain’s dilemma.
203. 18th c Arlecchino (Busoni) Bergamo. Domestic drama.
204. 18th c Ariadne auf Naxos – Prologue (R Strauss) Inspired by Molière Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Preparations for after-dinner entertainment.
205. 18th c Barbiere di Seviglia (Rossini) After Beaumarchais. Figaro aids Count Almaviva win Rosina.
206. 18th c Il Corsaro (Verdi) After Byron. Pirate captured by Turkish Pasha but freed after slave kills Pasha. Returning home finds partner poisoned believing him dead.
207. 18th c Cosi fan Tutte (Mozart) Naples. For a wager, two officers, disguised, successfully woo the other’s fiancée with ambiguous result.
208. 18th c Fidelio (Beethoven) Seville. Disguised wife rescues imprisoned husband.
209. 18th c Der Fliegende Holländer (Wagner) After Heine. Norway. Dutchman doomed to sail seas forever until redeemed by woman faithful to death.
210. 18th c Fra Diavolo (Auber) Naples. Bandit’s attempts to rob travelling Englishman until apprehended.
211. 18th c Goyescas (Granados) Inspied by Goya. Rosario’s lover killed in a duel after she is unfaithful with a bull-fighter.
212. 18th c L’Heure Espagnole (Ravel) Clockmaker spends days attending to town’s clocks allowing wife to pursue infidelities.
213. 18th c Il Matrimonio Segreto (Cimarosa) Bologna. Complications arising from secret marriage of Paulino to Carolina.
214. 18th c Mignon (Thomas) After Goethe’s Wiihelm Meister.Germany and Italy. Mignon, rescued from gypsies by Meister, is saved from fire set by her demented father to kill actress of whom she is jealous.
215. 18th c The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky) After Pushkin, St Petersberg. Addicted gambler kills Countess in attempt to learn secret of cards to win enough to marry her granddaughter.
216. 18th c La Périchole (Offenbach) After Prosper Mérimée. Peru. Street singer Périchole, separated from lover by Viceroy who then, unknowingly, tricks him into marriage with her. Lovers reunited but not without acrimony.
217. 18th c The Raske’s Progress (Stravinsky) After engravings by Hogarth. Tom Rakewell, inheritor of a fortune dragged down by the Devil in form of Nick Shadow.
218. 18th c Der Zigeunerbaron (J Strauss II) Banat (Hungary).Barinkay reclaims his ancestral lands from gypsies and falls for one of them who turns out to be a princess. This leaves his fiancé free to marry her lover.
219. 1800 – June Tosca (Puccini) After Sardou. Singer, caught up in fall of Roman Republic, murders Police Chief in unsuccessful attempt to save her lover
220. 1800c Don Procopio (Bizet) Attempts to get out of arranged marriage after friends and relations of bride convince him she would make life impossible for him.
221. 1800c La Wally (Catalani) Tyrol Wally’s suitor Gellner pushes into a ravine Hagenbach who has rejected her. She rescues him which changes his mind but both killed in an avalanche.
222. 1804 Le Corregidor (Wolf) Andalusia. Amorous elderly Corregidor, used to advance Frasquita’s nephew, arouses jealousy of her husband, leading to discomfort of both men.
223. 1812 War and Peace (Prokofiev) Scenes from Tolstoy’s novel
224. 1815c La Fille du Regiment (Donizetti) Tyrol. Orphan Marie, ‘adopted’ by 21st Regiment, loves Tonie who enlists to qualify for her hand. She is removed by Marquise, later revealed as her mother, to learn social graces but Tonie turns up with regiment and their union agreed.
225. 1815 Wiener Blut (J Strauss II) Congress of Vienna
226. 1820c Gugliemo Ratcliff (Mascagni) After Heine. Scotland. Obsessive lover of Maria who kills those wishing to marry her.
227. 1820-50 Der Evangellman (Kienzl) St Othmar, Austria. Johannes, jealous of Marthe’s love for his brother, a monk, arranges imprisonment for arson. On release becomes street preacher and forgives Johannes.
228. 1821 Wozzeck (Berg) After Büchner’s Woyzeck .inspired by suicide of German soldier in this year.
229. 1825 The Decembrists (Shaporin) At a ball to celebrate defeat of Decembrists, Elena encounters Tsar who allows her to go with her revolutionary lover Dmitri to Siberian exile.
230. 1825, May Il Viaggio a Reims (Rossini) Plombières. Travellers to coronation of Charles X held up by lack of horses amuse themselves with stories and song.
231. 1830 Carmen (Bizet) – After Prosper Merimèe’s encounter with Spanish gypsy
232. 1830 Bolivar (Milhaud) Ecents in life of Simón Bolivar (1783-1830).
233. 1830 Der Junge Lord (Henze) Hülsdorf-Gotha. Sir Edgar introduces a circus ape as a nephew whose eccentric behaviour is condoned by local community previously antagonised by his distant manner.
234. 1830c Peter Grimes (Britten) After George Crabbe. Fisherman loner loses an apprentice accidentally but when another dies Grimes is advised to sail out to sea and drown himself.
235. 1830c La Bohème (Puccini) After Henri Murger, Paris. On-off affair between impecunious artist and consumptive seamstress ends when she dies in his arms.
236. 1840 Il Segreto di Susanna (Wolf-Ferrari) Piedmont. Susanna has to confess to husband that she smokes when he accuses her of having a lover.
237. 1840c Halka (Moniuszco) Carpathia. Seduced by Januch who loves Zofia, Halka kills herself while they are marrying.
238. 1847 La Traviata (Verdi) After Dumas fils. Death of courtesan Marie Duplessis, inspiration for La Dame aux Camélias.
239. 1849 La Fanciulla del West (Puccini) Feisty saloon owner falls for bandit but wins a reprieve by cheating at cards. Later saves him from lynch mob.
240. 1852-70 La Rondine (Puccini) Paris and Nice. Puccini’s version of Traviata story
241. 1853 Lodoletta (Mascagni) After Ouida. Holland and Paris. French asylum seeker meets Dutch Lodoletta. When reprieved he returns to Paris, she follows but she dies of despair on seeing him again..
242. 1855-87 Peter Ibbetson (Taylor) After du Maurier. England and France. Sentenced to life after killing abusive uncle finds solace in dreams of childhood playmate. After forty years, hearing of her death, follows her.
243. 1860 Arabella (R Strauss) Vienna. For reasons of poverty, Arabella must marry money and sister Zdenka dress as man. Arabella falls for suitor’s son while Zdenka falls for her previous boy-friend/. Romantic complications end happily.
244. 1860c The Gambler (Prokofiev) After Dostoyevsky. German spa. Family of addicted gamblers await to inherit from aged aunt but she turns up and loses all her money at the tables.
245. 1860c Katya Kabanova (Janáček) With a tyrannical mother-in-law, Katya is unfaithful during husband’s absence. Confesses and drowns herself
246. 1860c I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo) Jealousy and passion depicted by travelling players mirrors real life with tragic outcome.
247. 1865 Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich) Kills husband and father-in-law to marry lover. Caught with her lover and on way to Siberia, he falls for another. Jealous Katya drowns rival and herself in river.
248. 1867 La Vie Parisienne (Offenbach) Impecunious men, both rejected by Métella aim to rip off Swedish tourists and Brazilian millionaire After much confusion matters resolve at a masked ball.
249. 1870c La Navarraise (Massenet) Bilbao. Orphan Anita claims reward for killing a rebel to provide dowry to wed a sergeant. Due to misunderstanding sergeant loses life and Anita her reason.
250. 1880-99 The Ballad of Baby Doe (Moore) Colorado gold rush, from life of Baby Doe Tabor 1854-1935. Divorced Baby Doe marries Horace Tabor, also divorced Heis ruined and dies after collapse in price of silver. She retreats to his Matchless Mine.
251. 1888 Lulu (Berg) After Wedekind. Sexually-exploited Lulu with fatal effect on men in her life becomes victim of Jack the Ripper
252. 1890 The Bear (Walton) After Chekhov. Widow falls for boorish creditor of late husband..
253. 1890c Osud (Janáček) Moravia. Based on autobiographical incident, an unfinished opera recounts a composer’s wife killed trying to save mother’s life following a row, their son guessing the truth at a rehearsal.
254. 19th c L’Amico Fritz (Mascagni) Alsace. Rabbi David wins a wager that Fritz will not remain a bschelor.
255. 19th c The Bohemian Girl (Balfe) After Caervantes, Hungary. Supposed gypsy Arline, accused of theft is recognised by judge as his daughter. He marries exiled Polish aristocrat despite opposition of Gypsy Queen.
256. 19th c Die Dreigroschenoper (Weill) Soho. Re-working of John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera.
257. 19th c Fedora (Giordano) After Sardou. Russia. Fedora seeks revenge for murder of her fiancé by nihilist but falls for him on discovering motive. Kills herself when truth about to emerge.
258. 19th c La Fille de Masdame Angot (Lecocq) Paris. Engaged daughter of Mme Angot loves another but still plans to marry fiancé.
259. 19th c Hugh the Drover (Vaughan Williams) Hugh wins boxing match with John the Butcher who accuses him of espionage. Freed from stocks by John’s fiancé, they elope as Hugh’s name is cleared.
260. 19th c Iris (Mascagni) Japan. Innocent, abducted to brothel by spurned suitor, is cursed by blind father and drowns herself in sewer.
261. 19th c Lakmé (Delibes) India. Lakmé, daughter of Brhmin priest nurses her Bitish soldier lover after vengeful attack by father but comrade persuades lover to resume army duties. Lakmé takes poison.
262. 19th c Mireille (Gounod) Arles. Mireille loves Vincent but father wishes to marry Ourrias who attempts unsuccessfully to kill Vincent. Outcome unclear.
263. 19th c L’Oracolo (Leone) San Francisco’s Chinatown Lurid tale of kidnapping, murder, revenge and insanity..
264. 19th c Owen Wingrave (Britten) England. Pacifist Wingrave is disgrace to family’s military tradition. Challenged by fiancée to sleep in haunted room, is found dead in the morning.
265. 19th c Pirates of Penzance (Sullivan) Cornwall Apprentice to group of pirates, revealed to be no-good aristocrats, falls for daughter of snobbish Major-General who orders release of pirates who then marry his daughters
266. 19th c I Quadro Rusteghi (Wolf- Ferrari) After Goldoni. Venice. Four male chauvinists outwitted by their wives.
267. 19th c La Sonnambula (Bellini) Switzerland Sleep-walking Amina is discovered in Count’s bedroom causing break-up of her engagement, in favour of Lisa, also compromised by a handkerchief. Happily resolved when Amina is seen sleepwalking on the roof..
268. 19th c Stiffelio (Verdi) Germany. Cuckolded Protestant Minister magnanimously divorces wife but her lover is killed by his father.
269. 19th c Die Tote Stadt (Korngold) Bruges..Paul meets dancer reminding him of late wife with whom he has several encounters before strangling her for infidelity.
270. 19th c Turn of the Screw (Britten) Ghost story after Henry James
271. 19th c Village Romeo and Juliet (Delius) Switzerland Offspring of feuding farmers see no future and commit suicide.
272. 1900 Zazà (Leoncavallo) Music Hall singer, Paris. Falls in love with married man but returns to her partner.
273. 1900 Albert Herring (Britten) Loxford, Suffolk. After de Maupassant. Elected May King since no one eligible for Queen.
274. 1900 The Lighthouse (Maxwell Davies) Hebrides. Mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers.
275. 1900c Louise (Charpentier) Paris. Leaves home to live with lover.
276. 1900c Amica (Mascagni) Savoy
277. 1900c Madama Butterfly (Puccini) Nagasaki. Goes through marriage ceremony with American sailor and bears his child. He goes away for three years and returns with American wife.
278. 1900 c La Vida Breve (De Falla) Grenada. Paco feigns love for gypsy but marries another Gypsy falls dead at wedding.
279. 1910 Il Tabarro (Puccini) The Seine. Bargee takes revenge on wife’s lover.
280. 1910 Les Mamelles de Tirésias (Poulenc) ‘Zanzibar’ France. Converted feminist passes all duties to her husband including child-bearing before reverting to normal.
281. 1911 Death in Venice (Britten) After Thomas Mann. Aging writer’s obsession with boy seen on beach.
282. 1914-17 Quiet Flows the Don (Dzerzhinsky) Domestic drama foreshadowing fall of Tsar
283. 1920c Intermezzo (Richard Strauss) Vienna and Grundlsee. Domestic drama
284. 1920c The Macropolus Case (Janáček) Prague 300 -year old, tired of life, stops taking elixir.
285. 1930c Volo di Notte (Dallapicola) After Saint-Exupéry, Vol de Nuit,
286. 1920c Porgy and Bess (Gersshwin) Catfish Row. Porgy kills rival for han of Bess then follows her to New York
287. 1930c The Tender Land (Copland) Mid-West. Co-ed plans to run away with drifter but goes it alone when he changes mind.
288. 1934-90 Powder her Face (Adés) Duchess of Argyle scandal
289. 1940c Léonore 40/45 (Liebermann) Occcupied Paris. French girl meets German soldier, reunited after war.
290. 1942 The Story of a Real Man (Prokofiev) Russia.Aviator with amputated feet learns to fly again.
291. 1945 Doctor Atomic (Adams) Oppenheimer and Atom Bomb test
292. 1960c The Passenger (Weinberg) Polish radio play. .Liner passenger encounters concentration camp guard.
293. 1967-2007 Anna Nichole (Turnage) Rise and fall of Playboy model.
294. 1972 Nixon in China (Adams) Nixon’s meet Chou en Lai’s
295. 198? Death of Klinghofer (Adams) Hijacking of Israeli liner
296. 1994 Jerry Springer The Opera (Thomas and Lee) Reality TV pioneer
297. 1998-2006 Flight (Jonathon Dove) Iranian who lived in Ch de Gaulle Airport
298. 20th c Riders of the Sea (Vaughan Williams) After Synge