# 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 | 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) |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 1956 | | Malcolm Arnold | The Open Window | Sidney Gilliat | BBC Television |
| 1957 | | Joan Trimble | Blind Raftery | 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 | 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 |
| 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 | 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 | Arnold Weinstein | ABC |
| 1965 | | Mark Bucci | The Hero | Mark Bucci | National Educational Television |
| 1965 | | Carl Davis | The Arrangement | 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 | 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 | After the novel by Alun Owen | BBC Television |
| 1969 | | Thomas Eastwood | The Rebel | 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 |
| 1973 | | John Eaton | Myshkin | Patrick Creagh after Dostoevsky's The Idiot | PBS |
| 1976 | | Alun Hoddinott | Murder, The Magician | John Morgan | HTV |
| 1976 | | Godfrey Ridout | The Lost Child | John Reid | CBC Television |
| 1976 | | Raymond Pannell | Aberfan | Beverly Pannell | CBC Television |
| 1977 | | Carl Davis | Orpheus in the Underworld | John Wells | BBC Television |
| 1978 | | Norman Kay | A Christmas Carol | John Morgan, after Charles Dickens | HTV |
| 1979 | | Alun Hoddinott | The Rajah's Diamond | Myfanwy Piper, from R. L. Stevenson's New Arabian Nights | BBC Television |
| 1982 | | Peter Sculthorpe | Quiros | 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 |
| 1991 | | Michael Nyman | Letters, Riddles and Writs | Jeremy Newson and Pat Gavin | BBC Television |
| 1993 | | Stewart Copeland | Horse Opera | Jonathan Moore | Channel Four |
| 1993 | | Anthony Moore | Camera | 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 | David Gale, from Wedekind | Channel Four |
| 1995 | 1993 | Michael Torke | King of Hearts | Christopher Rawlence | Channel Four |
| 1995 | | Mike Westbrook Kate Westbrook | Good Friday, 1663 | 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) |