WThe Cave is a multimedia opera in three acts by Steve Reich to an English libretto by his wife Beryl Korot. It was first performed in 1993 in Vienna by the Steve Reich Ensemble, conducted by Paul Hillier. The title "The Cave" refers to The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, where Abraham and Sarah are buried.
WChristus is an opera in seven scenes with a prologue and epilogue by Anton Rubinstein, written between the years 1887-1893 to a libretto after a poem by Heinrich Bulthaupt.
WCiro in Babilonia, ossia La caduta di Baldassare is an azione sacra in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Francesco Aventi. It was first performed at the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara during Lent, 1812. The exact date of the premiere is unknown but is believed to be 14 March. During Lent it was the custom for Italian opera houses either to close or to stage works on themes from the Bible. Ciro in Babilonia is one of two Lenten operas by Rossini and is based on the Biblical story of the overthrow of the Babylonian king Belshazzar by the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great.
WDavid et Jonathas, H. 490, is an opera in five acts and a prologue by the French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier, first performed at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, Paris, on 28 February 1688. The libretto, by Father François Bretonneau, is based on the Old Testament story of the friendship between David and Jonathan.
WDèbora e Jaéle is an opera in three acts composed by Ildebrando Pizzetti who also wrote the libretto. The libretto is based on the story of Deborah and Jael from the Book of Judges in the Bible. However, it differs in several ways from the traditional Biblical account, primarily in the motivations of its characters and the relationships between them. The opera was first performed at La Scala, Milan on 16 December 1922.
WIl diluvio universale is an azione tragico-sacra, or opera, by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Domenico Gilardoni after Lord Byron's Heaven and Earth and Francesco Ringhieri's tragedy Il diluvio (1788).
WL'enfant prodigue is a grand opera in five acts composed by Daniel Auber to a French libretto by Eugène Scribe based on the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke. It was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Académie Nationale de Musique in Paris on 6 December 1850. The role of Azaël was sung in the premiere by the celebrated French tenor, Gustave-Hippolyte Roger, (1815-1879).
WEsther is an American opera in 3 acts composed by Hugo Weisgall, with a libretto by Charles Kondek. Esther was premiered by the New York City Opera in October 1993. The opera is about Esther's struggle as she becomes the queen of Persia, and her heroic triumph over the evil Prime Minister Haman and his plot of exterminating the Jews.
WThe Flood: A musical play (1962) is a short biblical drama by Igor Stravinsky on the story of Noah and the flood, originally conceived as a work for television. It contains singing, spoken dialogue, and ballet sequences. It is in Stravinsky's late, serial style.
WThe Gospel According to the Other Mary is an opera-oratorio by the American composer John Adams. The world premiere took place on May 31, 2012, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic who also premiered the staged version on March 7, 2013, at the same venue.
WHagith, Op. 25, is an opera in one act by the Polish composer and pianist Karol Szymanowski considered one of the greatest Polish composers of the 20th century. The opera premiered at the Grand Theatre, Warsaw in 1922, nine years after its creation. The libretto in German was written by the Viennese secessionist poet and Szymanowski's friend Felix Dörmann.
WHérodiade is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Paul Milliet and Henri Grémont, based on the novella Hérodias (1877) by Gustave Flaubert. It was first performed at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels on 19 December 1881.
WJephtas Gelübde was the first opera composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer. The libretto, which is elaborated from the biblical story of Jephthah, was by Aloys Schreiber. The first performance was at the Hoftheater in Munich on 23 December 1812. Two manuscripts of the score survive, one in the British Library, London, the other in Brussels.
WJoseph is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer Étienne Méhul. The libretto, by Alexandre Duval, is based on the Biblical story of Joseph and his brothers. The work was first performed by the Opéra-Comique in Paris on 17 February 1807 at the Théâtre Feydeau. It mixes musical numbers with spoken dialogue and is described in both the libretto and the printed announcement for the opening night as a drame en trois actes, mêlé de chant, although the Méhul scholar Elizabeth Bartlet catalogues it as an opéra en prose.
WJudith is an opera in two acts by Siegfried Matthus with a libretto by the composer based on Friedrich Hebbel's Judith and texts from the Old Testament. The premiere was on 28 September 1985 at the Komische Oper Berlin, directed by Harry Kupfer. It was recorded in a studio production.
WDie Königin von Saba is an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark. The German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal sets a love triangle into the context of the Queen of Sheba's visit to the court of King Solomon, recorded in First Kings 10:1–13. The plot centres on a love triangle not found in the Bible between the Queen of Sheba, Assad, and Sulamith.
WThe Last Supper is an opera with music by Sir Harrison Birtwistle to an English and Latin libretto by Robin Blaser. Birtwistle composed the music over the period written in 1998-1999. The world premiere was given by the Berlin State Opera on 18 April 2000, with the production directed by Martin Duncan and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. It was subsequently performed by the Glyndebourne Touring Opera in October/November 2000 and the following summer at the 2001 Glyndebourne Festival. Many of the original cast returned for two concert performances at the Piccolo Teatro Studio Expo, Milan and the Teatro Valdocco, Turin on 4-5 September 2008 with the London Sinfonietta, conducted by Elgar Howarth as part of the Settembre Musica festival.
WDie Maccabäer is an opera in three acts by Anton Rubinstein to a libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal. The opera is based on a play by Otto Ludwig, which is itself based loosely on the biblical story of the Maccabees. Written in 1872-74, it was first performed on 17 April 1875 at the Hofoper, Berlin. Censorship problems prevented its performance in Russia until January 1877.
WLa mort d'Abel is an opera by the French composer Rodolphe Kreutzer. The libretto, by François-Benoît Hoffman, deals with the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. It was first performed in a three-act version at the Salle Montansier by the Académie Impériale de Musique on 23 March 1810 under the title Abel. A revival at the Salle Le Peletier in 1823, in which the second act was cut, impressed the young Hector Berlioz.
WLa mort d'Adam is an opera in 3 acts by Jean-François Le Sueur with a French libretto by Nicolas-François Guillard after Klopstock, first performed in 1809, though written a few years earlier.
WMosè in Egitto is a three-act opera written by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola, which was based on a 1760 play by Francesco Ringhieri, L'Osiride. It premièred on 5 March 1818 at the recently reconstructed Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Italy.
WMoses is an 1892 sacred opera in eight scenes by Anton Rubinstein. The German libretto was written by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal who had earlier supplied Rubinstein with the libretto for his most successful opera Die Maccabäer (1875), and is best known as author of the libretto Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor by Otto Nicolai. The opera was scheduled to be premiered in Prague, but had to be cancelled after two rehearsals at the Neues Deutsches Theater. In the next three years the work received concert performances in Riga through the influence of the founder of the Bach Society there, as well as St. Petersburg, Bonn, Amsterdam, Cologne and Vienna. Though there is no firm evidence that the entire opera was ever performed on the stage in its entirety. The opera was revived 15 October 2017 in Warsaw, in what may have been the first complete performance.
WMoses und Aron is a three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg with the third act unfinished. The German libretto is by the composer after the Book of Exodus. Hungarian composer Zoltán Kocsis completed the last act, with Schoenberg's heirs' permission, in 2010, but as of 2014 Moses und Aron was almost always performed as Schoenberg left it in 1932, with only two of the planned three acts completed.
WNabucco is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto is based on the biblical books of 2 Kings, Jeremiah, Lamentations and Daniel and the 1836 play by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu. However, Antonio Cortese's ballet adaptation of the play, given at La Scala in 1836, was a more important source for Solera than was the play itself. Under its original name of Nabucodonosor, the opera was first performed at La Scala in Milan on 9 March 1842.
WNoé (Noah) was the last opera of the composer Fromental Halévy.
WSalome, Op. 54, is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss. The libretto is Hedwig Lachmann's German translation of the 1891 French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde, edited by the composer. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer.
WSamson and Delilah, Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. It was first performed in Weimar at the Grossherzogliches Theater on 2 December 1877 in a German translation.
WSaul og David is the first of the two operas by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen. The four-act libretto, by Einar Christiansen, tells the Biblical story of Saul's jealousy of the young David, taken from the Book of Samuel. The first performance was at the Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen, on 28 November 1902.
WDer Thurm zu Babel is a one-act 'sacred opera' by Anton Rubinstein to a libretto by Julius Rosenberg based on the story in the Book of Genesis, chapter II. The opera was written in 1869 and had its first performance in Königsberg on 9 February 1870.