Question: Which opera was composed first, Wozzeck or Boris Godunov?

Wozzeck (] ) is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg.  The opera is based on the drama "Woyzeck", which was left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death.  Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's play on 5 May 1914, and knew at once that he wanted to base an opera on it.  From the fragments of unordered scenes left by Büchner, Berg selected fifteen to form a compact structure of three acts with five scenes each.  It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925.  He adapted the libretto himself, retaining "the essential character of the play, with its many short scenes, its abrupt and sometimes brutal language, and its stark, if haunted, realism..." <SEP> Loretta Di Franco is an American operatic soprano who is chiefly known for her more than 900 performances at the Metropolitan Opera from 1961-1995.  Originally a member of the Met's opera chorus, she eventually was promoted to singing small comprimario roles beginning with one of the pages in Wagner's "Tannhäuser" and the peasant girl in "The Marriage of Figaro" in 1961.  She went on to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1965 which led to her first substantial role, Chloe in "The Queen of Spades".  She continued to appear annually at the Met for the next 30 years, performing both leading and supporting roles.  Some of the parts she performed at the Met included Annina in "La traviata", both the Aunt and Barena in Janáček's "Jenůfa", Barbarina and Marcellina in "The Marriage of Figaro", Berta in "The Barber of Seville", Countess Ceprano in "Rigoletto", the Dew Fairy and the Sandman in "Hansel and Gretel", Feklusa in "Káťa Kabanová", the First Lady in "The Magic Flute", the Flower Seller in Britten's "Death in Venice", Frasquita in "Carmen", Gerhilde in "Die Walküre", Giannetta in "L'elisir d'amore", Helen in "Mourning Becomes Electra", Ines in "Il trovatore", Jouvenot in "Adriana Lecouvreur", Kate Pinkerton in "Madama Butterfly", Laura in "Luisa Miller", Lauretta in "Gianni Schichi", Lisa in "La sonnambula", Marianne in "Der Rosenkavalier", Marthe in "Faust", Musetta in "La bohème", Oscar in "Un ballo in maschera", Samaritana in "Francesca da Rimini", Woglinde in both "Das Rheingold" and "Götterdämmerung", Xenia in "Boris Godunov", Zerlina in "Don Giovanni", and title role in "Lucia di Lammermoor".  In 1991 she created the role of the Woman with Child in the world premiere of John Corigliano's "The Ghosts of Versailles". <SEP> Boris Godunov (Russian: Борис Годунов , "Borís Godunóv") is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881).  The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.  It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece.  Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar (1598 to 1605) during the Time of Troubles, and his nemesis, the False Dmitriy (reigned 1605 to 1606).  The Russian-language libretto was written by the composer, and is based on the drama "Boris Godunov" by Aleksandr Pushkin, and, in the Revised Version of 1872, on Nikolay Karamzin's "History of the Russian State". <SEP> Blanche Thebom (September 19, 1915March 23, 2010) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher, and opera director.  She was part of the first wave of American opera singers that had highly successful international careers.  In her own country she had a long association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City which lasted 22 years. " Opera News" stated, "An ambitious beauty with a velvety, even-grained dramatic mezzo, Thebom was a natural for opera: she commanded the stage with the elegantly disciplined hauteur of an old-school diva, relishing the opportunity to play "femmes du monde" such as Marina in "Boris Godunov", Herodias and Dalila."