Classical and Romantic Opera Composers

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736). Though Pergolesi also composed opera serias, his most influ- 

        ential work was the short opera buffa, La serva padrona.

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787).  Though a key figure in the transformation of Baroque into 
        Classical opera, paving the way for Mozart, his influence stretched much further into the 19th 
        century, with both Berlioz and Wagner acknowledging their debt to him.  In his reform operas 
        from Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) onwards, he sought to throw off the formal conventions of opera
        seria and write music of "beautiful simplicity" (his own words).

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1801). Haydn wrote nineteen operas including comic operas and singspiels.

Giovanni Paisiello (1740–1816). Italian composer who wrote the first opera to include Beaumarchais' 

        character Figaro as a main character, as well as writing a substantial number of other operas, some 

        of them in St. Petersburg.  His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini, and his music was 

        championed by Haydn and Beethoven.

André Ernest Modeste Grétry (1741–1813t).  Liège (present day Belgian) composer crucial to the develop-

        men of French opéra comique, whose simplicity of musical style and sophisticated dramaturgy were 

        immensely popular, as well as linking pre-revolutionary rococo comedy to the later romantic style. 

Domenico Cimarosa  (1749 – 1801)    He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is 

        Il matrimonio segreto (1792); most of his operas are comedies.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791).  Mozart's series of comic collaborations (The Marriage of 

        Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte) with Lorenzo da Ponte are among the most popular  

        opera in the repertoire today, along with his Singspiel The Magic Flute.

Antonio Salieri (1750–1825). Italian composer who was a major contributor to and shaper of Viennese 

        musical life from 1770 to 1820, he also composed successful operas in Italy and Paris, and won 

        admiration from German operagoers as a composer who, in the words of one contemporary critic, 

        ‘could bind all the power of German music to the sweet Italian style’.  Europa riconosciuta was 

        composed for the inauguration of La Scala.  Among his other most successful operas were Les 

        Danaïdes, Axur, re d'Ormus (the Italian version of French Tarare) and Falstaff.

Luigi Cherubini (1760–1842).  A follower of Gluck, Cherubini's most famous opera is Médée.  The title 

        role has proved a challenge to sopranos (including Maria Callas) since its premiere in 1797.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) wrote only one opera, Fidelio, a tale of freedom from political 

        oppression, which has become one of the major German language operas.

Gaspare Spontini (1774–1851). Though Italian, Spontini is best known for his work in France during the 

        Napoleonic era.  His masterpiece La vestale influenced Bellini and Berlioz.

Daniel-François-Esprit Auber (1782–1871). French composer celebrated for high-spirited opéra comiques 

        such as Fra Diavolo and Le domino noir.  His grand opera La muette de Portici attained unexpected 

        political influence when a performance in Brussels in 1830 sparked off a revolution which led to the 

        creation of Belgium.

Carl Maria von Weber (1786–1826) founded German Romantic opera in order to challenge the dominance 

        of Italian bel canto. A master of orchestral color and atmosphere, Weber was never well served by his 

        librettists, and only one of his works, Der Freischütz, is performed with any frequency. Though he died 

        young, his influence on later German composers, especially Wagner, was immense.

Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864). The archetypal composer of French grand opera, Meyerbeer's huge 

        extravaganzas such as Les Huguenots and Le prophète were immensely popular in their day. 

Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) linked bel canto with Grand Opera.  His immortal Barber of Seville was  

        the only one of his operas that was continuously performed into the 20th century, but his serious operas, 

        such as Semiramide and Ermione, are recognized as masterpieces now that singers with appropriate 

        technique are again available to perform them.  Guillaume Tell, his swan-song, has a vast sweep only 

        equaled in the 19th century by the later works of Verdi, Mussorgsky and Wagner.

Heinrich Marschner (1795–1861). German composer who was the most important exponent of German 

        Romantic opera in the generation between Weber and Wagner.  His most successful operas were 

        Hans Heiling, Der Vampyr and Der Templer und die Jüdin.

Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848). Along with Rossini and Bellini, Donizetti is generally acknowledged 

        as one of the masters of the bel canto style. His masterwork is generally considered to be Lucia di 

        Lammermoor.

Jacques Fromental Halévy (1799–1862). Along with Meyerbeer, the best known composer of French 

        grand opera, Halévy's key work is La Juive, a story of religious intolerance set in 15th century 

        Switzerland.

Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835). On account of such works as Norma and I puritani, Bellini is recognized 

        as one of the leading composers of the bel canto style of opera.

Hector Berlioz (1803–1869).  Berlioz's attempts to carve out an operatic career for himself were thwarted 

        by an unimaginative musical establishment.  Nevertheless, he managed to produce Benvenuto Cellini, 

        Béatrice et Bénédict and his masterpiece, Les Troyens.  Berlioz's dramatic legend, La Damnation de 

        Faust, has also been staged as an opera in recent years.

Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) founded the Russian operatic tradition with his historical drama A Life for 

        the Tsar and his fairy tale piece Ruslan and Lyudmila.

Ambroise Thomas (1811–1896).  French composer noted for the operas Mignon and Hamlet.

Richard Wagner (1813–1883).  Wagner revolutionized opera.  In a series of "music dramas" such as 

        Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, and most of all his epic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner 

        abolished the traditional distinction between recitative and aria and pioneered a new through-

        composed style of opera.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) had a long composing career, during which his compositional style kept 

         evolving.  Among his most famous works are Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La traviata, Don Carlos, 

        Aida, and Otello.

Charles Gounod (1818–1893) wrote lyrical operas on literary themes, including Roméo et Juliette 

        and Mireille. His Faust still holds the stage today, in spite of criticisms of its "Victorianism".

Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) was the founder of French operetta and a prolific composer of pieces  

        which achieved tremendous success with Parisian audiences for their catchy melodies and satirical 

        bite such as La Vie parisienne and Orpheus in the Underworld.  At the time of his death, 

        Offenbach was working on a more serious opera, The Tales of Hoffmann.

Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) established Czech national opera with such historical epics as Dalibor.  

        His folk comedy The Bartered Bride has entered the international repertory

Aleksandr Borodin (1833–1887). A "weekend composer" who spent 17 years working on a single opera, 

        Prince Igor, which now forms a key part of the Russian repertory.

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921). French composer of around a dozen operas of which one, the Biblical 

        Samson et Delila, is still performed.

Léo Delibes (1836–1891).  French composer, whose Lakmé is notable for its Flower duet and as a 

        vehicle for coloratura sopranos.

Georges Bizet (1838–1875).  Bizet's masterwork Carmen is a staple of the repertoire of opera houses the 

        world over.  At the time of its premiere, the controversial plot scandalized both critics and the public.

Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881).  Mussorgsky completed only one opera, but Boris Godunov proved to 

        be an inspiration for generations of Russian composers on account of its uniquely nationalist character.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893).  Tchaikovsky's international fame as an opera composer mainly  

        rests on two works, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades.  Less interested in cultivating a uniquely 

        Russian style than his contemporary Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky also shows the influence of Mozart, bel 

            canto and Bizet's Carmen in these pieces.

Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–1894) had ambitions to write grand operas in the Wagnerian vein, but is now 

        most celebrated for lighter pieces, such as L'étoile and Le roi malgré lui, which were greatly admired 

        by Ravel and Poulenc.

Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) was the leading Czech opera composer between Smetana and Janáček.  His 

        Rusalka, based on the Undine legend, is his most popular work internationally.

Jules Massenet (1842–1912).  Arguably the most representative French opera composer of his era (the 

        Belle Époque), Massenet was a prolific and versatile writer whose works cover a wide variety of 

        themes.  His popularity faded somewhat after the First World War, but Werther and Manon still make 

        regular appearances in the opera house.

Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900).  English composer best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations 

        with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of 

        Penzance and The Mikado.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908). Russian composer who wrote colorful operas on legendary and 

        historical subjects.