Kalmus Opera Library

LA BOHÈME (The Bohemian), one of the most beloved and commercially-successful operas, is based on the 1851 novel Scenes of Bohemian Life by Henri Murger. With a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe G...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote the music to COSÌ FAN TUTTE (So do they all), his third collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, only after his contemporary Antonio Salieri rejected t...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote the music to COSÌ FAN TUTTE (So do they all), his third collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, only after his contemporary Antonio Salieri rejected t...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote the music to COSÌ FAN TUTTE (So do they all), his third collaboration with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, only after his contemporary Antonio Salieri rejected t...

La Cenerentola (Cinderella) is based on the fairy tale Cendrillon by Charles Perrault. Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) composed La Cenerentola at age 25 following the success of his opera The Barber of...

The opera La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny) by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was written in 1862 and premiered in the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre of Saint Petersburg, Russia on November 10 of that...

La serva padrona (The Maid as Mistress) was composed in 1733 by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) as a two-part intermezzo intended to be performed between the acts of his serious opera Il prigi...

The story of Turandot, while originally derived from the Persian collection of stories called "The Book of One Thousand and One Days," was set in China by Puccini. It tells the tale of a cold-hearted...

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) composed his popular two-act opera buffa L'elisir d'amore hastily over six weeks in 1832 for a premiere that took place on May 12 of that year at the Teatro della Canobbi...

LA BOHÈME (The Bohemian), one of the most beloved and commercially-successful operas, is based on the 1851 novel Scenes of Bohemian Life by Henri Murger. With a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe G...

Premiering on May 22, 1813, at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice, L'italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) by Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) was a success, with subsequent performances in Vi...

Austrian composer Alban Berg (1885-1935) composed the three-act opera Wozzeck between 1914 and 1922 after seeing a production of German playwright Georg Büchner's incomplete drama Woyzeck. Beginning t...

The Pirates of Penzance (The Slave of Duty), written in 1879, was the fifth collaboration between Arthur Sullivan and W. S. Gilbert. It tells the story of a 21 year old man, Frederic, who is apprentic...

MANON, written by Jules Massenet (1842-1912) was composed in 1883 and premiered the following year on January 19 at the Opéra-Comique. Telling the story of a young woman who, despite being a good pers...

In 1890, Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921) wrote an assortment of songs for a play written by Adelheid Wette, his sister, as a gift to her children. Spurred by his friend Richard Strauss, he took some...

In 1890, Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921) wrote an assortment of songs for a play written by Adelheid Wette, his sister, as a gift to her children. Spurred by his friend Richard Strauss, he took some...

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO (THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO) is based on LA FOLLE JOURNEE OU LE MARIAGE DE FIGARO (1784), a comic play by Pierre Beaumarchais. Lorenzo Da Ponte, who also collaborated with Mozart on DON...

Le Nozze Di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) is based on La folle journee ou le Mariage de Figaro (1784), a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils. The opera was originally titled Violetta...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote the two-act opera Don Giovanni, K. 527, in 1787 following a commission from Prague impresario Pasquale Bondini. Following the success of The Marriage of Figar...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) wrote the two-act opera Don Giovanni, K. 527, in 1787 following a commission from Prague impresario Pasquale Bondini. Following the success of The Marriage of Figar...

LA TRAVIATA (The Fallen Woman) is based on La Dame aux camélias (1852), a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas fils. The opera was originally titled VIOLETTA, after the main character. Libre...

Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) is an 1859 three act opera by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) with a libretto by Antonio Somma. Initially based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five...

Finished in 1848 and premiered in 1850 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...

Norma is a two-act lyric tragedy by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835). A leading example of the bel canto genre, the opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on December 26th, 1831. The story tells of a love t...

Norma is a two-act lyric tragedy by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835). A leading example of the bel canto genre, the opera premiered at La Scala in Milan on December 26th, 1831. The story tells of a love t...