page_title: List of prominent operas
section_title: 1833–1849
hierarchical_section_title: List of prominent operas / 1833–1849
caption_attribution_description: Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), composer -
context_page_description: The operas listed cover all important genres, and include all operas regularly performed today, from seventeenth-century works by Monteverdi, Cavalli, and Purcell to late twentieth-century operas by Messiaen, Berio, Glass, Adams, Birtwistle, and Weir. The brief accompanying notes offer an explanation as to why each opera has been considered important. The organisation of the list is by year of first performance, or, if this was long after the composer's death, approximate date of composition.
  This list provides a guide to the most important operas, as determined by their presence on a majority of selected compiled lists of significant operas: see the Lists consulted section for full details.
context_section_description: 1833 Beatrice di Tenda (Vincenzo Bellini). Bellini's tragedy is notable for its extensive use of the chorus.
  1833 Hans Heiling (Heinrich Marschner). Another important Gothic horror opera from Marschner.
  1833 Lucrezia Borgia (Gaetano Donizetti). One of Donizetti's most popular scores.
  1834 Maria Stuarda (Donizetti). This work was dismissed as a failure in the 19th century, but since its revival in 1958 it has made frequent appearances on stage.
  1835 Das Liebesverbot (Richard Wagner). An early work by Wagner loosely based on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. The composer later disowned it.
  1835 I puritani (Bellini). Bellini's drama, set during the English Civil War, is one of his finest achievements.
  1835 La Juive (Fromental Halévy). This grand opera rivalled the works of Meyerbeer in popularity. The tenor aria "Rachel quand du seigneur" is particularly famous.
  1835 Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti). Donizetti's most famous tragic opera, notable for Lucia's mad scene.
  1836 A Life for the Tsar (Mikhail Glinka). Glinka established the tradition of Russian opera with this historical work and the later Ruslan and Lyudmila.
  1836 Les Huguenots (Giacomo Meyerbeer). Perhaps the most famous of all French grand operas, widely regarded as Meyerbeer's masterpiece.
  1837 Roberto Devereux (Donizetti). Donizetti wrote this work as a distraction from the grief he felt at the death of his wife.
  1838 Benvenuto Cellini (Hector Berlioz). Berlioz's first opera is a virtuoso score which is still highly difficult to perform.
  1839 Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio (Giuseppe Verdi). Verdi's first opera is a sensational melodrama.
  1840 La favorite (Donizetti). A grand opera in the French tradition.
  1840 La fille du régiment (Donizetti). Donizetti's venture into French opéra comique.
  1840 Bátori Mária (Erkel). Erkel's first opera was also the first true opera written in Hungarian and is based on the story of Ines de Castro in Camões' Os Lusiadas, the Portuguese national epic.
  1840 Un giorno di regno (Verdi). Verdi's only comedy apart from his last opera, Falstaff.
  1842 Der Wildschütz (Albert Lortzing). Lortzing's "comic masterpiece", intended to show a German work could rival Italian opera buffa and French opéra comique.
  1842 Nabucco (Verdi). Verdi described this opera as the genuine beginning of his artistic career.
  1842 Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen (Wagner). Wagner's contribution to the Grand Opera tradition.
  1842 Ruslan and Lyudmila (Glinka). This episodic version of a Pushkin fairy tale was a major influence on later Russian composers.
  1843 Der fliegende Holländer (Wagner). Wagner regarded this German Romantic opera as the true beginning of his career.
  1843 Don Pasquale (Donizetti). Donizetti's "comic masterpiece" is one of the last great opera buffas.
  1843 I Lombardi alla prima crociata (Verdi). Verdi's follow-up to Nabucco was the first of his operas to be performed in America.
  1843 The Bohemian Girl (Michael Balfe). One of the few notable 19th-century English-language operas apart from the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.
  1844 Hunyadi László (Erkel). Erkel's second opera is generally considered his best, but is second in popularity to his later opera Bánk Bán which is considered the Hungarian "National Opera".
  1844 Ernani (Verdi). One of the most dramatically effective of Verdi's early works.
  1845 Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (Wagner). Wagner's "most medieval work" depicts the conflict between pagan love and Christian virtue.
  1846 Attila (Verdi). Verdi was troubled by ill health during the writing of this piece, which was only a moderate success at the premiere.
  1846 La damnation de Faust (Berlioz). Frustrated at his lack of opera commissions, Berlioz composed this "dramatic legend" for concert performance. In recent years, it has been successfully staged as an opera, though the critic David Cairns describes it as "cinematic".
  1847 Macbeth (Verdi). Verdi's first venture into Shakespeare.
  1847 Martha (Friedrich von Flotow). Flotow unashamedly aimed at satisfying popular taste in this comic and sentimental work set in the England of 
caption: Gaetano Donizetti
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:12:23 01:55:54", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3495", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "842"}