Kalmus Opera Library

Don Pasquale, regarded as one of the crowning gems of comic opera, had its first performance on January 3, 1843 by the Theatre-Italien at the Salle Ventadour in Paris. Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) co...

Don Pasquale, regarded as one of the crowning gems of comic opera, had its first performance on January 3, 1843 by the Theatre-Italien at the Salle Ventadour in Paris. Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) co...

Umberto Giordano (1867-1948) wrote the four-act verismo opera Andrea Chénier in 1896, and it remains his best-known work. It premiered on March 28, 1896, at La Scala in Milan. Loosely based on the lif...

Umberto Giordano (1867-1948) wrote the four-act verismo opera Andrea Chénier in 1896, and it remains his best-known work. It premiered on March 28, 1896, at La Scala in Milan. Loosely based on the lif...

WERTHER, an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet (1842-1912), found its inspiration in a novel by Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther, which in turn based its story on the actual suicide of a young m...

WERTHER, an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet (1842-1912), found its inspiration in a novel by Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther, which in turn based its story on the actual suicide of a young m...

Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli's (1834-1886) 4-act opera La Gioconda was first performed by La Scala in Milan on April 8, 1876, and was an immediate success, acting as a bridge between the Verdi...

LA BOHÈME, l'un des opéras les plus aimés et les plus réussis sur le plan commercial, est basé sur le roman Scènes de la vie de bohème d'Henri Murger, paru en 1851. Sur un livret de Luigi Illica et Gi...

LA BOHÈME, l'un des opéras les plus aimés et les plus réussis sur le plan commercial, est basé sur le roman Scènes de la vie de bohème d'Henri Murger, paru en 1851. Sur un livret de Luigi Illica et Gi...

The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia) was written by Giocchino Rossini (1792-1868) in 1816. The two-act comic opera is considered one of the greatest opera buffas ever written, and it remain...

The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia) was written by Giocchino Rossini (1792-1868) in 1816. The two-act comic opera is considered one of the greatest opera buffas ever written, and it remain...

Ayant déjà remporté le prix de Rome de composition, George Bizet (1838-1875) a eu l'occasion d'écrire son opéra LES PECHEURS DE PERLES sur commande. Sur un livret écrit par Eugène Cormon et Michel Car...

Ayant déjà remporté le prix de Rome de composition, George Bizet (1838-1875) a eu l'occasion d'écrire son opéra LES PECHEURS DE PERLES sur commande. Sur un livret écrit par Eugène Cormon et Michel Car...

Because he had formerly won the Prix de Rome prize in composition, George Bizet (1838-1875) had the opportunity to write his opera Les pecheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) on commission. With a libr...

Because he had formerly won the Prix de Rome prize in composition, George Bizet (1838-1875) had the opportunity to write his opera Les pecheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) on commission. With a libr...

Based on the 1832 play LE ROI S'AMUSE by Victor Hugo, Guiseppe Verdi's (1812-1901) RIGOLETTO was the composer's sixteenth entry into the genre and is widely considered one of the first operatic master...

Based on the 1832 play LE ROI S'AMUSE by Victor Hugo, Guiseppe Verdi's (1812-1901) RIGOLETTO was the composer's sixteenth entry into the genre and is widely considered one of the first operatic master...

LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN, écrit entre 1876 et 1880, est la dernière œuvre composée par Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), qui mourut quatre mois avant la première, une crainte qu'Offenbach exprima par prémon...

LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN, écrit entre 1876 et 1880, est la dernière œuvre composée par Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), qui mourut quatre mois avant la première, une crainte qu'Offenbach exprima par prémon...

The creation of the opera Il Trovatore by Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was complicated by a variety of circumstances. The original play by Garcia Gutierrez needed simplifying, and the traditional notion...

The creation of the opera Il Trovatore by Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was complicated by a variety of circumstances. The original play by Garcia Gutierrez needed simplifying, and the traditional notion...

Finished in 1848 and premiered in 1950 in Weimar, Germany, Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) LOHENGRIN tells a story of a tragic medieval German romance in the Knight of the Swan tradition. Elsa, a princes...

WERTHER, opéra en quatre actes de Jules Massenet (1842-1912), s'inspire d'un roman de Goethe, Les chagrins du jeune Werther, qui lui-même s'inspire du suicide réel d'un jeune homme hanté par l'adorati...

Italian composer Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) wrote L'amico Fritz in 1891 only one year after his masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana began the Versimo movement. A charming light opera in three acts, L'am...

NABUCCO, a retelling of the biblical story of Jewish exile under the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, was Giuseppe Verdi's (1813-1901) first major operatic success, and was written reluctantly, followi...