List of television operas

This is a list of operas specifically composed and produced for television performance. It does not include productions of the established opera repertoire subsequently broadcast on television.

Year of premiere	Com­posed	Composer	Opera title	Librettist and/or source(s)	Television station
1938		Spike Hughes	Cinderella[1]	Spike Hughes	BBC Television
1947		Spike Hughes	St Patrick's Day	Richard Brinsley Sheridan	BBC Television
1951		Gian Carlo Menotti	Amahl and the Night Visitors	Gian Carlo Menotti	NBC
1952		Malcolm Arnold	The Dancing Master	Joe Mendoza, based on the play by William Wycherley	BBC (rejected)[2]
1953		Bohuslav Martinů	The Marriage	Bohuslav Martinů	NBC
1953		Bohuslav Martinů	What Men Live By	Bohuslav Martinů	NBC
1954		Bernard Herrmann	A Christmas Carol	Maxwell Anderson after Charles Dickens	CBS
1955		Lukas Foss	Griffelkin	Alastair Reid	NBC
1955		Walter Kaufmann	Christmas Slippers	Betty Marsh	Winnipeg[3]
1956		Norman Dello Joio	The Trial at Rouen	Norman Dello Joio	NBC
1956		Leonard Kastle	The Swing	Leonard Kastle	NBC
1956		Arthur Benjamin	Mañana	Caryl Brahms	BBC Television[4]
1956		Malcolm Arnold	The Open Window	Sidney Gilliat	BBC Television[5]
1957		Joan Trimble	Blind Raftery[6]	Cedric Cliffe, based on the novel by Donn-Byrne	BBC Television
1957		Stanley Hollingsworth	La Grande Bretèche	Stanley Hollingsworth	NBC
1959		Richard Arnell	The Petrified Princess	Richard Arnell	BBC Television
1959		Guy Halahan	The Spur of the Moment[7]	Joe Mendoza, after Frank Baker, Miss Hargreaves	BBC Television
1959		Gian Carlo Menotti	Maria Golovin	Gian Carlo Menotti	NBC
1959		Lee Hoiby	Beatrice	Marci Nardi	WAVE
1959		Ezra Laderman	Sarah	Clair Rascom	CBS
1959		Heinrich Sutermeister	Seraphine (Die stümme Apothekerin)	Heinrich Sutermeister, after François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel	Schweizer Fernsehen
1959		Henk Badings	Salto mortale	Henk Badings and Belcampo (Herman Pieter Schönfeld Wichers)	Nederlandse Omroep Stichting
1959		Paul Angerer	Passkontrolle		ORF
1960		Arthur Bliss	Tobias and the Angel	Christopher Hassall	BBC Television[8]
1961		Leonard Kastle	Deseret	Anne Howard Bailey	NBC
1961		Jean Prodromidès	Les Perses (The Persians)	Jean Prat [fr], after Aeschylus	RTF
1962		Igor Stravinsky	The Flood	Robert Craft	CBS
1962		Phyllis Tate	Dark Pilgrimage	Phyllis Tate	BBC Television
1962		Edwin Coleman	A Christmas Carol[9]	Margaret Burns Harris, after Charles Dickens	BBC Television
1962		Riccardo Malipiero	Battono alla porta	Dino Buzzati	RAI
1963		Ben McPeek	The Bargain	Ben McPeek	CBC Television
1963		Gian Carlo Menotti	Labyrinth	Gian Carlo Menotti	NBC
1963		Carlisle Floyd	The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair	Carlisle Floyd	NCE
1963		Ton de Leeuw	Alceste	Euripides	Nederlandse Omroep Stichting
1964		Heinrich Sutermeister	Das Gespenst von Canterville [de]	Heinrich Sutermeister, after Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost"	Mainz, ZDF
1965		David Amram	The Final Ingredient[10]	Arnold Weinstein	ABC
1965		Mark Bucci	The Hero	Mark Bucci	National Educational Television
1965		Carl Davis	The Arrangement[11]	Leo Lehman [de]	BBC Television
1965		Gian Carlo Menotti	Martin's Lie	Gian Carlo Menotti	CBS
1966		R. Murray Schafer	Loving	R. Murray Schafer	CBC Television
1967		Ezra Laderman	The Trials of Galileo	Joe Darion	CBS Television
1967		Ingvar Lidholm	Holländaren (The Dutchman)	after August Strindberg	Sveriges Television
1967		Christopher Whelen	Some Place of Darkness[12]	John Hopkins	BBC Television
1968		Roman Vlad	La fantarca [de; it]	Giuseppe Berto's La fantarca [it] (1965)	RAI
1968		Norman Kay	The Rose Affair[13]	After the novel by Alun Owen	BBC Television
1969		Thomas Eastwood	The Rebel[14]	Ronald Duncan	BBC Television
1969		Heinrich Sutermeister	La croisade des enfants (The Children's Crusade)	Heinrich Sutermeister, after Marcel Schwob	TvR
1970		Jack Beeson	My Heart's in the Highlands	Jack Beeson	PBS
1971		Heinrich Sutermeister	Das Flaschenteufel	Kurt Weibel, after Robert Louis Stevenson's The Bottle Imp	Mainz, ZDF
1971	1969–70	Benjamin Britten	Owen Wingrave	Myfanwy Piper, after Henry James	BBC Two
1971		Ezra Laderman	And David Wept	Joe Darion, after the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba	CBS Television[15][16]
1973		John Eaton	Myshkin[17]	Patrick Creagh after Dostoevsky's The Idiot	PBS
1976		Alun Hoddinott	Murder, The Magician[18]	John Morgan	HTV
1976		Godfrey Ridout	The Lost Child	John Reid	CBC Television
1976		Raymond Pannell	Aberfan[19]	Beverly Pannell	CBC Television
1977		Carl Davis	Orpheus in the Underworld[20]	John Wells	BBC Television
1978		Norman Kay	A Christmas Carol[21]	John Morgan, after Charles Dickens	HTV
1979		Alun Hoddinott	The Rajah's Diamond[22]	Myfanwy Piper, from R. L. Stevenson's New Arabian Nights	BBC Television
1982		Peter Sculthorpe	Quiros[23]	Brian Bell	ABC Television
1984		Robert Ashley	Perfect Lives	Robert Ashley	Channel Four
1990		Salvador Brotons	Reverend Everyman	Gary Corseri, from Hofmannsthal's Jedermann	WFSU-TV[24]
1991		Michael Nyman	Letters, Riddles and Writs	Jeremy Newson and Pat Gavin	BBC Television
1993		Stewart Copeland	Horse Opera[25]	Jonathan Moore	Channel Four
1993		Anthony Moore	Camera[26]	Peter Blegvad	Channel Four
1994	1991–92	Gerald Barry	The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit	Meredith Oakes	Channel Four
1994	1992	Orlando Gough	The Empress[26]	David Gale, from Wedekind	Channel Four
1995	1993	Michael Torke	King of Hearts[27]	Christopher Rawlence	Channel Four
1995		Mike Westbrook Kate Westbrook	Good Friday, 1663[28]	Helen Simpson	Channel Four
2005		Judith Weir	Armida	Judith Weir	Channel Four
2006		Jonathan Dove	Man on the Moon	Nicholas Wright	Channel Four
2006		Alexina Louie	Burnt Toast: 8 Mini Comic Operas About Love	Dan Redican	CBC Television
2015		Elena Kats-Chernin	The Divorce	Joanna Murray-Smith	ABC TV (Australia)

See also

• List of radio operas
• Radio opera

References

1. Wyver, John. "A tale of six Cinders, part 2: Cinderella (BBC, 1938, 1948, 1950)", Screen Plays, 12 January 2012
2. Alberge, Dalya. "Malcolm Arnold's The Dancing Master finally comes in from the cold", The Guardian, 11 October 2012
3. Margaret Ross Griffel (2012). Operas in English: A Dictionary, p. 91
4. 1 February 1956, Radio Times, issue 1681, 29 January 1956
5. 14 December 1956 Radio Times, issue 1726, 9 December 1956
6. Blind Raftery, Radio Times, issue 1749, 21 May 1957, pp. 6, 17
7. Radio Times, 14 June, 1959, p. 13
8. 19 May 1960, Radio Times, 15 May 1960
9. BBC Arts
10. The New York Times, 12 April, 1965
11. Radio Times, Issue 2168, 29 May, 1965
12. Christopher Whelen. "Thoughts on Television Opera", in Composer 24 (1967), p. 17
13. Spence, Keith (1968). "Television". The Musical Times. 109 (1505): 656. doi:10.2307/952713. JSTOR 952713.
14. 4 April 1969, Radio Times, issue 2368, 29 March 1969, p. 71
15. And David Wept at IMDb 
16. "Ezra Laderman", Milken Archive of Jewish Music
17. Wise Music
18. British Film Institute
19. Dzeguze, K. 'Situation tragedy', in Maclean's, 31 October, 1977
20. 5 June 1977, Radio Times, issue 2795, 4 June 1977, p. 29
21. "Norman Kay obituary". The Guardian. 30 May 2001. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
22. Radio Times Issue 2924, 24th November 1979
23. Quiros : opera, Australian Music Centre
24. Griffel, M. R., Operas in English: A Dictionary (2012), p. 413
25. The Independent, 6 October, 1993
26. The Independent, 14 February, 1994
27. Michaeltorke.com
28. Mike Westbrook website

Further reading

• Jennifer Barnes (2003). Television Opera. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9780851159126.
• Marcia Citron (2000). Opera on Screen. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
• Salter, Lionel (1992). "Television, History". In Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Vol. 4. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 680. ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2.
• Willis, Stephen C. "Opera composition". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on April 6, 2012.
• "Television's audience for opera", The Guardian, 8 December 1966, p. 8.^[full citation needed]