# List of historical opera characters

This is a list of historical figures who have been characters in opera or operetta.
Historical accuracy in such works has often been subject to the imperatives of dramatic presentation. Consequently, in many cases:
* historical characters appear alongside fictional characters
* historical characters who never met, or whose lives did not even overlap, appear on stage together
* historical events depicted are transported to earlier or later times or to different places
* historical people are seen participating in entirely fictional events, or vice versa
* the actions of historical people are attributed to other persons
For the purposes of this list, Biblical characters are generally taken to be fictional, unless there is clear evidence of their historicity.
Operas appear in bold when the historical figure is also the title role.
Where a character appears in more than opera, the entries are sorted by composer.

## List of historical figures

* 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
* Further reading

### A

Abdisho IV Maron, Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church
* Hans Pfitzner: Palestrina (as Abdisu)
Peter Abelard, French priest, scholar, theologian
* Peter Tahourdin: Héloise and Abelard
* Charles Wilson: Héloise and Abelard
John Quincy Adams, American President
* Anthony Davis, Amistad
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
Adelaide of Aquitaine, queen consort of France by marriage to Hugh Capet
* Gaetano Donizetti: Ugo, conte di Parigi
Gabriele Adorno, fifth Doge of Genoa
* Giuseppe Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
Flavius Aetius, Roman general
* Giuseppe Gazzaniga: Ezio
* George Frideric Handel: Ezio
* Gaetano Latilla: Ezio
* Giuseppe Verdi: Attila
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German alchemist, writer
* Sergei Prokofiev: The Fiery Angel (as Agrippa of Nettesheim)
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Roman statesman and general
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, Roman consul (32 BC)
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra (as Enobarbus)
Pharaoh Akhenaten of Egypt
* Philip Glass: Akhnaten
3rd Duke of Alba, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands
* Gaetano Donizetti, completed by Matteo Salvi: Le duc d'Albe
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
Albert of Mainz, Elector and Archbishop of Mainz
* Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler (as Albrecht von Brandenburg)
Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut
* Jonathan Dove: Man on the Moon
Alexander the Great, King of Macedon
* Girolamo Abos: Alessandro nelle Indie
* George Frideric Handel: Alessandro
* George Frideric Handel: Poro
* José de Nebra: No todo indicio es verdad y Alexandro en Asia
* Giovanni Pacini: Alessandro nelle Indie
(He appears in about 70 other operas set to the same text by Metastasio as used by Pacini, including one by Leonardo Vinci.)
Emperor Alexander Severus of Rome
* George Frideric Handel: Alessandro Severo
Tsar Alexander I of Russia
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace (silent role)
Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander, American military commander
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
Tsarina Alexandra of Russia, consort of Tsar Nicholas II
* Deborah Drattell: Nicholas and Alexandra
Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia, son of Peter the Great
* Franz Lehár: Der Zarewitsch
Saint Alexius of Rome
* Stefano Landi: Il Sant'Alessio (1631; the first opera written on an historical subject)
Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, husband of Lucrezia Borgia
* Gaetano Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia
Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
* Gaetano Donizetti: Torquato Tasso
King Alfonso XI of Castile
* Gaetano Donizetti: La favorite
King Alfred the Great, legendary Anglo-Saxon king
* Thomas Arne: Alfred
* Gaetano Donizetti: Alfredo il grande
* Antonín Dvořák: Alfred
* Friedrich von Flotow: Alfred der Große
Dante Alighieri: see Dante
Almanzor (Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir), de facto ruler of al-Andalus
* Giacomo Meyerbeer: L'esule di Granata (as Almanzor)
Pedro de Alvarado, Spanish conquistador
* Lorenzo Ferrero: La Conquista
* Roger Sessions: Montezuma
Amalasuntha, Queen of the Ostrogoths
* André Messager: Isoline (as La Reine Amalasonthe)
Anacreon, Greek lyric poet
* Luigi Cherubini: Anacréon
* Jean-Philippe Rameau: Anacréon (1754 version)
* Jean-Philippe Rameau: Anacréon (1757 version)
Jacob Johan Anckarström, Swedish military officer, assassin of Gustav III
* Daniel Auber: Gustave III
* Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
Tommaso Aniello: see Masaniello
Anne of Bavaria, Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Rome and Bavaria
* Ignaz Holzbauer: Günther von Schwarzburg
Queen Anne of Great Britain
* Friedrich von Flotow: Martha (silent role)
Queen Anne (Boleyn), second consort of Henry VIII of England
* Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Queen Anne (Neville), consort of Richard III of England
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
Saint Anthony the Great
* Bernice Johnson Reagon: The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Susan B. Anthony, American women's rights activist
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
Antiochus I Soter, King of the Seleucid Empire
* Étienne Méhul: Stratonice
* Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les fêtes de Polymnie
Rodrigo Ponce de León, 4th Duke of Arcos, Spanish grandee, Viceroy of Naples
* Antônio Carlos Gomes: Salvator Rosa
Alice Arden, English murderer, and her husband/victim: Thomas Arden, English Mayor
* Alexander Goehr: Arden Must Die
Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, British socialite and sexual celebrity
* Thomas Adès: Powder Her Face
Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, Finnish-Swedish diplomat, possible lover of Gustav III of Sweden
* Daniel Auber: Gustave III
Arminius, Germanic chieftain
* George Frideric Handel: Arminio
Edwin H. Armstrong, American radio pioneer, inventor of FM radio transmission
* Evan Hause: The Birth and Theft of Television
Artabanus of Persia, political figure
* Thomas Arne: Artaxerxes
King Artaxerxes I of Persia
* Girolamo Abos: Artaserse
* Thomas Arne: Artaxerxes
* Antonio Sacchini: Artaserse
(He appears in over 40 other operas set to the same text from Metastasio's libretto Artaserse)
King Arthur, legendary king of Britain
* Isaac Albéniz: Merlin
* Grażyna Bacewicz: The Adventure of King Arthur
* Ernest Chausson: Le roi Arthus
* Henry Purcell: King Arthur
* Amadeu Vives i Roig: Artús
* Max Vogrich: King Arthur
Chester A. Arthur, American President
* Douglas Moore: The Ballad of Baby Doe
Ulrica Arfvidsson, Swedish fortune-teller
* Daniel Auber: Gustave III
* Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
Emanuele d'Astorga, Italian composer
* Johann Joseph Abert: Astorga
Atahualpa, Inca sovereign emperor
* Iain Hamilton: The Royal Hunt of the Sun
Attila the Hun
* Giuseppe Verdi: Attila
Atys, son of King Croesus of Lydia
* Reinhard Keiser: Croesus
Caesar Augustus, Roman Emperor
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra (as Octavius Caesar)
Aurelian, Emperor of Rome
* Gioachino Rossini: Aureliano in Palmira
Pharaoh Ay of Egypt
* Philip Glass: Akhnaten

### B

Francis Bacon, Irish painter
* Stephen Crowe: The Francis Bacon Opera
Cardinal Maffeo Barberini: see Pope Urban VIII
Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, Russian prince and general
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace
Brigitte Bardot, French actress
* Igor Wakhévitch: Être Dieu: opéra-poème, audiovisuel et cathare en six parties (a creation of Salvador Dalí; the performer plays Bardot impersonating an artichoke)
Pyotr Fyodorovich Basmanov, Russian boyar
* Antonín Dvořák: Dimitrij
Daisy Bates, Irish-Australian indigenous welfare worker and anthropologist
* Margaret Sutherland: The Young Kabbarli
Bayezid I "The Thunderbolt", Ottoman Sultan
* George Frideric Handel: Tamerlano (as Bajazet)
* Antonio Vivaldi: Bajazet
Pierre Beaumarchais, French playwright
* John Corigliano: The Ghosts of Versailles
Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury
* Ildebrando Pizzetti: Assassinio nella cattedrale
Belisarius, Byzantine general
* Gaetano Donizetti: Belisario
Augustin Daniel Belliard, French general
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace
Belshazzar, Prince of Babylon
* Gioachino Rossini: Ciro in Babilonia (as Baldassare, King of Assyria)
Olga Benário Prestes, German-Brazilian communist militant
* Jorge Antunes: Olga
Levin August, Count von Bennigsen, German general
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace
Queen Berenice III of Egypt
* George Frideric Handel: Berenice
Boris Berezovsky, Russian business oligarch
* Anthony Bolton: The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko
Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Marshal of France
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace
Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States
* Curtis K. Hughes: Say It Ain't So, Joe
Otto von Bismarck, first Chancellor of Germany
* Luigi Nono: Al gran sole carico d'amore
Harman Blennerhassett, Irish-American lawyer
* Walter Damrosch: The Man Without a Country
Blondel de Nesle, French troubador
* André Grétry: Richard Coeur-de-lion
Boabdil: see Muhammad XII of Granada
Francisco de Bobadilla, Spanish colonial administrator
* Alberto Franchetti: Cristoforo Colombo
Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer, poet
* Franz von Suppé: Boccaccio
Simone Boccanegra, first Doge of Genoa
* Giuseppe Verdi: Simon Boccanegra
George Boleyn, 2nd Viscount Rochford, brother of Anne Boleyn
* Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena (as Rochefort)
Simón Bolívar, South American revolutionary
* Darius Milhaud: Bolivar
* Thea Musgrave: Simón Bolívar
Caroline Bonaparte, Queen Consort of Naples and Sicily, sister of Napoleon
Pauline Bonaparte, Princess of France, sister of Napoleon
* Ivan Caryll: The Duchess of Dantzic
John Wilkes Booth, American presidential assassin
* Eric W. Sawyer: Our American Cousin
Lizzie Borden, American celebrity and possible axe-murderer
* Thomas Albert: Lizbeth
* Jack Beeson: Lizzie Borden
Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinian writer
* Juan María Solare: Veinticinco de agosto, 1983 (2 roles, Old Borges, baritone; and Young Borges, tenor)
Saint Francis Borgia, 4th Duke of Gandía, Spanish Superior-General of the Jesuits
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI
* Gaetano Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia
Saint Charles Borromeo, Italian cardinal
* Hans Pfitzner: Palestrina
Đurađ Branković, Serbian despot
* Ferenc Erkel: György Brankovics
Prince Braslav, Duke of Lower Pannonia
* Eugen Suchoň: Svätopluk
Ed Broadbent, Canadian politician
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Gian Francesco Brogni, Italian cardinal
* Fromental Halévy: La Juive
John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton, British memoirist and politician
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
John Brown, Sergeant of the Second Battalion, Boston Light Infantry Volunteer Militia
* Walter Schumann: John Brown's Body
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Flemish painter
* Jean Absil: Pierre Breughel l'Ancien
Antonín Brus of Mohelnice, Archbishop of Prague
* Hans Pfitzner: Palestrina (as Anton Brus von Müglitz)
Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger, Roman politician, co-assassin of Julius Caesar
* Giselher Klebe: Die Ermordung Cäsars
William Jennings Bryan, American Secretary of State, presidential candidate
* Douglas Moore: The Ballad of Baby Doe
Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1st creation)
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (2nd creation), English poet, statesman
* Robert Planquette: Nell Gwynne
Gautama Buddha
* Max Vogrich: Buddha
Johannes Bureus, Swedish scholar
* Wilhelm Peterson-Berger: The Doomsday Prophets (as Johan Bure)
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, English statesman, adviser to Elizabeth I
* Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Stuarda (as Lord Guglielmo Cecil)
Aaron Burr, third Vice President of the United States
* Walter Damrosch: The Man Without a Country
Anne Isabella Byron, Baroness Byron, wife of Lord Byron
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Lord Byron, English poet
* Agustí Charles: Lord Byron: un estiu sense estiu (Lord Byron: a summer without summer)
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron

### C

Cacamatzin, Aztec king
* Roger Sessions: Montezuma
Alessandro Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo), Italian adventurer and imposter
* Johann Strauss II: Cagliostro in Wien
* Mikael Tariverdiev: Graf Cagliostro
Maria Callas, American-Greek opera singer
* Michael Daugherty: Jackie O
Luís de Camões, Portuguese poet
* Gaetano Donizetti: Dom Sébastien
Kim Campbell, Prime Minister of Canada
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, British socialite
* Thomas Adès: Powder Her Face
Lorenzo Campeggio, Cardinal Protector of England
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Canek, Aztec High Priest
* Henry Kimball Hadley: Azora, the Daughter of Montezuma
Wolfgang Capito, German religious reformer
* Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler
Gerolamo Cardano, Italian mathematician and physician
* Mary Finsterer: Biographica (2017)
Carlos, Prince of Asturias, son of Philip II of Spain
* Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlos
Julian Carlton, American murderer of Mamah Cheney, mistress of Frank Lloyd Wright
* Daron Hagen: Shining Brow
Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor
* Edwin Penhorwood: Too Many Sopranos (spoofed as "Enrico Carouser")
Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer and libertine
* Dominick Argento: Casanova's Homecoming
* Albert Lortzing: Casanova
Servilius Casca, co-assassin of Julius Caesar
Gaius Cassius Longinus, Roman politician, co-assassin of Julius Caesar
* Giselher Klebe: Die Ermordung Cäsars
Fidel Castro, Cuban leader
* Luigi Nono: Al gran sole carico d'amore
Inês de Castro, lover and lawful wife of King Peter I of Portugal
* Vicent Lleó i Balbastre: Inés de Castro
* James MacMillan: Ines de Castro
* Thomas Pasatieri: Ines de Castro
* Giuseppe Persiani: Ines de Castro
* Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli: Ines de Castro
Sir William Catesby
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
Empress Catherine I of Russia
* Gaetano Donizetti: Il falegname di Livonia, o Pietro il grande, czar delle Russie
* André Grétry: Pierre le Grand
Empress Catherine II "The Great" of Russia
* César Cui: The Captain's Daughter
* Igor Wakhévitch: Être Dieu: opéra-poème, audiovisuel et cathare en six parties (a creation of Salvador Dalí; Catherine does a striptease with Marilyn Monroe)
Queen Catherine (of Aragon), first wife of Henry VIII of England
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Queen Catherine (Parr), sixth and last wife of Henry VIII
* Anthony Collins: Catherine Parr
Pierre Cauchon, French bishop
* Norman Dello Joio: The Triumph of St. Joan
Armand Augustin Louis de Caulaincourt, French general
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace (silent role)
Guido Cavalcanti, Florentine poet
* Ezra Pound and George Antheil: Cavalcanti
Arthur Cecil, English actor, theatre manager
* Thomas German Reed (with W. S. Gilbert): Our Island Home
Cecily Neville, Duchess of York
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
Benvenuto Cellini, Italian sculptor, goldsmith, artisan
* Hector Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Ascanio
Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman, protagonist of a famous murder trial
* Havergal Brian: The Cenci (1951–52)
* Alberto Ginastera: Beatrix Cenci
* Berthold Goldschmidt: Beatrice Cenci
* Alessandro Londei e Brunella Caronti: Beatrice Cenci (2006)
* James Rolfe: Beatrice Chancy
Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish writer
* Rafael Aceves y Lozano: El manco de Lepanto
* Jacinto Guerrero: El huésped del sevillano, zarzuela (Cervantes appears as "el huésped")
Lindy Chamberlain and Michael Chamberlain, Australian parents wrongly convicted of the murder of their daughter Azaria
* Moya Henderson: Lindy
Charles Chaplin, British actor
* Salvador Bacarisse: Charlot
Charlemagne, King of the Franks
* Vincenzo Manfredini: Carlo Magno
* Franz Schubert: Fierrabras
* Carl Maria von Weber: Oberon
King Charles II of England
* Sir George Alexander Macfarren: King Charles II
* Robert Planquette: Nell Gwynne
King Charles II of Spain
* Jules Massenet: Don César de Bazan
* William Vincent Wallace: Maritana
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
* Ignaz Holzbauer: Günther von Schwarzburg (as Karl, King of Bohemia)
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Ascanio
* Giuseppe Verdi: Ernani
* Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlos
King Charles VI of France
* Fromental Halévy: Charles VI
King Charles VII of France
* Walter Braunfels: Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna
* César Cui: The Saracen
* Norman Dello Joio: The Triumph of St. Joan
* Fromental Halévy: Charles VI
* Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Maid of Orleans
* Giuseppe Verdi: Giovanna d'Arco (as Carlo VII)
King Charles XI of Sweden
* Fredrik Pacius: Kung Karls jakt
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy
* Giovanni Pacini: Carlo di Borgogna
Charles Martel, Duke and Prince of the Franks
* Jacques Offenbach: Geneviève de Brabant
Charmian, servant to Cleopatra
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra
* Jules Massenet: Cléopâtre
Thomas Chatterton, English poet and forger
* Ruggero Leoncavallo: Chatterton
* Matthias Pintscher: Thomas Chatterton
* Gerard Victory: Chatterton
Geoffrey Chaucer, English author, poet, philosopher, courtier and diplomat
* Reginald De Koven: The Canterbury Pilgrims
Danny Chen, American army private who committed suicide in Afghanistan
* Huang Ruo: An American Soldier
Edwin Cheney, American electrical engineer
Mamah Cheney, wife of Edwin Cheney, murdered mistress of Frank Lloyd Wright
* Daron Hagen: Shining Brow
André Chénier, French journalist
* Umberto Giordano: Andrea Chénier
Sir Richard Cholmondeley, Lieutenant of the Tower of London
* Gilbert and Sullivan: The Yeomen of the Guard
Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French composer
* Giacomo Orefice: Chopin (very loosely based on his life; all the other characters are fictional)
Chou En-lai: see Zhou Enlai
Jean Chrétien, Canadian Prime Minister
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Christina, Queen of Sweden
* Jacopo Foroni: Cristina, regina di Svezia
* Wilhelm Peterson-Berger: The Doomsday Prophets
Saint Christopher, revered but legendary saint
* Vincent d'Indy: La légende de Saint-Christophe
Tillius Cimber, co-assassin of Julius Caesar
* Giselher Klebe: Die Ermordung Cäsars (as Metellus Cimber)
Helvius Cinna, Roman poet
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Le piccole storie: Ai margini delle guerre
* Giselher Klebe: Die Ermordung Cäsars
Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Roman consul
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Lucio Silla
Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars, French royal favourite of Louis XIII
* Charles Gounod: Cinq-Mars
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
Emperor Claudius of Rome
* George Frideric Handel: Agrippina
Cleitus the Black, Macedonian soldier
* George Frideric Handel: Alessandro, (as Clito)
Pope Clement VII
* Hector Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
Cleopatra VII, Pharaoh of Egypt
* John Adams: Antony and Cleopatra
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra
* Domenico Cimarosa: La Cleopatra
* August Enna: Kleopatra
* Carl Heinrich Graun: Cesare e Cleopatra
* Louis Gruenberg: Antony and Cleopatra
* Henry Kimball Hadley: Cleopatra's Night
* George Frideric Handel: Giulio Cesare (in Egitto)
* Jules Massenet: Cléopâtre
* Felip Pedrell: Cléopâtre
* Lauro Rossi: Cleopatra
Henry Clifford, 10th Baron de Clifford, English military commander
* Isaac Albéniz: Henry Clifford
Bill Clinton, US President
* Bonnie Montgomery: Billy Blythe
Hillary Clinton, American First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State
* Curtis K. Hughes: Say It Ain't So, Joe
Olivier de Clisson, Breton soldier
* Fromental Halévy: Charles VI
Cloelia, early Roman figure, possibly legendary
* Filippo Amadei, Giovanni Bononcini and George Frideric Handel: Muzio Scevola
Robert Coates, Canadian politician
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Howell Cobb, American political figure
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
Walter Cocking, dean at the University of Georgia, the focus of the "Cocking affair"
* Michael Braz: A Scholar Under Siege
Horatius Cocles, Roman military officer
* Filippo Amadei, Giovanni Bononcini and George Frideric Handel: Muzio Scevola
Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, Roman consul, husband of Lucretia
* Benjamin Britten: The Rape of Lucretia
Stefano Colonna (1265–1348), Roman political figure
* Richard Wagner: Rienzi
Christopher Columbus, Genoese explorer of the New World
* Leonardo Balada: Cristóbal Colón
* Leonardo Balada: Death of Columbus
* Ramon Carnicer: Cristoforo Colombo
* Werner Egk: Columbus
* Manuel de Falla: Atlántida
* Alberto Franchetti: Cristoforo Colombo
* Philip Glass: The Voyage
* Darius Milhaud: Christophe Colomb
Anthony Comstock, American morals campaigner
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
Emperor Constantine I "The Great" of Rome
* Gaetano Donizetti: Fausta
John Connally, Governor of Texas
* David T. Little: JFK
Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish scientist
* Claude Vivier: Kopernikus
Charlotte Corday, French Girondin revolutionary
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Charlotte Corday
Saint Corentin of Quimper, Breton patron saint of seafood
* Édouard Lalo: Le roi d'Ys
Gaius Marcius Coriolanus, legendary Roman leader
* Francesco Cavalli: Coriolano
Catherine Cornaro, consort of James II of Cyprus
* Gaetano Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro
* Fromental Halévy: La reine de Chypre
* Franz Lachner: Caterina Cornaro
Giorgio Cornaro, Italian nobleman, father of Catherine Cornaro
* Gaetano Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro (as Andrea Cornaro)
Jeronimus Cornelisz, Dutch apothecary and merchant
* Richard Mills: Batavia
Hernán Cortés, Spanish conquistador
* Ruperto Chapí: Las naves de Cortés
* Lorenzo Ferrero: La Conquista
* Carl Heinrich Graun: Montezuma
* Henry Kimball Hadley: Azora, the Daughter of Montezuma
* Aniceto Ortega: Guatimotzin
* Wolfgang Rihm: Die Eroberung von Mexico
* Roger Sessions: Montezuma
* Gaspare Spontini: Fernand Cortez
* Antonio Vivaldi: Motezuma (as Fernando)
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury
* Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Taverner (not identified as such)
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Marcus Licinius Crassus, Roman general and politician
* Francesco Cavalli: Pompeo Magno
Flavius Julius Crispus, Caesar of the Roman Empire
* Gaetano Donizetti: Fausta
Croesus, King of Lydia
* Reinhard Keiser: Croesus
Oliver Cromwell, English Puritan leader
* Salvatore Agnelli: Cromwell
Cuauhtémoc, Aztec king
* Aniceto Ortega: Guatimotzin
* Roger Sessions: Montezuma
Sir Henry Cuffe, English politician
* Benjamin Britten: Gloriana
Cyrano de Bergerac, French dramatist and duellist
* Franco Alfano: Cyrano de Bergerac
* Walter Damrosch: Cyrano
* David DiChiera, orch. Mark Flint: Cyrano
* Eino Tamberg: Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrus the Great, King of Persia
* Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini: Ciro in Armenia
* Francesco Cavalli: Ciro
* Reinhard Keiser: Croesus
* Gioachino Rossini: Ciro in Babilonia

### D

Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter
* Xavier Benguerel: Jo, Dalí (I, Dalí)
* Igor Wakhévitch: Être Dieu: opéra-poème, audiovisuel et cathare en six parties (Dalí's creation; his character is in turn playing God)
Dalibor of Kozojed, Czech knight
* Bedřich Smetana: Dalibor
Dante Alighieri, Italian poet
* Tan Dun: Marco Polo
* Sergei Rachmaninoff: Francesca da Rimini
* Ambroise Thomas: Françoise de Rimini
* Giacomo Puccini: Gianni Schicchi
Georges Danton, French revolutionary figure
* John Eaton: Danton and Robespierre
* Gottfried von Einem: Dantons Tod
Jacques d'Arc, French farmer, father of Joan of Arc
* Giuseppe Verdi: Giovanna d'Arco (as Giacomo)
King Darius III of Persia
* Francesco Cavalli: Statira principessa di Persia
Sir William Davenant, English poet and playwright
* Gaspare Spontini: Milton
Louis-Nicolas Davout, Marshal of France
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace
John Dee, British alchemist, astrologer, royal adviser
* Rufus Norris and Damon Albarn: Dr Dee: An English Opera (non-singing role)
Gotse Delchev, Macedonian revolutionary figure
* Kiril Makedonski: Goce
Marion Delorme, French courtesan
* Charles Gounod: Cinq-Mars
Camille Desmoulins, French revolutionary journalist, politician
* Gottfried von Einem: Dantons Tod
Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Spanish conquistador
* Roger Sessions: Montezuma
Jimena Díaz, wife of El Cid, ruler of Valencia
* Claude Debussy: Rodrigue et Chimène
* Giuseppe Farinelli: Il Cid della Spagna (as Climene)
* Jules Massenet: Le Cid (as Chimene)
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, "El Cid"
* Johann Caspar Aiblinger: Rodrigo und Ximene
* Peter Cornelius: Der Cid
* Claude Debussy: Rodrigue et Chimène
* Giuseppe Farinelli: Il Cid della Spagna
* Jules Massenet: Le Cid
* Antonio Sacchini: Il Cid
Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian Communist leader
* Luigi Nono: Al gran sole carico d'amore
Emperor Diocletian of Rome
* Henry Purcell: Dioclesian
Tsar Dmitri Ioannovich of Russia, the so-called "False Dmitriy I"
* Antonín Dvořák: Dimitrij
* Victorin de Joncières: Dimitri
* Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Dmitry Donskoy, Prince of Moscow, Grand Prince of Vladimir
* Anton Rubinstein: Dmitry Donskoy
Dobrynya Nikitich, legendary Kievan bogatyr
* Alexander Serov: Rogneda
Publius Cornelius Dolabella, Roman general
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra
Saint Dominic, Domingo de Guzman, founder of the Dominicans
* Antonio Braga: San Domenico di Guzman
Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, English writer, lover of Oscar Wilde
* Theodore Morrison: Oscar (non-singing role)
James Douglas, Lord of Douglas, Scots soldier, known as the "Black Douglas"
* Gioachino Rossini: Robert Bruce (pastiche)
Frederick Douglass, African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman
* Ulysses Kay: Frederick Douglass
* Dorothy Rudd Moore: Frederick Douglass
György Dózsa, Hungarian leader of peasant revolt
* Ferenc Erkel: György Dózsa
Sir Francis Drake, English adventurer, pirate, politician
* Matthew Locke: The History of Sir Francis Drake
John Dryden, English poet
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
King Duncan I of Scotland
* Ernest Bloch: Macbeth
* Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth

### E

Ana de Mendoza, Princess of Éboli, Spanish aristocrat
* Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlos
Nelson Eddy, American tenor, actor
* Edwin Penhorwood: Too Many Sopranos (spoofed as "Nelson Deadly")
King Edward II of England
* Gioachino Rossini: Robert Bruce (pastiche)
King Edward III of England
* Gaetano Donizetti: L'assedio di Calais
King Edward IV of England King Edward V of England (as Prince Edward)
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
King Edward VI of England
* Priit Pajusaar: The Prince and the Pauper (2013)
Adolf Eichmann, German Nazi SS Head
* Erkki-Sven Tüür: Wallenberg
Albert Einstein, German-American scientist
* Paul Dessau: Einstein
* Philip Glass: Einstein on the Beach
Emperor Elagabalus of Rome (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus)
* Pietro Simone Agostini: Eliogabalo
* Francesco Cavalli: Eliogabalo
Eleanor of Austria, Queen Consort of Portugal and France
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
Eleanor of Guzman, mistress of King Alfonso XI of Castile and mother of Henry II
* Gaetano Donizetti: La favorite (as Leonor de Guzmán)
Elisabeth, Queen of Bohemia
* Ignaz Holzbauer: Günther von Schwarzburg (as Asberta)
Elisabeth Farnese, Queen Consort to Philip V of Spain
* John Barnett: Farinelli
Elisabeth of Valois, daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici, wife of Philip II of Spain
* Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlos
Elisiv of Kiev
* Heorhiy Maiboroda: Yaroslav Mudriy
Queen Elizabeth I of Castile: see Queen Isabella I of Castile
Queen Elizabeth I of England (see also Category:Operas about Elizabeth I)
* Thomas Arne: Eliza (she does not appear as a character as such, but the opera is named for her)
* Benjamin Britten: Gloriana
* Gaetano Donizetti: Il castello di Kenilworth
* Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Stuarda
* Gaetano Donizetti: Roberto Devereux
* Edward German: Merrie England
* Gioachino Rossini: Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
Queen Elizabeth (Woodville), consort of King Edward IV of England
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
Fanny Elssler, Austrian ballerina
* Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert: L'Aiglon
Ninon de l'Enclos, French courtesan
* Charles Gounod: Cinq-Mars
Enzio of Sardinia, king of Sardinia
* Johann Joseph Abert: König Enzio and Enzio von Hohenstaufen (2nd version)
Louise d'Épinay, French diarist, memoirist
* Reynaldo Hahn: Mozart (musical comedy)
Erasistratus, Greek anatomist, physician
* Étienne Méhul: Stratonice
King Eric V of Denmark
* Peter Arnold Heise: Drot og marsk (King and Marshall)
José de Espronceda, Spanish poet
* Federico Moreno Torroba: El poeta
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, Elizabethan courtier and royal favourite
* Benjamin Britten: Gloriana
* Gaetano Donizetti: Roberto Devereux
* Edward German: Merrie England
Frances, Countess of Essex, English noblewoman
* Benjamin Britten: Gloriana
Eufrosinia, daughter of Yaroslav Osmomysl, Prince of Halych
* Alexander Borodin: Prince Igor (as Yaroslavna)

### F

Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice
* Gaetano Donizetti: Marino Faliero
Farinelli, Italian castrato singer
* Daniel Auber: La part du diable (or Carlo Broschi) (as Carlo Broschi)
* John Barnett: Farinelli
Philo Farnsworth, American television pioneer
* Evan Hause: The Birth and Theft of Television
Fausta Flavia Maxima, Empress of Rome, second wife of Constantine the Great
* Gaetano Donizetti: Fausta
Charles Simon Favart, French dramatist
* Jacques Offenbach: Madame Favart
Marie Favart, French opera singer, actress
* Jacques Offenbach: Madame Favart
Dianne Feinstein, American politician
* Stewart Wallace: Harvey Milk
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
King Ferdinand I of León and Castile
* Claude Debussy: Rodrigue et Chimène
* Jules Massenet: Le Cid
Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor
* Paul Hindemith: Die Harmonie der Welt
King Ferdinand II of Aragon (and Ferdinand V of Castile)
* Giuseppe Apolloni: L'ebreo
* Leonardo Balada: Cristóbal Colón
* Leonardo Balada: Death of Columbus
* Darius Milhaud: Christophe Colomb
King Ferdinand VI of Spain
* Daniel Auber: La part du diable (or Carlo Broschi)
Roger de Flor, German-born soldier serving Aragon kings
* Ruperto Chapí: Roger de Flor
Errol Flynn, Australian-American film actor
* Judith Bingham: Flynn
James Forrestal, US Secretary of Defense
* Evan Hause: Nightingale: The Last Days of James Forrestal
Francesco Foscari, Doge of Venice
* Giuseppe Verdi: I due Foscari
Joseph Fouché, Duke of Otranto
* Umberto Giordano: Madame Sans-Gêne
Francesca da Rimini, contemporary and literary subject of Dante
* Emil Ábrányi: Paola és Francesca
* Alfredo Aracil: Francesca o El infierno de los enamorados
* Emanuele Borgatta: Francesca da Rimini
* Paolo Carlini: Francesca da Rimini
* Fournier-Gorre: Francesca da Rimini
* Pietro Generali: Francesca da Rimini
* Hermann Goetz: Francesca da Rimini
* Franco Leoni: Francesca da Rimini
* Gioacchino Maglioni: Francesca da Rimini
* Luigi Mancinelli: Paolo e Francesca
* Saverio Mercadante: Francesca da Rimini
* Francesco Morlacchi: Francesca da Rimini
* Eugene Nordal: Francesca da Rimini
* Salvatore Papparlado: Francesca da Rimini
* Gaetano Quilici: Francesca da Rimini
* Sergei Rachmaninoff: Francesca da Rimini (as Francesca Malatesta)
* Giuseppe Staffa: Francesca da Rimini
* Feliciano Strepponi: Francesca da Rimini
* Antonio Tamburini: Francesca da Rimini
* Ambroise Thomas: Françoise de Rimini
* Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini
Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans
* Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise
King Francis I of France
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V (as Franz I)
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Ascanio
Anne Frank, Dutch diarist
* Grigory Frid: The Diary of Anne Frank
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria
* Ralph Benatzky, Robert Stolz and Bruno Granichstaedten: The White Horse Inn
John Allen Fraser, Canadian politician
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Fredegund, Merovingian Queen Consort
* César Franck: Ghiselle
* Reinhard Keiser: Fredegunda (1715)
Frederick I "Barbarossa", Holy Roman Emperor
* Giuseppe Verdi: La battaglia di Legnano
King Frederick II "The Great" of Prussia
* Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass and others: The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down
* Giacomo Meyerbeer: Ein Feldlager in Schlesien (he does not appear on stage, but is heard playing the flute in the background)
Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg
* Hans Werner Henze: Der Prinz von Homburg
Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg
* Hans Werner Henze: Der Prinz von Homburg
Friedrich Friesen, German gymnast and soldier
* Wendelin Weißheimer, Theodor Körner
Jean Froissart, French chronicler
* Aulis Sallinen: Kuningas lähtee Ranskaan (The King Goes Forth to France)
Fruela I of Asturias, Fruela(or Froila) the Cruel, King of Asturias from 757 until his assassination in 768
* Franz Schubert: Alfonso und Estrella
Georg von Frundsberg, South German knight
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
Tsar Fyodor II of Russia, son of Boris Godunov
* Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov

### G

Galileo Galilei, Italian scientist
* Philip Glass: Galileo Galilei
Vasily Vasilyevich Galitzine, Russian statesman
* Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina
Galla Placidia, Roman regent, daughter of Emperor Theodosius I
* Jaume Pahissa i Jo: Gal·la Placídia (1913)
Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer
* Giacomo Meyerbeer: L'Africaine
Count Peter Gamba, associate of Lord Byron
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Mahatma Gandhi, Indian freedom advocate
* Philip Glass: Satyagraha
Garcilaso de la Vega, Spanish poet and soldier
* Ruperto Chapí: La muerte de Garcilaso
Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian freedom fighter
* Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass and others: The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down
Margaret "Peggy" Garner, American slave who killed her own daughter rather than allow the child to be returned to slavery
* Richard Danielpour: Margaret Garner
Antoni Gaudí, Catalan architect
* Joan Guinjoan: Gaudí
Paul Gauguin, French painter
* Einojuhani Rautavaara: Vincent
* Michael Smetanin: Gauguin: A Synthetic Life (2000; libretto by Alison Croggon)
* Christopher Yavelow: The Passion of Vincent van Gogh
Artemisia Gentileschi, Florentine painter
* Laura Schwendinger: Artemisia (2019)
King George III of the United Kingdom
* Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King
Priscilla German Reed, English singer and actress
Thomas German Reed, English composer and theatre manager
* Thomas German Reed (with W. S. Gilbert): Our Island Home
Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer and murderer
* Marc-André Dalbavie: Gesualdo (2010)
* Francesco d'Avalos: Maria di Venosa (1992)
* Scott Glasgow: The Prince of Venosa (1998)
* Bo Holten: Gesualdo (2003)
* Franz Hummek: Gesualdo (1998)
* Alfred Schnittke: Gesualdo
* Salvatore Sciarrino: Luci mie traditrici (1998)
Allen Ginsberg, Americangn poet
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Marilyn
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, American jurist
* Derrick Wang: Scalia/Ginsburg
Lisa del Giocondo, Italian woman, subject of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa
* Max von Schillings: Mona Lisa (as Mona Fiordalisa)
Salvatore Giuliano, Sicilian peasant
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Salvatore Giuliano
Godfrey of Bouillon, Frankish knight, leader of the First Crusade
* George Frideric Handel: Rinaldo (as Goffredo)
Boris Godunov, Tsar of Russia
* Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Xenia Borisovna Godunova, daughter of Boris Godunov
* Antonín Dvořák: Dimitrij
* Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Sir Eugene Goossens, English conductor and composer
* Drew Crawford: Eugene & Roie
Violet Gordon-Woodhouse, English harpsichordist
* Roger Scruton: Violet
St Maria Goretti, 20th century Catholic martyr
* Marcel Delannoy: Maria Goretti, radiophonic opera
Sidney Gottlieb,
* Evan Hause: Man: Biology of a Fall
Francisco Goya, Spanish painter
* Gian Carlo Menotti: Goya
* Michael Nyman: Facing Goya (he appears as a silent apparition)
Princess Grace of Monaco, American-born actress (as Grace Kelly)
* Michael Daugherty: Jackie O
Antonio Gramsci, Italian political theorist
* Luigi Nono: Al gran sole carico d'amore
Urbain Grandier, French priest
* Krzysztof Penderecki: The Devils of Loudun
Julia Dent Grant, American First Lady
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
Ulysses S. Grant, American President
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
Thomas Gray, English poet
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer
Nina Grieg, Norwegian singer, cousin and wife of Edvard Grieg
* Edvard Grieg, arr. Robert Wright and George Forrest: Song of Norway
Gen Leslie Groves, American military officer
* John Adams: Doctor Atomic
Matthias Grünewald, German renaissance painter
* Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler
Teresa, Contessa Guiccioli, Italian mistress of Lord Byron
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Guinevere, wife of King Arthur of Britain
* Ernest Chausson: Le roi Arthus (as Guenièvre)
Francis, Duke of Guise, French nobleman
* André Messager: Le bourgeois de Calais
Günther von Schwarzburg, German king
* Ignaz Holzbauer: Günther von Schwarzburg
Saint Guntram, King of Burgundy
* César Franck: Ghiselle
King Gustav I of Sweden
* Giuseppe Apolloni: Gustavo Wasa
King Gustav III of Sweden
* Daniel Auber: Gustave III
* Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
Nell Gwyn, English actress, mistress of King Charles II
* Robert Planquette: Nell Gwynne

### H

Hadrian, Roman emperor
* Pietro Metastasio: Adriano in Siria
* José de Nebra: Más gloria es triunfar de sí, o, Adriano en Siria
Emma, Lady Hamilton, English mistress of Horatio, Lord Nelson
Sir William Hamilton, British diplomat, husband of Emma, Lady Hamilton
* Lennox Berkeley: Nelson
Hannibal, Carthaginian ruler
* Johann Adolph Hasse, Domènec Terradellas, Giovanni Battista Lampugnani and Pietro Domenico Paradies: Annibale in Capua
King Harald Hardrada (Harald III of Norway)
* Heorhiy Maiboroda: Yaroslav Mudriy
* Judith Weir: King Harald's Saga
Sir Thomas Hardy, 1st Baronet, British sea captain, commander of HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar
* Lennox Berkeley: Nelson
Harold Godwinson (Harold II), Anglo-Saxon King of England
* Frederic Hymen Cowen: Harold or the Norman Conquest
* Judith Weir: King Harald's Saga
Frank Harris, Irish-American journalist, publisher
* Theodore Morrison: Oscar
Harun al-Rashid, Abbasid Caliph
* Carl Maria von Weber: Oberon
Hasdrubal Gisco, Carthaginian general
* Francesco Cavalli: Scipione affricano
William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
Richard Hauptmann, American convicted murderer
* Cary John Franklin: Loss of Eden
Harry Hawk, American actor
* Eric W. Sawyer: Our American Cousin
Wiebbe Hayes, Dutch soldier
* Richard Mills: Batavia
Heloïse, French nun associated with Peter Abelard
* Peter Tahourdin: Héloise and Abelard
* Charles Wilson: Héloise and Abelard
Sally Hemings, American mixed-race slave owned by Thomas Jefferson
* Damon Ferrante: Jefferson & Poe: A Lyric Opera
Henri, Prince of Condé, French noble
* Krzysztof Penderecki: The Devils of Loudun
Henrietta Maria of France, queen consort of Charles I of England
* Vincenzo Bellini: I puritani
Henry I, Duke of Guise
* George Onslow: Le duc de Guise
King Henry II of England
* Gaetano Donizetti: Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (as Enrico II)
* Otto Nicolai: Rosmonda d'Inghilterra (given at the first performance as Enrico II)
King Henry III of Castile
* Amadeu Vives i Roig: La villana
King Henry III of France also as Henri de Valois, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania
* Emmanuel Chabrier: Le roi malgré lui
* George Onslow: Le duc de Guise
King Henry IV of France
* Fromental Halévy: Le Roi et le batelier
King Henry V of England
* Gustav Holst: At the Boar's Head (as Prince Hal)
King Henry VII of England (as Henry, Duke of Richmond)
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
King Henry VIII of England
* Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Taverner (not identified as such)
* Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena (as Enrico)
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony, King of the Germans
* Richard Wagner: Lohengrin
Henry the Lion, German prince (Henry III of Saxony, Henry XII of Bavaria)
* Agostino Steffani: Henrico Leone
Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles, French revolutionary politician
* Gottfried von Einem: Dantons Tod
Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia
* Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser
E. T. A. Hoffmann, German author
* Jacques Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffmann
Fanny Holland, English singer and actress
* Thomas German Reed (with W. S. Gilbert): Our Island Home
Clasina Maria "Sien" Hoornik (1850–1904), Dutch alcoholic prostitute, sometime lover of Vincent van Gogh
* Einojuhani Rautavaara: Vincent
Pharaoh Horemheb of Egypt
* Philip Glass: Akhnaten
Count Claes Fredrik Horn, co-conspirator with Anckarström in the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden
* Daniel Auber: Gustave III (as Dehorn)
* Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
Harry Houdini, Hungarian-American escapologist
* Peter Schat: Houdini
Hugh Capet, King of the Franks from 987 to 996, the founder and first king from the House of Capet
* Gaetano Donizetti: Ugo, conte di Parigi
Ladislaus Hunyadi, Hungarian statesman
* Ferenc Erkel: Hunyadi László
Stig Andersen Hvide, Danish marshal, later an outlaw
* Peter Arnold Heise: Drot og marsk (King and Marshal) (as Marshal Stig)
Queen Hypsicratea of Pontus, consort of Mithradates VI
* Francesco Cavalli: Pompeo Magno (as Issicratea)
* Alessandro Scarlatti: Mitridate Eupatore

### I

Muhammad al-Idrisi, Andalusian cartographer, traveller
* Karol Szymanowski: King Roger (as Edrisi)
Gwen Ifill, American television journalist
* Curtis K. Hughes: Say It Ain't So, Joe
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish knight, founder of the Society of Jesus
* Virgil Thomson: Four Saints in Three Acts
Igor Svyatoslavich, Prince of Putivl, Novgorod-Seversk and Chernigov
* Alexander Borodin: Prince Igor
Jaakko Ilkka, Finnish peasant leader
* Jorma Panula: Jaakko Ilkka
Ingegerd Olofsdotter of Sweden
* Heorhiy Maiboroda: Yaroslav Mudriy
John Ireland, Dean of Westminster
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen Consort of Charles VI of France
* Fromental Halévy: Charles VI
Isabel Moctezuma (Teutile), daughter of Moctezuma II
* Antonio Vivaldi: Motezuma
Queen Isabella I of Castile
* Emilio Arrieta: La conquista de Granada
* Giuseppe Apolloni: L'ebreo
* Leonardo Balada: Cristóbal Colón
* Leonardo Balada: Death of Columbus
* Manuel de Falla: Atlàntida
* Alberto Franchetti: Cristoforo Colombo
* Philip Glass: The Voyage
* Vicente Martín y Soler: Una cosa rara
* Darius Milhaud: Christophe Colomb
Isabella of France, Queen Consort of Edward II of England and mother of Edward III
* Gaetano Donizetti: L'assedio di Calais (she is Edward III's wife in the opera; in real life, she was his mother)
Isabella of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress, Queen Consort of Aragon and Castile
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, "Ivan the Terrible"
* Georges Bizet: Ivan IV
* Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: The Noblewoman Vera Sheloga (unseen role; he is the father of Vera's child)
* Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: The Maid of Pskov
Izumi Shikibu, Japanese poet
* Salvatore Sciarrino: Da gelo a gelo

### J

Jack the Ripper, unidentified murderer of English prostitutes
* Alban Berg: Lulu
* Phyllis Tate: The Lodger
King James II of Cyprus "James the Bastard of Lusignan"
* Gaetano Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro (as Lusignano)
* Fromental Halévy: La reine de Chypre (as Lusignan)
King James V of Scotland
* Gioachino Rossini: La donna del lago (in disguise as Uberto)
Lady Jane Grey, disputed Queen of England
* Henri Büsser: Jane Grey
* Nicola Vaccai: Giovanna Gray
Queen Jane (Seymour), third consort of Henry VIII of England
* Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena
Thomas Jefferson, American President
* Damon Ferrante: Jefferson & Poe: A Lyric Opera
Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia
* Karl Michael Ziehrer: König Jérôme oder Immer Lustick
Jesus of Nazareth and his apostles
* Anton Cajetan Adlgasser: Christus am Ölberg
* Harrison Birtwistle: The Last Supper
* Constantine Koukias: Days and Nights with Christ (played by a non-singing dancer)
* Anton Rubinstein: Christus, sacred opera
* Josep Soler i Sardà: Jesús de Natzaret, opera
Jiang Qing Chinese figure, 4th wife of Mao Zedong
* John Adams: Nixon in China (as Chiang Ch'ing)
* Bright Sheng: Madame Mao
St Joan of Arc, French saint (see also Category:Operas about Joan of Arc)
* Walter Braunfels: Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna
* Norman Dello Joio: The Triumph of St. Joan
* Giselher Klebe: Das Mädchen aus Domrémy
* Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Maid of Orleans
* Giuseppe Verdi: Giovanna d'Arco
* For details of other musical depictions of Joan of Arc, see Cultural depictions of Joan of Arc#Operas, oratorios, and vocal works
Joan I of Naples, Queen of Naples
* Juan Manén: Giovanna di Napoli
Joanna of Castile, Queen of Castile and Aragon
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V (as Juana)
* Enric Palomar: Juana
Juana I de Castilla, Queen of Castile and Aragon
* Alberto Garcia Demestres: Juana sin sielo
Patriarch Job of Moscow, Russian Orthodox prelate
* Antonín Dvořák: Dimitrij
John, Prince of Asturias, Spanish prince, son of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile
* Vicente Martín y Soler: Una cosa rara
King John of England
* Sir Arthur Sullivan: Ivanhoe (as Prince John)
Don John of Austria, Bavarian soldier in Spanish service, son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
* Ruperto Chapí: Don Juan de Austria, zarzuela in 3 acts
* Isaac Nathan: Don John of Austria
John of Leiden, Dutch Anabaptist leader
* Giacomo Meyerbeer: Le prophète (as Jean de Leyde)
Andrew Johnson, American President
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
Lyndon B. Johnson, American President
* Evan Hause: Nightingale: The Last Days of James Forrestal
* David T. Little: JFK
Ben Jonson, English poet
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
* Georg Jarno: Die Försterchristl (or possibly a fictitious "Franz Joseph II of Austria")
Joséphine de Beauharnais, Consort of Napoleon I
* Emmerich Kálmán: Kaiserin Josephine
Julia Caesaris, daughter of Julius Caesar, 4th wife of Pompey the Great
* Francesco Cavalli: Pompeo Magno
Julius Caesar, Consul and Dictator of Rome
* Francesco Cavalli: Pompeo Magno
* Carl Heinrich Graun: Cesare e Cleopatra
* George Frideric Handel: Giulio Cesare (in Egitto)
* Giselher Klebe: Die Ermordung Cäsars
* Antonio Sartorio: Giulio Cesare in Egitto

### K

Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter
* Robert Xavier Rodriguez: Frida
Christoph Kaufmann (or Kauffman), associate of Jakob Lenz
* Wolfgang Rihm: Jakob Lenz
Sir Edward Kelley, English occultist
* Rufus Norris and Damon Albarn: Dr Dee: An English Opera
Grace Kelly: see Princess Grace of Monaco
Ned Kelly, Australian outlaw and folk hero
* Luke Styles: Ned Kelly
John F. Kennedy, American President
* Michael Daugherty: Jackie O
* David T. Little: JFK
Rosemary Kennedy, member of the Kennedy family
* David T. Little: JFK
Johannes Kepler, German astronomer, mathematician
* Philip Glass: Kepler
* Paul Hindemith: Die Harmonie der Welt
Ivan Andreyevich Khovansky, "Tararui" (chatterbox), Russian boyar
* Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina
Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet leader
* David T. Little: JFK
Edgar Ray Killen, KKK leader, murderer
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
Larry King, American talk-show host
* Mark-Anthony Turnage: Anna Nicole
Martin Luther King Jr.
* Philip Glass: Satyagraha
Henry Kissinger, American Secretary of State
* John Adams: Nixon in China
Aleksis Kivi, Finnish writer
* Einojuhani Rautavaara: Aleksis Kivi
Leon Klinghoffer, American ship passenger murdered by terrorists
* John Adams: The Death of Klinghoffer
Vasily Kochubey, Cossack hetman, associate of Ivan Mazepa
* Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Mazeppa
Konchak, Polovtsian khan
Konchakovna, his daughter
* Alexander Borodin: Prince Igor
Theodor Körner, German poet and soldier
* Wendelin Weißheimer, Theodor Körner
Maria Korp, Australian murder victim
* Gordon Kerry: Midnight Son
Tadeusz Kościuszko, Polish revolutionary hero
* Franciszek Salezy Dutkiewicz: Kościuszko nad Sekwaną (Kościuszko at the Seine)
Anne Kronenberg, American political administrator
* Stewart Wallace: Harvey Milk
Kublai Khan, Grand Khan of the Mongol Empire
* Tan Dun: Marco Polo
Mikhail Kutuzov, Russian field marshal
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace

### L

Ladislaus I of Poland: see Władysław I the Elbow-high
Ladislaus the Posthumous, Duke of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia
* Ferenc Erkel: Hunyadi László (as László V)
Lady Caroline Lamb, lover of Lord Byron
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Anne Françoise Elisabeth Lange, French actress, known as "Mademoiselle Lange"
* Charles Lecocq: La fille de Madame Angot
Adrienne Lecouvreur, French actress
* Francesco Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur
Eleanor Agnes Lee, daughter of Robert E. Lee
Mary Anna Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
General Robert E. Lee
* Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass and others: The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
François Joseph Lefebvre, Marshal of France, Duke of Danzig
* Ivan Caryll: The Duchess of Dantzic
* Umberto Giordano: Madame Sans-Gêne
    His wife, née Cathérine Hubscher, later Duchess of Danzig
   * Ivan Caryll: The Duchess of Dantzic (as Catherine Üpscher)
   * Umberto Giordano: Madame Sans-Gêne
Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer
* Victor Davies: Transit of Venus
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English courtier, favourite of Elizabeth I
* Gaetano Donizetti: Il castello di Kenilworth
* Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Stuarda (as Roberto)
* Gioachino Rossini: Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
Augusta Leigh, half-sister and incestuous lover of Lord Byron
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz, German writer
* Wolfgang Rihm: Jakob Lenz
Pope St Leo I "The Great"
* Giuseppe Verdi: Attila (as Leone)
Brother Leo, friend and confidant of Francis of Assisi
* Olivier Messiaen: Saint François d'Assise
Leonidas of Epirus
* George Frideric Handel: Alessandro
(i) Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, Roman triumvir
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra
(ii) Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, heir to Roman emperor Caligula
* Reinhard Keiser: Octavia
Leszek I the White, High Duke of Poland 1194-1227
* Józef Elsner: Leszek Biały
Ada Leverson, British novelist
* Theodore Morrison: Oscar
Li Bai or Li Po, Chinese poet
* Tan Dun: Marco Polo
Liliuokalani, Queen of Hawaii
* Paul Abraham: Die Blume von Hawaii, operetta
Abraham Lincoln, American President
Mary Todd Lincoln, American First Lady
* Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass and others: The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
* Eric W. Sawyer: Our American Cousin
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American writer and aviator
* Cary John Franklin: Loss of Eden
Charles Lindbergh, American pioneer aviator
* Cary John Franklin: Loss of Eden
* Paul Hindemith and Kurt Weill: Der Lindberghflug (Lindbergh's Flight). This was later changed by removal of Hindemith's contribution, renaming it to Der Ozeanflug (The Flight across the Ocean), and removal of Lindbergh's name. The opening line was changed from "My name is Charles Lindbergh" to "My name is of no account".
Alexander Litvinenko, murdered Russian-British security operative
* Anthony Bolton: The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko
Judah Loew ben Bezalel, Bohemian Talmudic scholar
* Nicolae Bretan: Golem (as Rabbi Lőw)
* Eugen d'Albert: Der Golem
King Louis V of France
* Gaetano Donizetti: Ugo, conte di Parigi
King Louis VI of France
* Carl Maria von Weber: Euryanthe
King Louis XII of France
* André Messager: La Basoche
King Louis XIII of France
* Charles Gounod: Cinq-Mars
King Louis XIV of France
* Léo Delibes: Le roi l'a dit (unseen role; he is referred to by the other characters)
King Louis XV of France
* Michel Richard Delalande and André Cardinal Destouches: Les élémens (represented by a chorus)
* Leo Fall: Madame Pompadour
King Louis XVI of France
* John Corigliano: The Ghosts of Versailles
Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
Lucan, Roman poet
* Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
Lucretia, Roman noblewoman raped by Sextus Tarquinius (legendary)
* Benjamin Britten: The Rape of Lucretia
* Ottorino Respighi: Lucrezia
Andrey Lugovoy, Russian businessman, politician
* Anthony Bolton: The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko
Martin Luther, initiator of the Protestant Reformation
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow, Prussian general
* Wendelin Weißheimer, Theodor Körner

### M

Douglas MacArthur, American general
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Marilyn
Jeanette MacDonald, American soprano, actress
* Edwin Penhorwood: Too Many Sopranos (spoofed as "Just Jeannette")
Sir John A. Macdonald, first Prime Minister of Canada
William McDougall, Canadian politician
* Harry Somers: Louis Riel
Ralph McGill, American anti-segregationist journalist
* Michael Braz: A Scholar Under Siege
Wilmer McLean, American Civil War figure
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
Colin McPhee, Canadian composer and musicologist
* Evan Ziporyn: A House in Bali
King Macbeth of Scotland
* Ernest Bloch: Macbeth
* Iain Hamilton: The Tragedy of Macbeth
* Salvatore Sciarrino: Macbeth
* Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth
Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, Roman general, natural father of Scipio Aemilianus
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Il sogno di Scipione, K. 126
Gaius Maecenas, political adviser to Octavian (Caesar Augustus)
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra
Saint Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney
* Peter Maxwell Davies: The Martyrdom of St Magnus
Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer
* Tan Dun: Marco Polo
Marion Mahony, American architect and artist, wife of Walter Burley Griffin
* Daron Hagen: Shining Brow
Giovanni Malatesta, husband and murderer of Francesca da Rimini
* Sergei Rachmaninoff: Francesca da Rimini (as Lanciotto Malatesta)
* Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini (as Giovanni lo Sciancato)
Malatestino Malatesta, Lord of Rimini
* Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini (as Malatestino dall'Occhio)
Paolo Malatesta, brother-in-law and lover of Francesca da Rimini
* Sergei Rachmaninoff: Francesca da Rimini
* Riccardo Zandonai: Francesca da Rimini (as Paolo il Bello)
La Malinche, Aztec mistress of Hernán Cortés
* Lorenzo Ferrero: La Conquista
* Wolfgang Rihm: Die Eroberung von Mexico
* Roger Sessions: Montezuma
Mao Zedong, Chinese leader
* John Adams: Nixon in China (as Mao Tse-tung)
Madame Mao: see Jiang Qing
Jean-Paul Marat, Jacobin leader
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Charlotte Corday
Benedetto Marcello, Italian composer
* Joachim Raff: Benedetto Marcello
Alexey Maresyev, Russian fighter pilot
* Sergei Prokofiev: The Story of a Real Man
Margaret of Anjou, Queen consort to Henry VI of England
* Giacomo Meyerbeer: Margherita d'Anjou
Marguérite de Valois, consort of Henry IV of France/Henry III of Navarre
* Ferdinand Hérold: Le pré aux clercs
* Giacomo Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots
Maria Carolina of Austria
* Umberto Giordano: Madame Sans-Gêne
Sister Maria Celeste, Italian nun, illegitimate daughter of Galileo Galilei
* Philip Glass: Galileo Galilei
Maria Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier, Infanta of Spain
* Johann Strauss II: Cagliostro in Wien
Marie Antoinette, Queen Consort of Louis XVI of France
* John Corigliano: The Ghosts of Versailles
Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, wife of Napoleon I
* Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert: L'Aiglon
Marie Louise Gonzaga, French Queen consort to 2 Polish kings
* Charles Gounod: Cinq-Mars
Empress Maria Theresa of Austria
* Johann Strauss II: Cagliostro in Wien
Guadalupe Marín, Mexican model and novelist, second wife of Diego Rivera
* Robert Xavier Rodriguez: Frida (as Lupe)
Mark Antony, Roman politician and general
* John Adams: Antony and Cleopatra
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra
* Domenico Cimarosa: La Cleopatra
* Louis Gruenberg: Antony and Cleopatra
* Henry Kimball Hadley: Cleopatra's Night
* Giselher Klebe: Die Ermordung Cäsars
* Jules Massenet: Cléopâtre
Auguste de Marmont
* Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert: L'Aiglon
Martyrs of Compiègne, a group of French Carmelite nuns
* Francis Poulenc: Dialogues of the Carmelites
Saint Mary of Egypt, patron saint of penitents
* Ottorino Respighi: Maria egiziaca
* John Tavener: Mary of Egypt
Mary, Queen of Scots
* Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Stuarda
* Thea Musgrave: Mary, Queen of Scots
* Louis Niedermeyer: Marie Stuart
Queen Mary I of England "Bloody Mary"
* Antônio Carlos Gomes: Maria Tudor
* Giovanni Pacini: Maria, regina d'Inghilterra
Mary Tudor, Queen of France, sister of Henry VIII, husband of Louis XII
* André Messager: La Basoche
Masaniello (Tommaso Aniello), Neapolitan fisherman, revolutionary leader
* Daniel Auber: La muette de Portici (aka Masaniello)
* Antônio Carlos Gomes: Salvator Rosa
* Reinhard Keiser: Masagniello
* Reinhard Keiser: Die neapolitanische Fischer-Empörung oder Masaniello furioso
* Jacopo Napoli: Mas' Aniello
Masinissa, first King of Numidia
* Francesco Cavalli: Scipione affricano
Mata Hari, Dutch spy
* Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass and others: The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down
Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor
* Antonín Dvořák: King and Charcoal Burner
King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary
* Ferenc Erkel: Hunyadi László (as Mátyás Hunyadi)
Maurice, Elector of Saxony
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V
Maurice de Saxe
* Francesco Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur
* Jacques Offenbach: Madame Favart
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus Herculius, aka Maximian, Roman ruler
* Gaetano Donizetti: Fausta
Maximinian, co-Emperor of Rome
* Henry Purcell: Dioclesian
Ivan Mazepa, Cossack hetman, military leader
* Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Mazeppa
Joseph McCarthy, American politician, demagogue
* Gregory Spears: Fellow Travelers
Col. Robert R. McCormick, American newspaper publisher
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Catherine de' Medici
* George Onslow: Le duc de Guise
Cosimo de' Medici, ruler of Florence
* Fromental Halévy: Guido et Ginevra
Giuliano de' Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent
Lorenzo de' Medici, "Lorenzo the Magnificent", Italian statesman
* Ruggero Leoncavallo: I Medici
Lorenzino de' Medici, Italian writer and assassin
* Giovanni Pacini: Lorenzino de' Medici
Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II
* Gioachino Rossini: Maometto II
* Gioachino Rossini: Le siège de Corinthe (as Mahomet II)
Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov, Russian statesman
* André Grétry: Pierre le Grand
Bartolomeo Merelli, Italian impresario and librettist
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Risorgimento!
Valeria Messalina, Roman Empress
* Isidore de Lara: Messaline
Caecilia Metella Dalmatica, fourth wife of Lucius Cornelius Sulla
* George Frideric Handel: Silla
Cornelia Metella, Pompey's second wife
* George Frideric Handel: Giulio Cesare (in Egitto) (as Cornelia)
Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich
* Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert: L'Aiglon
Harvey Milk, American politician and gay activist
* Stewart Wallace: Harvey Milk
Christina Miller, Scottish chemist
* Julian Wagstaff: Breathe Freely
John Milton, English poet
* Gaspare Spontini: Milton
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto, Scottish diplomat, Governor-General of India
* Lennox Berkeley: Nelson
King Mithridates VI of Pontus
* Francesco Cavalli: Pompeo Magno
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mitridate, re di Ponto
* Alessandro Scarlatti: Mitridate Eupatore
* Domènec Terradellas: Mitridate
Marina Mniszech, Polish noble and Russian political adventurer
* Antonín Dvořák: Dimitrij
* Victorin de Joncières: Dimitri
* Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Moctezuma II, Aztec ruler
* Lorenzo Ferrero: La Conquista
* Carl Heinrich Graun: Montezuma
* Henry Kimball Hadley: Azora, the Daughter of Montezuma
* Josef Mysliveček: Motezuma
* Wolfgang Rihm: Die Eroberung von Mexico
* Antonio Sacchini: Montezuma
* Roger Sessions: Montezuma
* Antonio Vivaldi: Motezuma
* Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli: Montesuma
King Mojmír II of Great Moravia
* Eugen Suchoň: Svätopluk
Marilyn Monroe, American actress
* Gavin Bryars: Marilyn Forever
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Marilyn
* Igor Wakhévitch: Être Dieu: opéra-poème, audiovisuel et cathare en six parties (a creation of Salvador Dalí; Monroe is doing a striptease with Catherine the Great of Russia)
Guy de Montfort, Count of Nola, Anglo-Italian condottiero
* Giuseppe Verdi: Les vêpres siciliennes
Thomas Moore, Irish poet, songwriter
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Mordred, legendary Arthurian character
* Isaac Albéniz: Merlin
* Ernest Chausson: Le roi Arthus
Thomas Morton, American colonist of New England
* Howard Hanson: Merry Mount
George Moscone, Mayor of San Francisco
* Stewart Wallace: Harvey Milk
Moses, biblical character
* Gioacchino Rossini: Mosè in Egitto
* Arnold Schoenberg: Moses und Aron
* Myroslav Skoryk: Moses
Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy, Elizabethan figure
* Benjamin Britten: Gloriana
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer
* P. D. Q. Bach (Peter Schickele): A Little Nightmare Music
* Reynaldo Hahn: Mozart (musical comedy)
* Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Mozart and Salieri
Gaius Mucius Scaevola, Roman figure
* Francesco Cavalli: Mutio Scevola
* George Frideric Handel: Muzio Scevola
Muhammad XII of Granada, aka Boabdil, last Nasrid ruler of Granada
* Giuseppe Apolloni: L'ebreo
* Emilio Arrieta: La conquista di Granata
* Moritz Moszkowski: Boabdil der letzte Maurenkönig
* Baltasar Saldoni: Boabdil, ultimo rey de Granada
Brian Mulroney, Prime Minister of Canada Mila Mulroney, Canadian First Lady
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Ottoman Sultan Murad II
* Antonio Vivaldi: Scanderbeg (as Amurat II)
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish Baroque painter
* Josep Soler i Sardà: Murillo
John Murray II, British publisher
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Eadweard Muybridge, English pioneer photographer
* Philip Glass: The Photographer

### N

Emperor Napoleon I of France (Napoleon Bonaparte)
* Ivan Caryll: The Duchess of Dantzic
* Eugen d'Albert: Der Stier von Olivera
* Umberto Giordano: Madame Sans-Gêne
* Emmerich Kálmán: Kaiserin Josephine
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace
Emperor Napoleon II of France
* Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert: L'Aiglon
* Petar Stojanović: Napoleon II: Herzog von Reichstadt
Louis, comte de Narbonne-Lara
* Ivan Caryll: The Duchess of Dantzic (as Comte de Narbonne)
Carrie Nation, American temperance advocate and vandal
* Douglas Moore: Carry Nation
Nebuchadnezzar II, ruler of Babylon
* Benjamin Britten: The Burning Fiery Furnace
* Giuseppe Verdi: Nabucco
Nefertiti, wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten of Egypt
* Philip Glass: Akhnaten
Adam Albert von Neipperg, Austrian general
* Umberto Giordano: Madame Sans-Gêne
Frances Nelson, Lady Nelson, wife of Lord Nelson
* Lennox Berkeley: Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, British admiral, naval hero
* Lennox Berkeley: Nelson
Emperor Nero of Rome
* Arrigo Boito: Nerone
* George Frideric Handel: Agrippina
* Reinhard Keiser: Octavia
* Juan Manén: Acté and Neró i Acté
* Pietro Mascagni: Nerone (as Claudio Cesare Nerone)
* Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
* Anton Rubinstein: Néron
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
* Deborah Drattell: Nicholas and Alexandra
Nitocris, Queen of Egypt, maybe legendary
* Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini: Nitocri
Pat Nixon, American First Lady
* John Adams: Nixon in China
Richard Nixon, American President
* John Adams: Nixon in China
Rikard Nordraak, Norwegian composer
* Edvard Grieg, arr. Robert Wright and George Forrest: Song of Norway
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, English politician, uncle to two of Henry VIII's wives
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, English nobleman
* Gioachino Rossini: Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra
Rosaleen Norton, so-called "Witch of Kings Cross", Sydney occultist
* Drew Crawford: Eugene & Roie
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, English admiral and statesman
* Gaetano Donizetti: Roberto Devereux

### O

J. F. Oberlin, Alsatian pastor, philanthropist
* Wolfgang Rihm: Jakob Lenz
Empress Claudia Octavia of Rome, consort of Nero
* Reinhard Keiser: Octavia
* Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
Octavia the Younger, fourth wife of Mark Antony
* Samuel Barber: Antony and Cleopatra
* Jules Massenet: Cléopâtre
King Olaf I Tryggvason of Norway
* Ragnar Søderlind: Olav Tryggvason
King Olaf II of Norway (St. Olaf)
* Judith Weir: King Harald's Saga
Frank Olson, American biochemist
* Evan Hause: Man: Biology of a Fall
Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate
* Michael Daugherty: Jackie O
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, American First Lady, wife of John F. Kennedy, then of Aristotle Onassis
* Michael Daugherty: Jackie O
* David T. Little: JFK
J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist
* John Adams: Doctor Atomic
Sallustia Orbiana, wife of Emperor Alexander Severus of Rome
* George Frideric Handel: Alessandro Severo
Pylyp Orlyk, associate of Ivan Mazepa
* Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Mazeppa
Pier Francesco Orsini, Italian condottiero
* Alberto Ginastera: Bomarzo
Emperor Marcus Salvius Otho of Rome
* Antonio Vivaldi: Ottone in villa

### P-Q

María de Padilla, mistress and secret wife of Peter of Castile
* Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Padilla
Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer
* Sir Harrison Birtwistle: The Second Mrs Kong
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Italian composer
* Hans Pfitzner: Palestrina
* Johann Sachs: Palestrina
Sarah Palin, American politician, Governor of Alaska, vice-presidential candidate
* Curtis K. Hughes: Say It Ain't So, Joe
Papantzin, Aztec princess, sister of Moctezuma II
* Henry Kimball Hadley: Azora, the Daughter of Montezuma
Johan Papegoja, Governor of New Sweden
* Wilhelm Peterson-Berger: The Doomsday Prophets
Ely S. Parker, American Seneca native, Commissioner of Indian Affairs
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
Boris Pasternak, Russian novelist
* Nigel Osborne: The Electrification of the Soviet Union (narrator)
Francisco Pelsaert, Dutch merchant, naval commander
* Richard Mills: Batavia
Samuel Pepys, English diarist
* Albert Coates: Samuel Pepys
Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland
* Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena
Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, Castilian nobleman, known as Guzmán el Bueno
* Tomás Bretón: Guzmán el Bueno
* Baltasar Saldoni: Guzmán el Bueno
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer
* Emilio Arrieta: Pergolesi
* Paolo Serrao: Pergolesi
Pericles, Athenian statesman
* Henri Christiné: Phi-Phi
Saint Peter, Christian apostle
* Harrison Birtwistle: The Last Supper
* Edwin Penhorwood: Too Many Sopranos
King Peter III of Aragon, "Peter the Great"
* Hector Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict (Don Pedro)
* Felip Pedrell: Els Pirineus
* Charles Villiers Stanford: Much ado about nothing
King Peter of Castile, "Peter the Cruel"
* Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Padilla (as Don Pedro, Prince of Castile)
* Hilarión Eslava: Pietro il Crudele
Tsar Peter I "The Great" of Russia
* Gaetano Donizetti: Il falegname di Livonia, o Pietro il grande, czar delle Russie
* Gaetano Donizetti: Il borgomastro di Saardam
* André Grétry: Pierre le Grand
* Louis-Antoine Jullien: Pietro il grande (1852)
* Albert Lortzing: Zar und Zimmermann
* Giacomo Meyerbeer: L'étoile du nord
Peter the Hermit, priest and leader of the First Crusade
* Charles Gounod: La nonne sanglante
Gaius Petronius Arbiter, Roman courtier, writer
* Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
Michele Pezza, Neapolitan guerilla leader, known as "Fra Diavolo"
* Daniel Auber: Fra Diavolo
King Pharnaces II of Pontus
* Francesco Cavalli: Pompeo Magno (as Farnace)
* Francesco Corselli: Farnace
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mitridate, re di Ponto
* Josef Mysliveček: Farnace
* Alessandro Scarlatti: Mitridate Eupatore
* Leonardo Vinci: Farnace
* Antonio Vivaldi: Farnace
Phidias, Greek sculptor
* Henri Christiné: Phi-Phi
King Philip II of Spain
* Isaac Nathan: Don John of Austria (disguised as Count de Santa Fiore)
* Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlos
King Philip V of Spain
* John Barnett: Farinelli
Mariana de Pineda, Spanish liberalist heroine.
* Alberto Garcia Demestres: Mariana en sombras
Gaspare Pisciotta, Sicilian peasant
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Salvatore Giuliano
Gaius Calpurnius Piso, Roman senator
* Reinhard Keiser: Octavia
Pope Pius IV
* Hans Pfitzner: Palestrina
Sylvia Plath
* Adriana Hölszky: Giuseppe e Sylvia (2000)
Edgar Allan Poe, American writer
* Dominic Argento, The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe
* Damon Ferrante: Jefferson & Poe: A Lyric Opera
Anna Politkovskaya, Russian journalist, human rights activist
* Anthony Bolton: The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko
Poliziano (Angelo Ambrogini), Italian renaissance poet, scholar
* Ruggero Leoncavallo: I Medici
Marco Polo, Italian adventurer
* Tan Dun: Marco Polo
Saint Polyeuctus
* Gaetano Donizetti: Poliuto
* Charles Gounod: Polyeucte
Lorenz Truchsess von Pommersfelden
* Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler
Madame de Pompadour, French courtier, mistress of Louis XV
* Leo Fall: Madame Pompadour
* Edwin Penhorwood: Too Many Sopranos (spoofed as "Madame Popmpous")
Pompey the Great, Roman military and political leader
* Francesco Cavalli: Pompeo Magno
Empress Poppaea Augusta Sabina, consort of Roman Emperors Nero and Otho
* George Frideric Handel: Agrippina
* Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
Lars Porsena, King of Etruria
* Filippo Amadei, Giovanni Bononcini and George Frideric Handel: Muzio Scevola
Porus, King of Paurava
* George Frideric Handel: Poro
Charles E. Potter, American politician
* Gregory Spears: Fellow Travelers
Sister Helen Prejean, American nun, death penalty abolitionist
* Jake Heggie: Dead Man Walking
Přemysl, the Ploughman, first ruler of Bohemia
* Tomaso Albinoni: Primislao, primo re di Boemia
John of Procida, Italian medieval physician and diplomat
* Giuseppe Verdi: Les vêpres siciliennes
John Proctor, a tavern keeper in 17th century Massachusetts who was hanged for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials
* Robert Ward: The Crucible
Chevalier de Prokesch-Osten
* Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert: L'Aiglon
Marcel Proust, French novelist
* Alfred Schnittke: Life with an Idiot
Pharaoh Ptolemy IX Lathyros of Egypt
* George Frideric Handel: Tolomeo
Pharaoh Ptolemy XI Alexander II of Egypt
* George Frideric Handel: Tolomeo
Publius Valerius Publicola, Roman consul
* George Frideric Handel: Muzio Scevola
Yemelyan Pugachev, Russian pretender to the throne
* César Cui: The Captain's Daughter
Qin Shi Huang, first Emperor of unified China
* Tan Dun: The First Emperor
Vasco de Quiroga, member of the second Audiencia in Mexico and first bishop of Michoacán
* Miguel Bernal Jiménez: Tata Vasco

### R

Nikolay Raevsky, Russian general
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace
Gilles de Rais, French soldier and serial killer of children
* Walter Braunfels: Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna
Elizabeth Raleigh, wife of Sir Walter Raleigh
* Edward German: Merrie England (as Bessie Throckmorton)
Sir Walter Raleigh, English explorer and courtier
* Benjamin Britten: Gloriana
* Gaetano Donizetti: Roberto Devereux
* Edward German: Merrie England
Raphael, Italian painter
* Anton Arensky: Raphael
Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic, confidant of Tsarina Alexandra
* Einojuhani Rautavaara: Rasputin
Rastislav of Moravia, second ruler of Moravia
* Eugen Suchoň: Svätopluk
Sir Richard Ratcliffe
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
John Aaron Rawlins, American general, Secretary of War
* Philip Glass: Appomattox
Stenka Razin, cossack leader
* Nikolay Afanasyev: Stenka Razin
Nancy Reagan, US First Lady
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Ronald Reagan, President of the United States
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
* Erkki-Sven Tüür: Wallenberg
Wilhelm Reich, Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Marilyn
Count Adolf Ludvig Ribbing, co-conspirator with Anckarström in the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden
* Daniel Auber: Gustave III
* Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
Penelope Rich, Lady Rich, English noblewoman
* Benjamin Britten: Gloriana
King Richard I "Coeur de Lion" of England
* André Grétry: Richard Coeur-de-lion
* George Frideric Handel: Riccardo Primo
* Heinrich Marschner: Der Templer und die Jüdin (as the Black Knight)
* Sir Arthur Sullivan: Ivanhoe
King Richard II of England
* Reginald De Koven: The Canterbury Pilgrims
King Richard III of England
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
* Flavio Testi: Riccardo III
Prince Richard (Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York)
* Giorgio Battistelli, Richard III (2004)
Rafael del Riego, Spanish general
* José Melchor Gomis: Le diable à Seville
Louis Riel, executed Canadian rebel
* Harry Somers: Louis Riel
Cola di Rienzo, Roman tribune
* Richard Wagner: Rienzi
Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet
* Nikolai Korndorf: MR (Marina and Rainer)
Arthur Rimbaud, French poet
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Rimbaud, ou le fils du soleil
Diego Rivera, Mexican painter
* Robert Xavier Rodriguez: Frida
King Robert I of Scotland, "Robert the Bruce"
* Gioachino Rossini: Robert Bruce (pastiche)
Robert I, Duke of Normandy
* Giacomo Meyerbeer: Robert le diable
Maximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary figure
* John Eaton: Danton and Robespierre
* Gottfried von Einem: Dantons Tod
* Henry Litolff: Robespierre
Robin Hood (legendary)
* W. H. Birch: The Merrie Men of Sherwood Forest
* Heinrich Marschner: Der Templer und die Jüdin (as Lokslei)
* Sir Arthur Sullivan: Ivanhoe (as Locksley)
* Robin Hood (opera) (disambiguation)
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English writer, libertine
* Robert Planquette: Nell Gwynne
Roderic, Visigothic King of Hispania
* Alberto Ginastera: Don Rodrigo
King Roger II of Sicily
* Karol Szymanowski: King Roger
Rogneda of Polotsk, consort of Vladimir I of Kiev
* Alexander Serov: Rogneda
Theodore Roosevelt, American President
* Scott Joplin: A Guest of Honor
Salvator Rosa, Italian painter and poet
* Antônio Carlos Gomes: Salvator Rosa
Gioachino Rossini
* Bernhard Paumgartner, Rossini in Naples
Roxana, wife of Alexander the Great
* George Frideric Handel: Alessandro
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
* Paul Hindemith: Die Harmonie der Welt
Rudolf II, Count Palatine of the Rhine
* Ignaz Holzbauer: Günther von Schwarzburg
Paavo Ruotsalainen, Finnish farmer and lay preacher
* Joonas Kokkonen: The Last Temptations
Lillian Russell, American actress and singer
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
Rustichello da Pisa, Italian writer
* Tan Dun: Marco Polo

### S

Hans Sachs, German meistersinger
* Albert Lortzing: Hans Sachs
* Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Oliver Sacks, British neurologist, writer
* Michael Nyman: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (as Dr. S.)
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, French revolutionary figure
* Gottfried von Einem: Dantons Tod
Ōtomo no Sakanoe no Iratsume, Japanese poet
* Nikolai Korndorf: MR (Marina and Rainer)
Antonio Salieri, Italian-Austrian composer
* P. D. Q. Bach (Peter Schickele): A Little Nightmare Music
* Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Mozart and Salieri
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, Elizabethan minister
* Benjamin Britten: Gloriana
* Gaetano Donizetti: Roberto Devereux
Sappho, ancient Greek poet
* Charles Gounod: Sapho
* Giovanni Pacini: Saffo
Sardanapalus, king of Assyria
* Giulio Alary: Sardanapale
* Franz Liszt: Sardanapale
William Sargant, British psychiatrist
* Evan Hause: Man: Biology of a Fall
David Sarnoff, American television pioneer
* Evan Hause: The Birth and Theft of Television
Girolamo Savonarola, Florentine heretic and book-burner
* Sir Charles Villiers Stanford: Savonarola (1884)
Diane Sawyer, American television journalist
* Curtis K. Hughes: Say It Ain't So, Joe
Antonin Scalia, American jurist
* Derrick Wang: Scalia/Ginsburg
Sylvester von Schaumberg
* Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler
Hans and Sophie Scholl, sibling co-founders of non-violent resistance movement The White Rose
* Udo Zimmermann: Weiße Rose
Kurt Schwitters, German painter
* Michael Nyman: Man and Boy: Dada
Scipio Aemilianus, aka Scipio Africanus the Younger, Roman general, nephew and adopted son of Scipio Africanus the Elder
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Il sogno di Scipione, K. 126
Scipio Africanus, aka Scipio Africanus the Elder, Roman general
* Joachim Albertini: Scipione Africano
* Francesco Cavalli: Scipione affricano
* George Frideric Handel: Scipione
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Il sogno di Scipione, K. 126
* Antonio Sacchini: Scipione in Cartagena
King Sebastian of Portugal
* Gaetano Donizetti: Dom Sébastien
Seleucus I Nicator, King of Syria, founder of the Seleucid Empire
* Étienne Méhul: Stratonice
* Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les fêtes de Polymnie
Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher, dramatist
* Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass and others: The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down
* Reinhard Keiser: Octavia
* Claudio Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea
Sesostris, legendary king of Egypt
* Andrea Adolfati: Sesostri, re d'Egitto
* Domènec Terradellas: Sesostri, re d'Egitto
Sextus Pompey, Roman general, son of Pompey the Great
* Francesco Cavalli: Pompeo Magno
* George Frideric Handel: Giulio Cesare (in Egitto) (as Sesto)
William Shakespeare, English playwright
* Tan Dun: Marco Polo
* Ambroise Thomas: Le songe d'une nuit d'été
Fyodor Shaklovity, Russian diplomat
* Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina
Andrey Shchelkalov, Russian administrator, official
* Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, English soldier
* Giuseppe Verdi: Giovanna d'Arco (as Talbot)
George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, English statesman
* Gaetano Donizetti: Maria Stuarda (as Giorgio Talbot)
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor
* Fromental Halévy: La Juive
George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, Albanian national hero
* François Francoeur: Scanderbeg
* Antonio Vivaldi: Scanderbeg
Bengt Skytte, Swedish official
* Wilhelm Peterson-Berger: The Doomsday Prophets
Mark Smeaton, English courtier
* Gaetano Donizetti: Anna Bolena
Anna Nicole Smith, American actress and model
* Mark-Anthony Turnage: Anna Nicole
Scott Smith, American gay activist
* Stewart Wallace: Harvey Milk
Dame Ethel Smyth, English composer
* Roger Scruton: Violet
Socrates, Greek philosopher
* Georg Philipp Telemann: Der geduldige Sokrates
Solon, Greek philosopher
* Reinhard Keiser: Croesus
Sophonisba, Carthaginian noblewoman, daughter of Hasdrubal Gisco
* Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini: La Sofonisba
* Francesco Cavalli: Scipione affricano
Agnès Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France
* César Cui: The Saracen
* Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Maid of Orleans
Sidney Souers, American admiral and intelligence expert
* Evan Hause: Nightingale: The Last Days of James Forrestal
Edmund Spenser, English poet
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Arthur Stace, Australian citizen who over 35 years chalked the word "Eternity" over 500,000 times on the footpaths of Sydney
* Jonathan Mills: The Eternity Man
Stanisław I Leszczyński, King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
* Giuseppe Verdi: Un giorno di regno (being impersonated by the fictional character the Cavaliere di Belfiore)
Stateira, consort of Darius III of Persia
* Francesco Cavalli: Statira principessa di Persia
Gertrude Stein, American writer
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
King Stephen I of Hungary (St. Stephen)
* Ferenc Erkel: István király
Thaddeus Stevens, American politician
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury
* Frederic Hymen Cowen: Harold or the Norman Conquest
Alessandro Stradella, Italian composer
* Friedrich von Flotow: Alessandro Stradella
* Louis Niedermeyer: Stradella
* at least 2 other operas
Stratonice, wife of Seleucus I Nicator, King of Syria
* Étienne Méhul: Stratonice
* Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les fêtes de Polymnie
Johann Strauss I, Viennese waltz composer (father)
Johann Strauss II, Viennese waltz composer (son)
* Johann Strauss I and Johann Strauss II, arr. Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Julius Bittner: Valses de Vienne
Giuseppina Strepponi, operatic soprano
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Risorgimento!
Nikola Šubić Zrinski, Croatian general
* Ivan Zajc: Nikola Šubić Zrinjski
Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
* Ernst Krenek: Karl V (as Sultan Soliman)
* Ivan Zajc: Nikola Šubić Zrinjski
Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Roman general and dictator
* George Frideric Handel: Silla
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Lucio Silla
Louis Sullivan, American architect
* Daron Hagen: Shining Brow
Sun Yat-sen, Chinese revolutionary leader
* Huang Ruo: Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, English aristocrat, poet
* Camille Saint-Saëns: Henry VIII
Ivan Susanin, Russian folk hero and martyr
* Mikhail Glinka: A Life for the Tsar
King Svatopluk I of Great Moravia
* Eugen Suchoň: Svätopluk
King Svatopluk II of Great Moravia
* Eugen Suchoň: Svätopluk
Syphax, king of the Libyan tribe of Masaesyli
* Francesco Cavalli: Scipione affricano (as Siface)
Erzsébet Szilágyi, Hungarian noblewoman, wife of János Hunyadi
* Ferenc Erkel: Hunyadi László

### T

Augusta Tabor, American philanthropist and first wife of Horace Tabor
* Douglas Moore: The Ballad of Baby Doe
Horace Tabor, American businessman, politician
* Douglas Moore: The Ballad of Baby Doe
Alexandre-Antonin Taché, Canadian Catholic prelate
* Harry Somers: Louis Riel
Rabindranath Tagore, Indian writer
* Philip Glass: Satyagraha
Eugene Talmadge, Governor of Georgia
* Michael Braz: A Scholar Under Siege
Tamerlane: see Timur
Tancred, Prince of Galilee, Norman Crusade leader
* André Campra: Tancrède
Tannhäuser, Medieval German poet
* Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser
Lucius Tarquinius, one of 3 kings of Rome
* Filippo Amadei, Giovanni Bononcini and George Frideric Handel: Muzio Scevola
Sextus Tarquinius, son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, King of Rome
* Benjamin Britten: The Rape of Lucretia
Torquato Tasso, Italian poet
* Gaetano Donizetti: Torquato Tasso
John Taverner, 16th century English composer
* Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Taverner
Dame Elizabeth Taylor, British-US actress
* Michael Daugherty: Jackie O
William Tell, Swiss national hero (disputed historical authenticity)
* Ramon Carnicer: Guglielmo Tell
* André Grétry: Guillaume Tell
* Gioachino Rossini: Guillaume Tell
Edward Teller, Hungarian-American physicist
* John Adams: Doctor Atomic
Beatrice di Tenda, Italian noblewoman
* Vincenzo Bellini: Beatrice di Tenda
Saint Teresa of Ávila, Spanish mystic and theologian
* Virgil Thomson: Four Saints in Three Acts
Nikola Tesla, Serbian American inventor
* Constantine Koukias: Tesla - Lightning in His Hand
Themistocles, Athenian general and politician
* Johann Christian Bach: Temistocle
* Josep Duran: Temistocle
James Thomson, Scottish poet
* Virgil Thomson: Lord Byron
Virgil Thomson, American composer and critic
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
François Auguste de Thou, French magistrate
* Charles Gounod: Cinq-Mars
Thusnelda, wife of Arminius
* George Frideric Handel: Arminio
Tigranes the Great, Emperor of Armenia
* Tomaso Albinoni: Tigrane, re d'Armenia
Timur, aka Tamerlane, founder of the Timurid dynasty
* Iain Hamilton: Tamberlaine
* George Frideric Handel: Tamerlano
* Antonio Sacchini: Tamerlano
* Antonio Vivaldi: Bajazet
King Tiridates I of Armenia
* Reinhard Keiser: Octavia
Emperor Titus of Rome
* Antonio Caldara: La clemenza di Tito
* Christoph Willibald Gluck: La clemenza di Tito
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: La clemenza di Tito
* Josef Mysliveček: La clemenza di Tito
* and settings of La clemenza di Tito by about 40 other composers
Tiye, mother of Pharaoh Akhenaten of Egypt
* Philip Glass: Akhnaten
Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist
* Philip Glass: Satyagraha
Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae
* Alessandro Scarlatti: Tigrane (as Tomiri)
Titus Manlius Torquatus, Roman dictator
* Antonio Vivaldi: Tito Manlio
François Leclerc du Tremblay, "Père Joseph", the original eminence grise
* Charles Gounod: Cinq-Mars
Georges de la Trémoille, French soldier, favourite of Charles VII
* Walter Braunfels: Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna
Olegas Truchanas, Lithuanian-Australian wilderness photographer
* Constantine Koukias: Olegas
Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Harry S. Truman, American President
* Evan Hause: Nightingale: The Last Days of James Forrestal
Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet
* Nikolai Korndorf: MR (Marina and Rainer)
Harriet Tubman, American abolitionist and former slave
* Thea Musgrave: Harriet, the Woman Called Moses
John Turner, Prime Minister of Canada
* Alexina Louie: Mulroney: The Opera
Wat Tyler, English leader of peasant revolution
* Alan Bush: Wat Tyler

### U-V

Pope Urban VIII
* Philip Glass: Galileo Galilei (appears as both Cardinal Maffeo Barberini and Pope Urban VIII)
Valdemar IV of Denmark, King of Denmark from 1340 to 1375
* Andreas Hallén: Valdemarskatten
Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor
* George Frideric Handel: Ezio
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, Californio general, statesman
* David Conte: The Dreamers
Martin van Buren, American President
* Anthony Davis, Amistad
Theo van Gogh, Dutch art dealer, brother of Vincent van Gogh
* Einojuhani Rautavaara: Vincent
* James Wilson: Letters to Theo
Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter
* Nevit Kodallı: Van Gogh
* Einojuhani Rautavaara: Vincent
* James Wilson: Letters to Theo
* Christopher Yavelow: The Passion of Vincent van Gogh
Publius Quinctilius Varus, Roman general
* George Frideric Handel: Arminio
Tsar Vasily IV (Shuisky) of Russia
* Antonín Dvořák: Dimitrij
* Modest Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer
* Lorenzo Ferrero: Risorgimento!
* Adriana Hölszky: Giuseppe e Sylvia (2000)
Johannes Vermeer, Dutch painter
* Sir Harrison Birtwistle: The Second Mrs Kong
Lucius Verus: see Vologases IV of Parthia
Micaela Villegas, "La Perricholi", Peruvian actress and singer
* Jacques Offenbach: La Périchole (she is not identified by name, and the remaining characters are all fictional)
François Villon, French poet and vagabond
* George Antheil and Ezra Pound: Le Testament
* Rudolf Friml: The Vagabond King
Francesc de Vinatea, Valencian nobleman, opposed to Alfonso IV of Aragon
* Matilde Salvador i Segarra: Vinatea
Gaius Iulius Vindex, Roman general
* Anton Rubinstein: Neron
Filippo Maria Visconti, ruler of Milan, husband of Beatrice di Tenda
* Vincenzo Bellini: Beatrice di Tenda
Vladimir I, Grand Prince of Kiev
* Alexander Serov: Rogneda
Vladimir III Igorevich, Prince of Putivl and Halych
Vladimir Yaroslavich, Prince Galitsky, son of Yaroslav Osmomysl, Prince of Halych
* Alexander Borodin: Prince Igor
Vologases IV of Parthia, king
* Girolamo Abos: Lucio Vero, ossia, Il Vologeso
Voltaire, French writer
* Leonard Bernstein: Candide

### W

Jacob Wallenberg, Swedish banker Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat who rescued many Jews
* Erkki-Sven Tüür: Wallenberg
Konrad von Wallenrode, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
* Amilcare Ponchielli: I Lituani (the character Walter is impersonating Wallenrode, referred to in the opera as "Corrado Wallenrod")
Albrecht von Wallenstein, Bohemian military commander
* August Ritter von Adelburg: Wallenstein
* Paul Hindemith: Die Harmonie der Welt
Francis Walsingham, English royal adviser, spymaster
* Rufus Norris and Damon Albarn: Dr Dee: An English Opera
Walther von der Vogelweide, Medieval German poet
* Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser
Princess Wanda, legendary Polish queen
* Antonín Dvořák: Vanda
* Max Vogrich: Vanda
Andy Warhol, American artist
* Michael Daugherty: Jackie O
Booker T. Washington, American educator & civil rights leader
* Scott Joplin: A Guest of Honor
Daniel Webster, American statesman
* Douglas Moore: The Devil and Daniel Webster
* Virgil Thomson: The Mother of Us All
Dan White, American politician, assassin of George Moscone and Harvey Milk
* Stewart Wallace: Harvey Milk
George Hunter White, American CIA operative
* Evan Hause: Man: Biology of a Fall
Patrick White, Australian novelist
* Elena Kats-Chernin: Whiteley (2019)
Brett Whiteley, Australian painter Wendy Whiteley, his muse and sometime wife Arkie Whiteley, their daughter
* Elena Kats-Chernin: Whiteley (2019)
Walt Whitman
* Theodore Morrison: Oscar
* Alberto Garcia Demestres: WOW!
Oscar Wilde, Irish writer
* Theodore Morrison: Oscar
* Alberto Garcia Demestres: WOW!
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
* Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass and others: The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down
William the Conqueror (King William I of England)
* Frederic Hymen Cowen: Harold or the Norman Conquest (as William, Duke of Normandy)
William the Silent (William I, Prince of Orange)
* Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass and others: The Civil Wars: A Tree Is Best Measured When It Is Down
Sir Alfred Wills, English judge
* Theodore Morrison: Oscar
Robert R. Wilson, American physicist
* John Adams: Doctor Atomic
Władysław I the Elbow-high (aka Ladislaus I), King of Poland 1320-33
* Józef Elsner: Król Łokietek
Wolfram von Eschenbach, Medieval German poet
* Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser
Thomas Wolsey, English cardinal
* Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Taverner (not identified as such)
Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect Catherine "Kitty" (Tobin) Wright (1871–1959), American socialite, social worker, first wife of Frank Lloyd Wright
* Daron Hagen: Shining Brow
Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka "Joe the Plumber", American plumber, television celebrity
* Curtis K. Hughes: Say It Ain't So, Joe

### X-Y

Malcolm X, African-American human rights activist
* Anthony Davis: X – The Life and Times of Malcolm X
King Xerxes I "The Great" of Persia
* Johann Christian Bach: Temistocle
* Giovanni Bononcini: Xerse
* Francesco Cavalli: Xerse
* George Frideric Handel: Serse
* Hugo Weisgall: Esther
Xiphares, son of Mithridates VI of Pontus
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mitridate, re di Ponto
Yaghi-Siyan, Governor of Antioch
* Giuseppe Verdi: I Lombardi alla prima crociata (as Acciano)
Ōtomo no Yakamochi, Japanese poet, diplomat
* Nikolai Korndorf: MR (Marina and Rainer)
Ralph Yarborough, American politician
* David T. Little: JFK
Yaroslav I the Wise, Grand Prince of Kiev
* Heorhiy Maiboroda: Yaroslav Mudriy
Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov, Russian general
* Sergei Prokofiev: War and Peace
Yuri II, Grand Prince of Vladimir
* Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya

### Z

Emiliano Zapata, Mexican leader
* Leonardo Balada: Zapata
Zeno, Byzantine emperor
* Tomaso Albinoni: Zenone, imperator d'Oriente
Zenobia, Queen of the Palmyrene Empire
* Tomaso Albinoni: Zenobia, regina de Palmireni
* Gioachino Rossini: Aureliano in Palmira
Zhou Enlai, Chinese political leader
* John Adams: Nixon in China (as Chou En-lai)
Zoroaster
* Jean-Philippe Rameau: Zoroastre
Venerable Zosimas of Palestine
* Ottorino Respighi: Maria egiziaca (as Abbot Zosimus)
Nikola Šubić Zrinski: see Šubić Zrinski