The opera corpus

The opera corpus is a list of nearly 2,500 works by more than 775 individual opera composers.

Some of the works listed below are still being performed today — but many are not. The principal works of the major composers are given as well as those of historical importance in the development of the art form.

Coverage is broad and inclusive, with light music as well as other more formal styles of opera. It covers the full historical period from the birth of opera in the late 16th century to the present day. (See also statistics section at the foot of the page.)

Tens of thousands of operas have been written and performed during the past four hundred years, both in Europe and in the New World and even in Asia. This list is intended to be a selective one of notable works that have articles on Wikipedia, or on another encyclopedia.

List of operas by composer's last name

Contents :

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Statistics

The list includes at least 2,566 works by 775 composers (last machine count 8 April 2011).

Breakdown (2007 figures) by birth date period:

There are 739 men and 36 women (last count 8 April 2011).

The women composers are: Amy Beach, Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Grażyna Bacewicz, Louise Bertin, Joanna Bruzdowicz, Francesca Caccini, Deborah Cheetham, Unsuk Chin, Chaya Czernowin, Violeta Dinescu, Deborah Drattell, Vivian Fine, Elena Firsova, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Kazuko Hara, Moya Henderson, Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, Elizabeth Maconchy, Meredith Monk, Thea Musgrave, Nicola LeFanu, Roxanna Panufnik, Rachel Portman, Kaija Saariaho, Alice Shields, Julia Smith, Ethel Smyth, Margaret Sutherland, Germaine Tailleferre, Louise Talma, Phyllis Tate, Pauline Viardot, Joelle Wallach, Judith Weir, Gillian Whitehead, and Grace Williams.

Coverage here compares to about 1,800 titles in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera.