In an old notebook I kept while visiting India in 2016, I came across this list of once popular operas, copied from Oliver Ditson Co.’s libretto of Goldmark’s Königin von Saba. (Published in the mid-1880s, I presume; Goldmark’s opera was the most popular opera in New York of the 1885-86 season.)
That list inspired a quest to look at some of those old, once forgotten classic operas. (That was the original plan. Even before I started the blog, however, the goal had wandered off, or expanded; pre-Mozartean and post-Straussian opera wasn’t originally in the remit, and my tastes have changed over the last few years!)
The list includes both “Editions of the Standard and Popular Operas – Complete, with the Music, Words, and Piano Accompaniment” and “Librettos of the Standard and Popular Operas”.
AUBER
• Crown Diamonds = Les diamants de la couronne
• Fra Diavolo
• Masaniello = La muette de Portici
AUDRAN
• Gillette = Gillette de Narbonne. (Light Modern Opera. French school.)
• Love’s Vow = Serment d’amour. (Light Modern Opera.)
• Mascotte. (One of the greatest successes of Modern Comic Opera.)
• Olivette = Les noces d’Olivette. (Comic Light Opera.)
BALFÉ
• Bohemian Girl. (Known the world over.)
• Rose of Castile
BEETHOVEN
• Fidelio
BELLINI
• Capuletti e Montecchi [a.k.a. Romeo and Juliet]
• Norma
• Pirata
• Puritani
• Sonnambula
BERNICAT & MESSENGER
• Fantine. (Popular Modern Light Opera. Music and plot the same as “Victor the Blue Stocking.”)
BIZET
• Carmen. (Grand Opera. Spanish in character.)
BOIELDIEU
• Dame blanche
BOITO
• Mefistofele. (Grand Opera.)
CAGNONI
• Don Bucefalo
CELLIER
• The Spectre Knight. (A popular Modern Light Opera.)
DELIBES
• Lakmé. (Delibes’ most pretentious work.)
DONIZETTI
• Anna Bolena
• Don Pasquale
• Elisire d’amore
• Favorita
• Fille du regiment
• Linda di Chamounix
• Lucia di Lammermoor
• Lucrezia Borgia. (Grand Opera. Old standard favorite.)
• Maria di Rohan
• Martiri (Polluto)
EICHBERG
• Doctor of Alcantara. (Immensely popular.)
• Two Cadis. (Comic Opera.)
FLOTOW
• Martha. (One of the standard Operas.)
• Ombra
• Stradella. (One of the prettiest of the standard Operas.)
GOLDMARK
• The Queen of Sheba = Königin von Saba
GOUNOD
• Faust. (Gounod’s most popular work.)
• Mirella = Mireille
• Romeo and Juliet = Roméo & Juliette
GRISART
• Infanta’s Dolls = Les poupées de l’infante. (Light Opera.)
HALÉVY
• Juive
HÉROLD
• Field of Honor. (Pré aux clercs.) (Hérold. French Comic Opera.)
• Zampa
HERVÉ
• Fleur de thé
LAVALLEE
• T.I.Q. (The Indian Question). (Comic Opera.)
• The Widow. (Comic Opera.)
LECOCQ
• Fille du Madame Angot
• Giroflé-Girofla
• Heart and Hand = Le cœur et la main. (Light Modern Opera, in French Style.)
• Little Duke = Le petit duc. (Light Modern Comic Opera.)
• Manola. (Light Modern Opera.)
MERCADANTE
• Giuramento
MEYERBEER
• Africaine.
• Dinorah (Pardon de Ploërmel). (Grand Opera. German in character.)
• Etoile du nord
• Huguenots
• Prophète
• Robert le Diable
MOZART
• Don Giovanni
• Flauto magico [=Zauberflöte]
• Marriage of Figaro. (One of the old favorites.)
OFFENBACH
• Barbe bleue
• Belle Hélène
• Geneviève de Brabant
• Grand duchesse
• Madame Favart. (One of the author’s most famous operas bouffe.)
• Orpheus
• Périchole
PACINI
• Saffo
PETRELLA
• Carnival of Venice
• Ione
PLANQUETTE
• Belles of Corneville (Chimes of Normandy) = Les cloches de Corneville. (Bright and sparkling music in the French style.)
PONCHIELLI
• Giaconda
PRATT
• Zenobia. (Grand Opera.)
RICCI
• Crispino e la Comare
ROSSINI
• Barbiere di Siviglia
• Cenerentola
• Gazza ladra
• Othello
• Semiramide
• William Tell
SCHUBERT
• Conspirators = Die Verschworenen. (Schubert’s pleasing music.)
SOLOMON
• Billee Taylor. (Comic Opera, after the manner of Pinafore.)
SULLIVAN
• Cox and Box. (Comic Operetta for three male voices.)
• Pinafore. (Known the world over.)
• The Sorcerer. (Popular Comic Operetta.)
VON SUPPÉ
• Boccaccio. (Popular Comic Opera.)
• Fatinitza. (Popular Modern Light Opera.)
• Lovely Galatea = Die schöne Galathee. (Light Modern Opera.)
THOMAS
• Mignon. (One of the sweetest of the Grand Operas.)
VARNEY
• The Musketeers = Les mousquetaires au couvent. (Light Modern Comic Opera.)
VERDI
• Aida (Grand Opera. Verdi’s greatest work.)
• Don Carlos
• Ernani
• Lombardi
• Luisa Miller
• Masked Ball = Un ballo in maschera
• Rigoletto
• Sicilian Vespers
• Trovatore. (The old favorite.)
• Traviata
WAGNER
• Flying Dutchman
• Götterdämmerung
• Lohengrin
• Meistersinger
• Siegfried
• Tannhäuser
• Walküre
WALLACE
• Lurline
• Maritana. (Standard Opera. Very popular.)
WEBER
• Der Freyschutz
• Preciosa. (Old standard favorite.)
Some operas are still firmly in the repertoire; some “popular” operas “known the world over” are now almost totally forgotten; and other then-popular works by composers known today are now rare (e.g. Maria di Rohan and Linda di Chamounix for Donizetti, Weber’s Preciosa, Offenbach’s Madame Favart).
The Opera Scribe 