Donation Timeline

Pascal Collasse was Lully's student, and took over the writing of Achille et Polyxène (1687) when Lully died of a conducting injury. He wrote several operas after that, including Canente, which is about the sorceress Circe. Collasse dabbled in alchemy, and tried to start an opera house in Lille, which burnt down, as many of them do. Would-be opera impresarios, beware!

The Blood of the Rose. Premiered in Lima in celebration of Philip V's birthday, this is the first known opera to be performed in the Americas. It is a Venus and Adonis retelling, and has a libretto by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, like Celos aun del aire matan (1660). It has a fantastic loa, or dedicatory prologue.

The Victory of Fruitful Pomona. Reinhard Keiser was hugely important in his day, but is largely forgotten now.

Now that's a cool name!

This opera, premiered in Leipzig, which had a female librettist, Christine Dorothea Lachs, was believed lost until 45 arias were discovered in an archive in the 21st century!

The famous composer's first opera, written when he was 19.

Camilla's Triumph. This was performed at Drury Lane in a mixture of Italian and English. There were two Bononcini brothers, and no one knows which one wrote the music!

One of the first opera seria, Scarlatti's offering was considered a failure at the time of its premiere in Venice, but is now regarded as one of his finest.

Nicola Haym adapted Alessandro Scarlatti's 1694 opera in an English translation, writing a new overture and 24 new arias. The castrato Nicolò Grimaldi sang Pyrrhus, and educated the English on how the Venetians ran opera houses. It was a huge success!

Set to a libretto by the cardinal, diplomat, and opera librettist Vincenzo Grimani, many consider this to be Handel's first operatic masterpiece. Grimani was a mover and a shaker and convinced Handel to set his libretto whilst smoothing the path to a first performance at the opera house in Venice his family happened to own.

Almahide has the distinction of being the first opera sung in London entirely in Italian. It was, however, a hodge-podge of the work of different composers, put together by the impresario Heidegger. We're not sure if this counts. A few months later, Mancini's Hydaspes was premiered, also entirely in Italian.

The first opera by a composer born in the Americas, Partenope continues the long-lasting trend for the use of accessible Greek mythological tales as the inspiration for operatic and theatrical stories. The work was commissioned by Viceroy Fernando de Alencastre Noroña y Silva, and premiered at the viceroyal palace in Mexico City.

The Faithful Shepherd. We are now entering the era of Handel's dominance. Be prepared.

This was Vivaldi's first opera, at age 35 - there is hope for all late starters! It premiered in Vicenza, near Venice, as a warm up for launching a full-frontal assault on the world opera capital after that.

The Frenzy of Orlando. Vivaldi returned to this story a second time later, with more famous results. But this now incomplete piece launched Vivaldi's Venetian opera career.

FIrst performed at the King's Theatre, this magic opera was Handel's fifth Italian opera for the London stage. It received an incredibly lavish production, which included a fountain spraying real water.

Charles, King of Germany. Scarlatti's 79th opera out of a whopping 114!

The Coronation of Darius. Vivaldi hit Venice with two new operas in 1717. This one, and the strangely named Tieteberga.

Handel returned repeatedly to this story across his lifetime. He described this version as a "little opera".

For Antonio Lotti's 23rd opera, written to celebrate the wedding of Crown Prince Friedrich Augustus to the daughter of the late Hapsburg Emperor, Leopold I, Maria Josepha, Archduchess of Austria, a new 2000-seater opera house was built in Dresden. Handel was in attendance to watch the famous castrato Senesino, who he brought to London.

Handel's first opera for the newly established Royal Academy of Music in London, performed at the King's Theatre. The piece underwent a few revisions, and the second version, premiered in December, featured the castrato Senesino.

Patient Socrates. Telemann's first full-length purely comic opera. He was commissioned by Reinhard Keiser, composer of Der Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona (1702), who ran the Oper am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg.

Giovanni Bononcini had been brought to London to compose operas for the newly established Royal Academy of Music, along with his great rival George Frideric Handel. They had collaborated on an opera the previous year, which had stoked their rivalry. Griselda gave the RAM its first and last profitable season.

Inspired by Antonio Lotti's Teofane (1719) which he saw in Dresden, Handel wrote this opera for the celebrated singer Francesca Cuzzoni. During rehearsals, the composer threatened to throw her out of a window if she refused to sing a particular aria. Sopranos working with composers: beware! It had a happy ending though, as her rendition of that aria sealed her reputation and made everyone a huge amount of money. Sadly she died in poverty, ruined by her rivalry with another soprano. Sopranos beware!

1724 was an almost impossibly illustrious year in the history of opera, including the prolific and influential Metastasio's debut as a librettist in Naples with an adaption of the story of Dido. Nothing, however, comes close to the supreme mastery and dramatic flair of Handel's Giulio Cesare. Feisty, sexual, political, and thrilling, the work continues to fascinate 300 years later. A towering achievement.

The third of three great operas Handel wrote for the Royal Academy of Music in 1724, all featuring Francesca Cuzzoni and castrato Senesino. Opera and fashion are natural bedfellows, as evidenced by the craze for a particular dress that swept London after Cuzzoni wore it on stage in Rodelinda. Look ahead to 2022, and Oliver Leith's Last Days featured costumes designed by Balenciaga.

Some things never change. To enliven their season, the Royal Academy Opera decided to cast two rival sopranos, Francesca Cuzzoni, and Faustina Bordoni, as two queens vying for the attention of Alexander the Great. The ensuing rivalry ultimately resulted in a factional scandal breaking out during a performance of Astianatte (1727), in front of members of the royal family. The two divas apparently started wrestling, and fights broke out in the audience. Racehorses were even named after the two rival singers.

The Frenzy of Orlando. Vivaldi produced four operas in 1727, including a return to the story of Orlando furioso, which he had previously set in 1714.

The Beggar’s Opera not only had a major influence on the ballad opera style, but also inspired the hugely influential The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (1928).

The sequel to the hugely successful Beggar's Opera was never performed in Gay's lifetime, because the satire was considered too biting for the censors. It was, however, published, and the whole of London read it. Censors beware!

Vinci and his librettist Metastasio had two hugely influential premieres this year. A huge figure in the history of opera, Metastasio's librettos enjoyed almost a century of endless settings by different composers. Leonardo Vinci died in May of 1730, only in his late 30s. He was apparently poisoned due to an affair. Composers beware!

Originally premiered near Dresden in 1726, this is probably the first opera buffa performed in Germany. Opera buffa was a particular genre of Italian comic opera which focused on the often convoluted interrelationships and machinations of ordinary people as opposed to Gods or Kings. In 1731, Calandro became the first Italian opera to be performed in Russia.

The Brother in Love. Pergolesi was only 22 when he premiered two operas in the year, both in Naples: Lo frate 'nnamorato, and La Salustia. Both runs were thrown into crisis for different reasons. Shortly before the premiere of La Salustia, the famous castrato Nicolini died. Nicolini, real name Fausto Grimaldi, had collaborated with Handel, and also Nicola Haym on Pyrrhus and Demetrius (1708). Lo frate 'nnamorato was interrupted mid-run because an earthquake closed all of the theatres. Opera can be a dangerous business.

The Maid turned Mistress. This was something of a bumper year for new opera commisions. While Handel was battling a rival London opera company with his new Orlando, the 50-year old Jean-Phillipe Rameau wrote his first opera Hippoltye et Aricie for the Paris Opera. But honours for this year go to the 23-year-old Pergolesi, who produced La Serva Padrona, an outstanding contribution and an enduring example of the hilarity and wit of Italian comic opera.

Vivaldi seems to have written about fifty operas and produced more. It's natural that with such a large output, one would look for inspiration of all kinds. In this opera, a love story is woven through the setting of the Olympic Games. Sort of like the operatic equivalent of the film Wimbledon.

By this stage, Handel was under pressure from competition provided by the rival Opera of the Nobility. He had moved from the King's Theatre to the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, which was owned and run by John Rich, who commissioned The Beggar's Opera (1728) and used the proceeds to build the Theatre Royal. Handel also premiered Alcina in this year.

Geniuses. We don't know the full name of Mademoiselle Duval, but this opera was only the second opera by a woman to be performed at the Paris Opéra, after Jacquet de la Guerre, who wrote Céphale (1694). Duval was 22 at the time, and seems to have been a chorister at the Opéra.

Rameau had recently been working with Voltaire when he composed this opera, and the philosopher's influence can be detected. Rameau wrote music of extraordinary intensity and emotional depth. One of the true highs of French opera.

Not many composers have been able to compose music of such startling beauty as Handel's "ombra mai fu" from this opera. Premiered at the King's Theatre in collaboration with the impresario Heidegger. Unfairly maligned in its day for mixing comic and serious elements, Serse is now recognised as a major achievement.

The Festivities of Hebe. Despite the efforts of the supporters of Lully, who reviled Rameau's contemporary approach to harmony and dramaturgy, this was a smash-hit, with an enormous run of 71 performances given. Along with Dardanus, one of two operas Rameau presented at the Paris Opera in 1739.

Written for seven soloists and a small orchestra, the Princess and sister of Frederick the Great composed this opera for her husband's birthday. She and her husband pretty much built the town of Bayreuth, which came to be the location for Wagner's new theatre in the 19th century. She wrote the libretto herself, based on a story by the renowned librettist Pietro Metastasiso. It is thought the work was premiered at Bayreuth, but it's not proven beyond doubt that the opera did in fact receive a performance.

While 1741 saw the last operatic attempt from Handel, it also saw the first of Gluck, premiered in Milan in December, to a libretto by the hugely influential poet Metastasio. Gluck was a major figure in 18th century opera, and carried out a series of operatic reforms to make things more dramatic. He was a huge influence on Mozart, among others. The operatic torch was taken up by a younger generation.

This opera was written to inaugurate the new Berlin Opera. Graun was one of the most significant German composers of Italian opera in his lifetime, and wrote 32 operas. Unknown to him, he was the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Vladimir Nabokov.

Everyone has to start somewhere!

Although Handel did not write another named opera after Deidamia in 1741, he did continue to experiment with operatic forms, and Semele is a mixture of opera and oratorio. He smuggled it into the Covent Garden Lent season, which was meant to have a diet of religious oratorios. In fact he served up a highly sexual story that offended many people.

Rameau's first comic opera was premiered at Versailles, and was one of his most popular operas during his lifetime. The work continues to draw plenty of madness from stage directors.

The Fall of the Giants. Gluck was invited to London to present a new opera at the King's Theatre, with a libretto by Francesco Vanneschi, director of the theatre. It was a retelling of that age-old opera story, the battle of the Titans and the Olympians, such as La divisione del mondo (1675), this time an allegory for the quashing of the Jacobite rebellion. At one point, Vanneschi was arrested on suspicion of a new gunpowder plot. Librettists beware!

The runaway success of the year, this setting of the now famous Metastasio libretto was premiered in Milan. Galuppi would go on to become one of the most celebrated composers of comic opera with an astonishing output of 109 operas. The guy knew how to get out of bed.

Rameau premiered three operas in 1748, including Pigmalion, a one-actor in which a sculptor falls in love with his beautiful creation. Rameau and his librettist, the marvellously named Ballot de Sauvot, met at the house of Rameau's benefactor, Le Riche de la Pouplinière.

Sometimes the road to a successful piece isn't straight. This version of Zoroastre wasn't hugely appreciated by the Parisian public, so Rameau and his librettist reworked it and had another go in 1756, this time with more success.

The World of the Moon. The collaboration between Galuppi and the celebrated comic dramatist Carlo Goldoni was to define comic opera for a generation. They began with this proto-science fictional tale of a man who is convinced that he has travelled to the moon. The same libretto was later set by Haydn in 1777.

The Limping Devil. Haydn at age 19 was a penniless street serenader. He got lucky and serenaded the wife of the leading comic actor Joseph Felix von Kurz, who demanded that Haydn write him an opera, for which he penned the libretto. A singspiel, a type of German opera with spoken dialogues, it was banned after two performances for offensive language.

The Village Soothsayer. The famous philosopher wrote the words and the music for this simple tale, which premiered for the royal court at Fontainebleau before transferring to Paris in 1753. It was a huge success, and was performed at the wedding of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

The premiere of this opera in Dresden must be one of the most lavish ever, featuring real horses, camels, and elephants. The stage design was by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena, whose magnificent, realistic, and immersive style stunned audiences.

The Triumph of Fidelity. Maria Antonia was a Duchess and a Princess of Bavaria. She was a noted singer and harpsichordist as well as a composer, and composed two operas. She also wrote the libretto for at least one opera aside from her own compositions. This opera was premiered in Dresden.

The She-Devil. Galuppi and Goldoni continued their comic opera collaboration with a tale of swindlers and mistaken identities, which premiered at the Teatro San Samuele in Venice.

The Shepherd King. At this point, Gluck was living in Vienna and churning out lots of opera seria. This opera used a libretto by the ever-present Pietro Metastasio, which would also be later set by a 19-year-old Mozart (1775). This year, Gluck was made a Knight of the Golden Spur by the Pope. In the same year, Maria Teresa Agnesi also wrote an opera called Il Re Pastore.

The Painter in Love with his Model. Teaming up with the Frenchman Louis Anseaume as librettist, the Italian Duni became an important figure in the history of the genre known as opéra comique, a French development which included spoken dialogue along with operatic arias. This opera kicked off the genre.

The False Slave. A good example of the increasing internationalism of opera commissions, this french-style opéra comique by a German composer born in Bohemia, was premiered in Austria.

This opera used the libretto for Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie (1733) as a source, which was reworked and translated into Italian. The result was a fusion of Italian, French, and German operatic styles. Traetta continued to experiment with operatic reforms throughout his compositional career. In 1775 he had to flee St Petersburg because he had added music for Polish independence into his Antigona (1772) in protest at Katherine the Great dictating the ending. He survived but his librettist, Marco Coltellini, who repeatedly found himself in disgrace across his career, was rumoured to have been poisoned. Librettists beware!

Maria Walpurgis' second opera, after Il Trionfo della Fedeltà (1754), this opera tells the story of an Amazon Queen and her struggles in love and war. In the same year Thomas Arne's light opera Thomas and Sally was performed at Covent Garden to great success.

Don Quixote at Comacho's Wedding. Telemann was 80 years old when he premiered this opera, based on Cervantes' novel. The premiere was given in Hamburg. The librettist was Daniel Schiebeler, who was 20 years old at the premiere.

The first of Gluck's "reform operas" had a huge impact on opera history. Returning to one of the original operatic stories which began with Jacopo Peri's Euridice in 1600, Gluck set out to simplify the convoluted plots of opera seria, and to make the drama pre-eminent. The opera remains popular.

Traetta had recently seen Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, and being something of a reformer himself, incorporated some of Gluck's ideas. Premiered in Vienna, which by this point had become an increasingly influential centre of opera due to the importance and patronage of the Habsburg monarchy.

The Unexpected Encounter. Gluck's last opéra comique for Vienna, and considered his finest. The opera was reworked by Haydn in 1775 as L'incontro improvviso.

There are no records of a performance of this opera by the prolific composer Maria Teresa Agnesi, who began as a child prodigy born into minor nobility in Milan. Sofonisba is the name of a Queen of Carthage, forced into an unhappy political marriage. When her true love is victorious in battle, power struggles follow.

Based on the 1749 by Henry Fielding, and premiered at the Comédie-Italienne in Paris. Philidor wasn't only a composer but also the greatest chess player in the world. He once astounded friends in London by playing three simultaneous chess games blindfolded, having given up a pawn to the third player, and won! He was the subject of a comic opera entitled Battez Philidor! which premiered at the Opéra Comique in 1882.

This opera went on to have a hugely important life after its premiere in Vienna, for two reasons. The first was that when Gluck published it in 1769, he included a preface which set out in detail his vision of a reformed approach to opera. The second reason was that it eventually transferred, with revisions, to Paris in 1776. From there it conquered the world.

This work has received (relatively speaking) some attention compared to other 18th century operas by women, particularly the overture, which has been recorded quite a few times. The opera has survived and recent revivals have found huge merit in the work. Agnesi was renowned in her time as a child prodigy and earned the respect of musicians across Europe.

The Fake Innocent. Mozart was 12 when he wrote this opera in 1768, at the invitation of the Emperor Joseph II, while Mozart and his father were visiting Vienna. It wasn't premiered until 1769 in Salzburg however, because the other composers in the Viennese court could not believe a 12-year-old could have written the work, and accused him of fraud.

Premiered successfully in Milan while the Mozarts were touring Italy, Mozart was only 14 when he wrote it. It displays the influence of the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček, who visited the family multiple times during their Italian stay, and helped the young Mozart develop his compositional skills.

Something of a changing of the guard occurred in Milan, where Johann Adolf Hasse (Solimano, 1753) and librettist Metastasio presented their final collaboration, Il Ruggiero, followed the next night by the young Mozart's piece, which had been commissioned by the Empress Maria Theresa. On hearing Mozart's work, Hasse said "This boy will cause us all to be forgotten." How right he was. Composers of opera, beware!

Tommaso Traetta is undergoing something of a deserved revival in recent years, particularly this opera, which was commissioned by Catherine the Great and premeired in St. Petersburg. A "reform opera" in the style of Gluck, it placed great emphasis on dramatic values in distinction to the long-windedness and convolution of older opera seria. An intense ancient Greek world is summoned through the music. It is rumoured that Tretta left St Peterburg under a black cloud, fearing for his life after falling out with Catherine the Great. His librettist, Marco Coletllini stayed, and was eventually poisoned. Opera is a dangerous business.

Infidelity Outwitted. With a libretto by the ill-fated Marco Coltellini (Antigona, 1772), this rustic tale of confused lovers, disguise, and eventual happiness, was premiered at the Eszterháza Palace in Hungary where Haydn was a court musician for the Eszterházy family.

The first work that Gluck wrote for the Paris stage. Although it wasn't hugely popular at first, it entered the repertory and was revived almost annually for 50 years. Honorable mention must go to Czech composer Josef Mysliveček, who premiered 4 operas in 1774.

The Shepherd King. Mozart had a good year, premiering La finta giardiniera for Munich and Il Re Pastore for Salzburg. Il Re Pastore clinches top spot here for the presence of the unbelievably stunning aria "L'amerò, sarò costante". Honorable mentions go to Josef Mysliveček once again, and to Haydn, who premiered L'incontro improvviso, which some may remember from Gluck's La rencontre imprévue (1764).

A chronically under-appreciated figure, Anna Amalia was a huge cultural force, turning her court into a significant cultural centre. Her first opera was set to a libretto by the great German poet Goethe and premiered at the Court Theatre in Weimar.

The World of the Moon. Haydn used a reworked version of Carlo Goldoni's 1750 libretto for this enjoyable romp to the moon and back.

The Fair in Plundersweilern. Anna Amalia again collaborated with Goethe on this light-hearted farce, after their 1776 Erwin und Elmire.

The summation of Gluck's operatic reforms, including a famous moment of psychological complexity. when Orestes claims that calm is returning to his heart, but the orchestra betrays something different. The composer Hector Berlioz described it like this: "And the orchestra! All that was in the orchestra. If you could only have heard how it describes every situation, especially when Orestes appears to be calm; the violins have a very quiet held note, a symbol of tranquillity; but underneath you can hear the basses murmuring like the remorse which, despite his apparent calm, still lurks in the heart of the parricide."

The Anonymous Lover. Joseph Bologne has rightly been receiving more attention in recent years after his marginalisation from the history of classical music as a person of colour. In his lifetime he was prevented from taking over the Paris Opera due to his heritage. This was his third opera and scored a success. He was also an excellent fencer and led an extraordinary life.

Considered by many to be the first flowering of Mozart's mature operatic style, Idomeneo is an intense work Set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, it evokes the sea in all of its changing moods. After this premiered in Munich, he was operatically unstoppable.

The Abduction from the Seraglio. In 1778, Emperor Joseph II had established the National Singspiel with the intention of fostering a tradition of German-language opera. The project was abandoned in 1785 because of fierce opposition to the project from the Italian composers in the court, led by Antonio Salieri. Mozart's opera with spoken text was the outstanding commission from the National Singspiel project.

Niccolò Piccini composed over 100 operas in his lifetime. Didon, originally performed for Marie Antoinette at Fontainebleau and then transferred to Paris, was perhaps his greatest success. The work was continually in the repertoire of the Paris Opera until 1826.

Daughters of Danaus. The libretto for this opera had originally been intended for Christoph Willibald Gluck, but the ageing composer was unable to complete it due to a stroke. Salieri, a young man on the rise, stepped in and took over the project, scoring a huge success. The Paris Opera commissioned two more operas from him on the back of it.

GIovanni Paisiello was a hugely distinguished figure, composing over 90 operas. At this stage of his life, he had returned to Naples to work for Ferdinand IV of Naples, having been in. St Petersburg under Catherine the Great. Whilst in St Petersburg, he premiered Il barbiere di Siviglia, one of his great hits that was later eclipsed by Rossini's setting of the same story (1816).

The Marriage of Figaro. Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte begin their collaboration with one of the greatest operas of all time. This masterpiece of joy, vitality, and wit is a retelling of Beaumarchais' revolutionary play. The plot concerns the intrigue on Figaro's wedding day as his master Count Almaviva attempts to seduce his bride Susanna. Susanna and the Countess Rosina join forces across the class division to outwit the Count and find a deeply-felt reconciliation, which seems to usher in a new age. An outstanding contribution to the history of theatre and a sublime human achievement. Aside from all this, it's hilarious. If you haven't watched an opera, start here.

It is utterly miraculous that Mozart and Da Ponte could have followed 1786's Le Nozze di Figaro with this supreme work of art. It is a strange street-theatre story of a lawless seducer ultimately dragged to hell after failing to repent when urged by the stone statue of a man he killed. This darkly funny and haunting work has obsessed artists, philosophers and audiences ever since, from Kierkegaard to George Bernard Shaw. A cunning exploration of the fragility of marriage as social glue. An Enlightenment critique of the limits of the Enlightenment. A funny street-theatre farce. A philosophical exploration of individualism and a harbinger of the romantic spirit. An inexhaustible stream of musical invention. Pick your level and marvel and the sophistication and ferocity of the conception. Quite simply the greatest opera ever written, beyond anything.

Don Giovanni is the only opera that gets listed twice, partly because it's twice as good as anything else, and partly because it received two distinct premieres. It was first premiered at the Estates Theatre in Prague in 1787 and then again in Vienna in 1788, with significant revisions. Sadly the supreme dramatic force of the piece is often dulled in performance due to the strangely persistent choice to perform a nonsensical composite of the two versions.

A slight breaking of the rules for this year, where a librettist is credited as the composer of a work. Friederike Sophie Seyler was of huge importance to German culture in the 18th century. Regarded as one of the finest actors of her generation, the company she ran with her husband popularised Shakespeare in Germany, as well as promoting a German-language opera tradition. Her libretto was used as the basis for an opera by Paul Wranitzky which was performed by Emanuel Schikaneder company. Schikaneder owed a lot to Seyler's libretto for his libretto for Mozart's singspiel The Magic Flute (1791).

All Women Are At It. Mozart and Da Ponte returned with another masterwork that still provokes considerable debate. Supposedly based on a true fiancée-swapping story, the plot concerns the efforts of a cynical of philosopher to prove to two young soldiers that their fiancées would cheat on them given half a chance. Its title translates to "All women do it," and the piece is often accused of misogyny. Another view holds that the piece offers a painfully honest account of the delusions and heartbreak of marriage and young love, and carries a critique of the way that the benefits and freedoms of the enlightenment were not being extended to women. Aesthetically the piece stretches the conventions of comic opera to breaking point, and contains some of the most wonderful music ever written. Shadwell Opera's first ever production in 2009.

The Magic Flute. Mozart died at age 35 in 1791, having continued his spectacular operatic career with La Clemenza did Tito, and finally, The Magic Flute. The work was commissioned by Emanuel Schickaneder to be performed at a suburban theatre in Vienna. The plot takes the form of a Masonic allegory and concerns the efforts of the hero Tamino to unite with his love Pamina. The piece contains extremely troubling racism towards one of the antagonists, Monostatos, a "Moor", as well as a good deal of representations of sexism and mysogyny. At the same time it is an exquisite exploration of how young people find their place in the universe. It was a huge success, but Mozart didn't live to see its astronomical fame. He died and was buried in an unmarked grave later that year. Shadwell performed this opera at the masonic Rosslyn Chapel as part of the Edinburgh Fringe, receiving an RBS Herald Angel Award in 2009.

Domenico Cimarosa was a hugely prolific composer of comic opera, and The Secret Marriage remains his best-known work. Leopold II loved the premiere so much that he ordered the cast be fed and then immediately perform the entire opera again, without the orchestra. Cimarosa spent some time working for Catherine the Great in St Petersburg, but on return to Naples backed the wrong side in a plot against the monarchy, and was imprisoned and exiled. Composers, beware!

The Triumph of the Republic. Gossec was little known outside France but was influential in his home country. He was friends with Napoleon, described by Mozart as "a very good friend and a very dry man." He scored his monumental Te Deum for 1200 singers and 300 wind instruments. This opera was written to celebrate the French victory at the battle of Valmy, the first major victory by the French after the revolution.

A dramatisation of events that were happening at the time, with North Americans held captive in northern Africa in the Barbary Captivity Crisis. The work expounds feminist ideas but also displays anti-semitic stereotypes and xenophobic and orientalist tropes. So it's a mixed bag. It's also difficult to determine the extent to which it is actually an opera, whatever that is. Nonetheless, an interesting historical document.

The Capricious Woman Reformed. Premiered in London at the King's Theatre, which saw many of Handel's premieres, this piece bears a similarity to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The librettist was the great Lorenzo Da Ponte, who wrote three of Mozart's librettos and was famously friendly with Casanova. Martin y Soler's full name was Anastasio Martín Ignacio Vicente Tadeo Francisco Pellegrin Martín y Soler. The people who say opera isn't flamboyant are liars!

Cimarosa was known across Europe as a master of comic opera, but this opera seria was a big success when premiered in Venice. It became especially well-known when it was revived in Paris with the diva Giuseppina Grassini, lover of both Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington. Artists, after all, must rise above the politics of the day. Cimarosa did not, however, rise above the politics of his day, and at one point was sentenced to death for his Napoleonic persuasions. His sentence was commuted to banishment but his friend Luigi Rossi was beheaded. Poets beware.

Cherubini (full name: Maria Luigi Carlo Zenobio Salvatore Cherubini) was one of the most celebrated composers of his age, even earning the respect of the famously grouchy Ludwig Van Beethoven. In 1790 he became a naturalised Frenchman, and changed his name to Marie Louis Charles Zénobi Salvador Cherubini, which must have remedied some perceived need. Anyway his Médée was under-appreciated at the time, but received a revival at the hands of the famed diva Maria Callas, in an Italian translation with added recitatives rather than spoken dialogue. This rendition of the story of the woman who kills her own children is good example of how opéra-comique does not mean funny.

Years after Mozart's death, his Magic Flute (1791) librettist Emanuel Schikaneder teamed up with a new composer to write a sequel to the earlier singspiel, including many of the same characters. And people think Hollywood invented franchises. All hail the Schikaneder Operatic Universe!

Many many people love and admire Verdi's Falstaff (1893), but few have heard of Salieri's adaptation of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. It opens with a surprising and jovial contra dance. Its existence reminds one that there are no new ideas. In this year, Elizabeth, Princess Berkeley premiered her The Princess of Georgia at Covent Garden in London.