This is a list of operas specifically composed and produced for television performance. It does not include productions of the established opera repertoire subsequently broadcast on television.
| Year of premiere | Composed | Composer | Opera title | Librettist and/or source(s) | Television station |
| 1938 | | Spike Hughes | Cinderella[1] | Spike Hughes | BBC Television |
| 1947 | | Spike Hughes | St Patrick's Day | Richard Brinsley Sheridan | BBC Television |
| 1951 | | Gian Carlo Menotti | Amahl and the Night Visitors | Gian Carlo Menotti | NBC |
| 1952 | | Malcolm Arnold | The Dancing Master | Joe Mendoza, based on the play by William Wycherley | BBC (rejected)[2] |
| 1953 | | Bohuslav Martinů | The Marriage | Bohuslav Martinů | NBC |
| 1953 | | Bohuslav Martinů | What Men Live By | Bohuslav Martinů | NBC |
| 1954 | | Bernard Herrmann | A Christmas Carol | Maxwell Anderson after Charles Dickens | CBS |
| 1955 | | Lukas Foss | Griffelkin | Alastair Reid | NBC |
| 1955 | | Walter Kaufmann | Christmas Slippers | Betty Marsh | Winnipeg[3] |
| 1956 | | Norman Dello Joio | The Trial at Rouen | Norman Dello Joio | NBC |
| 1956 | | Leonard Kastle | The Swing | Leonard Kastle | NBC |
| 1956 | | Arthur Benjamin | Mañana | Caryl Brahms | BBC Television[4] |
| 1956 | | Malcolm Arnold | The Open Window | Sidney Gilliat | BBC Television[5] |
| 1957 | | Joan Trimble | Blind Raftery[6] | Cedric Cliffe, based on the novel by Donn-Byrne | BBC Television |
| 1957 | | Stanley Hollingsworth | La Grande Bretèche | Stanley Hollingsworth | NBC |
| 1959 | | Richard Arnell | The Petrified Princess | Richard Arnell | BBC Television |
| 1959 | | Guy Halahan | The Spur of the Moment[7] | Joe Mendoza, after Frank Baker, Miss Hargreaves | BBC Television |
| 1959 | | Gian Carlo Menotti | Maria Golovin | Gian Carlo Menotti | NBC |
| 1959 | | Lee Hoiby | Beatrice | Marci Nardi | WAVE |
| 1959 | | Ezra Laderman | Sarah | Clair Rascom | CBS |
| 1959 | | Heinrich Sutermeister | Seraphine (Die stümme Apothekerin) | Heinrich Sutermeister, after François Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel | Schweizer Fernsehen |
| 1959 | | Henk Badings | Salto mortale | Henk Badings and Belcampo (Herman Pieter Schönfeld Wichers) | Nederlandse Omroep Stichting |
| 1959 | | Paul Angerer | Passkontrolle | | ORF |
| 1960 | | Arthur Bliss | Tobias and the Angel | Christopher Hassall | BBC Television[8] |
| 1961 | | Leonard Kastle | Deseret | Anne Howard Bailey | NBC |
| 1961 | | Jean Prodromidès | Les Perses (The Persians) | Jean Prat, after Aeschylus | RTF |
| 1962 | | Igor Stravinsky | The Flood | Robert Craft | CBS |
| 1962 | | Phyllis Tate | Dark Pilgrimage | Phyllis Tate | BBC Television |
| 1962 | | Edwin Coleman | A Christmas Carol[9] | Margaret Burns Harris, after Charles Dickens | BBC Television |
| 1962 | | Riccardo Malipiero | Battono alla porta | Dino Buzzati | RAI |
| 1963 | | Ben McPeek | The Bargain | Ben McPeek | CBC Television |
| 1963 | | Gian Carlo Menotti | Labyrinth | Gian Carlo Menotti | NBC |
| 1963 | | Carlisle Floyd | The Sojourner and Mollie Sinclair | Carlisle Floyd | NCE |
| 1963 | | Ton de Leeuw | Alceste | Euripides | Nederlandse Omroep Stichting |
| 1964 | | Heinrich Sutermeister | Das Gespenst von Canterville | Heinrich Sutermeister, after Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost" | Mainz, ZDF |
| 1965 | | David Amram | The Final Ingredient[10] | Arnold Weinstein | ABC |
| 1965 | | Mark Bucci | The Hero | Mark Bucci | National Educational Television |
| 1965 | | Carl Davis | The Arrangement[11] | Leo Lehman | BBC Television |
| 1965 | | Gian Carlo Menotti | Martin's Lie | Gian Carlo Menotti | CBS |
| 1966 | | R. Murray Schafer | Loving | R. Murray Schafer | CBC Television |
| 1967 | | Ezra Laderman | The Trials of Galileo | Joe Darion | CBS Television |
| 1967 | | Ingvar Lidholm | Holländaren (The Dutchman) | after August Strindberg | Sveriges Television |
| 1967 | | Christopher Whelen | Some Place of Darkness[12] | John Hopkins | BBC Television |
| 1968 | | Roman Vlad | La fantarca | Giuseppe Berto's La fantarca (1965) | RAI |
| 1968 | | Norman Kay | The Rose Affair[13] | After the novel by Alun Owen | BBC Television |
| 1969 | | Thomas Eastwood | The Rebel[14] | Ronald Duncan | BBC Television |
| 1969 | | Heinrich Sutermeister | La croisade des enfants (The Children's Crusade) | Heinrich Sutermeister, after Marcel Schwob | TvR |
| 1970 | | Jack Beeson | My Heart's in the Highlands | Jack Beeson | PBS |
| 1971 | | Heinrich Sutermeister | Das Flaschenteufel | Kurt Weibel, after Robert Louis Stevenson's The Bottle Imp | Mainz, ZDF |
| 1971 | 1969–70 | Benjamin Britten | Owen Wingrave | Myfanwy Piper, after Henry James | BBC Two |
| 1971 | | Ezra Laderman | And David Wept | Joe Darion, after the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba | CBS Television[15][16] |
| 1973 | | John Eaton | Myshkin[17] | Patrick Creagh after Dostoevsky's The Idiot | PBS |
| 1976 | | Alun Hoddinott | Murder, The Magician[18] | John Morgan | HTV |
| 1976 | | Godfrey Ridout | The Lost Child | John Reid | CBC Television |
| 1976 | | Raymond Pannell | Aberfan[19] | Beverly Pannell | CBC Television |
| 1977 | | Carl Davis | Orpheus in the Underworld[20] | John Wells | BBC Television |
| 1978 | | Norman Kay | A Christmas Carol[21] | John Morgan, after Charles Dickens | HTV |
| 1979 | | Alun Hoddinott | The Rajah's Diamond[22] | Myfanwy Piper, from R. L. Stevenson's New Arabian Nights | BBC Television |
| 1982 | | Peter Sculthorpe | Quiros[23] | Brian Bell | ABC Television |
| 1984 | | Robert Ashley | Perfect Lives | Robert Ashley | Channel Four |
| 1990 | | Salvador Brotons | Reverend Everyman | Gary Corseri, from Hofmannsthal's Jedermann | WFSU-TV[24] |
| 1991 | | Michael Nyman | Letters, Riddles and Writs | Jeremy Newson and Pat Gavin | BBC Television |
| 1993 | | Stewart Copeland | Horse Opera[25] | Jonathan Moore | Channel Four |
| 1993 | | Anthony Moore | Camera[26] | Peter Blegvad | Channel Four |
| 1994 | 1991–92 | Gerald Barry | The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit | Meredith Oakes | Channel Four |
| 1994 | 1992 | Orlando Gough | The Empress[26] | David Gale, from Wedekind | Channel Four |
| 1995 | 1993 | Michael Torke | King of Hearts[27] | Christopher Rawlence | Channel Four |
| 1995 | | Mike Westbrook Kate Westbrook | Good Friday, 1663[28] | Helen Simpson | Channel Four |
| 2005 | | Judith Weir | Armida | Judith Weir | Channel Four |
| 2006 | | Jonathan Dove | Man on the Moon | Nicholas Wright | Channel Four |
| 2006 | | Alexina Louie | Burnt Toast: 8 Mini Comic Operas About Love | Dan Redican | CBC Television |
| 2015 | | Elena Kats-Chernin | The Divorce | Joanna Murray-Smith | ABC TV (Australia) |
See also
References
- ^ Wyver, John. "A tale of six Cinders, part 2: Cinderella (BBC, 1938, 1948, 1950)", Screen Plays, 12 January 2012
- ^ Alberge, Dalya. "Malcolm Arnold's The Dancing Master finally comes in from the cold", The Guardian, 11 October 2012
- ^ Margaret Ross Griffel (2012). Operas in English: A Dictionary, p. 91
- ^ 1 February 1956, Radio Times, issue 1681, 29 January 1956
- ^ 14 December 1956 Radio Times, issue 1726, 9 December 1956
- ^ Blind Raftery, Radio Times, issue 1749, 21 May 1957, pp. 6, 17
- ^ Radio Times, 14 June, 1959, p. 13
- ^ 19 May 1960, Radio Times, 15 May 1960
- ^ BBC Arts
- ^ The New York Times, 12 April, 1965
- ^ Radio Times, Issue 2168, 29 May, 1965
- ^ Christopher Whelen. "Thoughts on Television Opera", in Composer 24 (1967), p. 17
- ^ Spence, Keith (1968). "Television". The Musical Times. 109 (1505): 656. doi:10.2307/952713. JSTOR 952713.
- ^ 4 April 1969, Radio Times, issue 2368, 29 March 1969, p. 71
- ^ And David Wept at IMDb
- ^ "Ezra Laderman", Milken Archive of Jewish Music
- ^ Wise Music
- ^ British Film Institute
- ^ Dzeguze, K. 'Situation tragedy', in Maclean's, 31 October, 1977
- ^ 5 June 1977, Radio Times, issue 2795, 4 June 1977, p. 29
- ^ "Norman Kay obituary". The Guardian. 30 May 2001. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
- ^ Radio Times Issue 2924, 24th November 1979
- ^ Quiros : opera, Australian Music Centre
- ^ Griffel, M. R., Operas in English: A Dictionary (2012), p. 413
- ^ The Independent, 6 October, 1993
- ^ a b The Independent, 14 February, 1994
- ^ Michaeltorke.com
- ^ Mike Westbrook website
Further reading