List of radio operas

This is a list of operas specifically written for radio performance.

Broadcast premiere	Com­posed	Composer	Opera title	Librettist and/or source(s)	Radio station
24 March 1925 [1]		Geoffrey Toye	The Red Pen	A. P. Herbert	British Broadcasting Company
24 December 1929 [2]		Gustav Kneip	Christkinds Erdenreise (The Christ-child's journey on Earth)	Franz Peter Kürten  [ de ]	WERAG
May 1931 [3]		Walter Goehr	Malpopita		Berlin
July 1931 [4]		Mark Lubbock	The King Can Do No Wrong	C Denis Freeman	British Broadcasting Corporation
26 April 1932 [5]		Charles Wakefield Cadman	The Willow Tree	Nelle Richmond Eberhart	NBC
13 July 1933 [6]	1932	Werner Egk	Columbus, Bericht und Bildnis (Columbus, report and portrait)		Bayerischer Rundfunk
6 October 1935 [7]		Bohuslav Martinů	Hlas lesa (The Voice of the Forest)	Vítězslav Nezval	Czech Radio
15 October 1936 [8]		Heinrich Sutermeister	Die schwarze Spinne (The Black Spider)	Albert Rösler, after Jeremias Gotthelf's Die schwarze Spinne	Radio Bern
1937 [9]		Vittorio Giannini	Flora		CBS Radio
18 March 1937 [7]		Bohuslav Martinů	Veselohra na mostě (Comedy on the Bridge)	Martinů, after Václav Kliment Klicpera	Czech Radio
17 October 1937 [10]		Louis Gruenberg	Green Mansions	after the novel Green Mansions by William Henry Hudson	Columbia Broadcasting Company
1938 [9]		Vittorio Giannini	Beauty and the Beast	R. Simon	CBS Radio
3 April 1939 [11]	1928	Marcel Mihalovici	L'intransigeant Pluton	Jean-François Regnard	RTF
22 April 1939 [12]		Gian Carlo Menotti	The Old Maid and the Thief	Gian Carlo Menotti	NBC
2 November 1939 [9]		Vittorio Giannini	Blennerhassett	Norman Corwin, Phillip Roll	CBS Radio
29 March 1942 [13]		Randall Thompson	Solomon and Balkis	after The Butterfly that Stamped by Rudyard Kipling	CBS
15 September 1942 [14]		Mark Lubbock	The Rose and the Violet	Barbara Cartland	British Broadcasting Corporation
10 October 1943 [15]		Jacques Ibert	Barbe-bleu	W. Aguet	Radio Lausanne
1949 [16]		Tibor Harsányi	Illusions, ou l'histoire d'un miracle	P. Brive, after E. T. A. Hoffmann	RTF
1 December 1949 [17]	1944–48	Luigi Dallapiccola	Il prigioniero (The Prisoner)	after stories by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Charles De Coster.	RAI
18 April 1950 [11]		Marcel Mihalovici	Phèdre	Yvan Goll, after Jean Racine	RTF
21 July 1950 [18]		Raymond Chevreuille	D'un diable de briquet	Chevreuille, after Hans Christian Andersen	Belgian radio
3 October 1950 [19]		Ildebrando Pizzetti	Ifigenia	Pizzetti and A. Perrini	RAI
15 November 1950 [20]		Nino Rota	I due timidi (The Two Timid Ones)	Suso Cecchi d'Amico	RAI
21 August 1951 [21]		Rezső Kókai	Lészen ágyú (There shall be guns)	Péter Halász and József Romhányi	Magyar Rádió
11 October 1951 [22]	1950	Renzo Bossi	Il principe felice (The Happy Prince)	Bossi, after Oscar Wilde	RAI
19 November 1951 [23]		Hans Werner Henze	Ein Landarzt	after Franz Kafka	Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
5 March 1952 [24]		Franz Reizenstein	Anna Kraus	Christopher Hassall	BBC Third Programme
5 May 1952 [18]		Raymond Chevreuille	L'elixir du révérend père Gaucher	Chevreuille, after Alphonse Daudet	Belgian radio
12 June 1952 [25]		Bernd Alois Zimmermann	Des Menschen Unterhaltsprozeß gegen Gott (The People's Maintenance Suit Against God)	Pedro Calderón de la Barca, adapted by Matthias Bungart	WDR
5 November 1952 [19]		Ildebrando Pizzetti	Cagliostro	Pizzetti	RAI
1953 [26]		Hans Vogt	Die Stadt hinter dem Strom (The City Beyond the River)	Hermann Kasack	Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, BBC
4 December 1953 [23]		Hans Werner Henze	Das Ende einer Welt (The End of a World)	Wolfgang Hildesheimer	Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
10 January 1954 [18]		Raymond Chevreuille	Atta Troll	Chevreuille, after Heinrich Heine Atta Troll, ein Sommernachtstraum	Belgian radio
24 September 1954 [27]		Henk Badings	Orestes		Florence
9 November 1954 [11] [28]		Marcel Mihalovici	Die Heimkehr (The Homecoming)	K. H. Ruppel, after Guy de Maupassant	Hessischer Rundfunk
15 November 1954 [29]		Donald Swann, channelling Dame Hilda Tablet	Emily Butter	Henry Reed	BBC Third Programme
9 August 1955 [30]		William Alwyn	Farewell Companions	H. A. L. Craig	BBC
28 December 1955 [31]		Germaine Tailleferre	Monsieur Petit Pois achète un château	Denise Centore	Radio France
28 December 1955 [31]		Germaine Tailleferre	Le bel ambitieux	Denise Centore	Radio France
28 December 1955 [31]		Germaine Tailleferre	La pauvre Eugénie	Denise Centore	Radio France
28 December 1955 [31]		Germaine Tailleferre	La Fille d'opéra	Denise Centore	Radio France
1957 [27]		Henk Badings	Asterion		Johannesburg
28 February 1957 [32]	1956	Sven-Erik Bäck	Tranfjädrarna (The Crane Feathers)	Bertil Malmberg, after Junji Kinoshita	Swedish Radio
1957 [33]	1956	Winfried Zillig	Die Verlobung in St. Domingo (The engagement in St. Domingo)	After Heinrich von Kleist	Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
30 July 1959 [34]		Kurt Schwaen	Fetzers Flucht (Fetzer's Escape)		Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DDR 1)
10 November 1959 [35]		Grażyna Bacewicz	Przygoda Króla Artura (The Adventure of King Arthur)		Polish Radio
19 November 1959 [20]		Nino Rota	La notte di un nevrastenico	R. Bacchelli	RAI
12 July 1960 [31]	1959	Germaine Tailleferre	Le Maître	Eugène Ionesco	Radio France
30 September 1960 [31]	1957	Germaine Tailleferre	La petite sirène	Ph. Soupault after H. C. Andersen' "The Little Mermaid"	Radio France
1961 [36]		Niccolò Castiglioni	Attraverso lo specchio (Through the Looking-Glass)	after Lewis Carroll and also his Alice in Wonderland	RAI
1961 [37]		Piotr Perkowski	Girlandy (Garlands)
14 February 1961 [32]		Sven-Erik Bäck	Fågeln (The Bird)	P. Verner-Carlson, after A. Obrenovic	Swedish Radio
27 August 1961 [38]		Emil Petrovics	C'est la guerre	Miklos Hubay	Hungarian Broadcasting Corporation
12 August 1962 [39]		Bruno Maderna	Don Perlimplin	Bruno Maderna, after Federico García Lorca	RAI
8 March 1964 [40]		Humphrey Searle	The Photo of the Colonel	Searle, after Eugène Ionesco	BBC
1968 [41]		Hans Ulrich Engelmann	Der Fall van Damm (The Case van Damm)	Markus Kuttner	Westdeutscher Rundfunk
16 December 1969 [42]		Bent Lorentzen	Euridice	Bent Lorentzen	DR (broadcaster)
17 May 1971 [23]		Hans Werner Henze	Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer (The Tedious Way to Natascha Ungeheuer's Apartment)	Gaston Salvatore	RAI
1972 [43]	1970–71	Bernadetta Matuszczak	Humanae voces	after Genesis, Saint John, Mahatma Gandhi, Anne Frank, etc.	Polish Radio
1973 [44]		Tomasz Sikorski	Sinbad the Sailor	after a poem by Bolesław Leśmian	Polish Radio
1975 [45]		Otomar Kvěch	Jaro je tu (Spring Is Here) (1975)
14 January 1977 [46]		Anthony Gilbert	The Chakravaka-Bird	after poems by Mahadevi Varma, translated by A. K. Ramanujan, Daniel H. H. Ingalls Sr. and Anthony Gilbert	BBC
1978 [45]		Otomar Kvěch	Před vánocemi (Before Christmas) (1978)
3 July 1979 [43]	1976–77	Bernadetta Matuszczak	Apocalypsis	after Revelation	Polish Radio
1980 [45]		Otomar Kvěch	Jak přišel podzim (When Autumn Came)
2 September 1982 [47]		Karl Aage Rasmussen	Historien om Jonas (The story of Jonah)	Poul Borum	DR
14 September 1982 [48]	1982	Thea Musgrave	An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge	Musgrave	BBC Radio 3
4 January 1989 [49]	1986	Nicola LeFanu	The Story of Mary O'Neill	S. McInerney	BBC
1991 [50]		Giulio Castagnoli	Al Museo in volo & a zompi (To the Museum)	Ugo Nespolo	Rai Radio 3
1996 [50]		Giulio Castagnoli	Lontananze vicino a noi	Dario Voltolini	RAI
14 April 2004 [51]		Jüri Reinvere	The Opposite Shore	Tamu Tohver, Jüri Reinvere	Eesti Raadio
8 July 2005 [52]		Amy Kohn	1, Plum Square	Amy Kohn	WNYC
9 July 2010 [53]		Robert Saxton	The Wandering Jew	Robert Saxton	BBC Radio 3

See also

• Radio opera
• List of television operas

References

Notes

1. "Broadcasting", The Times , 24 March 1925, p. 23
2. Andrew Oster (November 2010). Radio, rubble, and reconstruction: The genre of Funkoper in postwar occupied Germany and the German Federal Republic, 1946–1957 (PhD dissertation). Princeton University. p. 4.
3. "Malpopita", review in Time , 11 May 1931.
4. "The King Can Do No Wrong", Radio Times, Issue 408, 26th July 1931, p. 40
5. Thomas Warburton: Cadman, Charles Wakefield, in Sadie, vol 1, p. 676.
6. Erik Levi: Egk, Werner, in Sadie, vol 2, pp. 22–24.
7. Jan Smaczny: Martinů, Bohuslav, in Sadie, vol. 3, pp. 237–239.
8. Erik Levi: Sutermeister, Heinrich, in Sadie, vol. 4, pp. 610–611.
9. Harry Haskell, Walter Simmons: Giannini, Vittorio, in Sadie, vol. 2, p. 405.
10. Robert F. Nisbett: Gruenberg, Louis, in Sadie, vol. 2, pp. 555–556
11. Cosma, Viorel: Mihalovici, Marcel, in Sadie, vol. 3, p. 386.
12. Bruce Archibald: Menotti, Gian Carlo, in Sadie, vol. 3, pp. 332–334.
13. Elliot Forbes: Thompson, Randall, in Sadie, vol. 4, p. 729.
14. "The Rose and the Violet", Radio Times, Issue 989, 13 September, 1942, p. 10
15. Richard Langham Smith: Ibert, Jacques, in Sadie, vol. 2, pp. 779–780
16. Arthur Hoérée: Harsányi, Tibor, in Sadie, vol. 2, p. 651.
17. Anthony Sellors: Dallapiccola, Luigi, in Sadie, vol 1, pp. 1050–1051.
18. Henri Vanhulst: Chevreuille, Raymond, in Sadie, vol 1, p. 838.
19. Guido M. Gatti, John C. G. Waterhouse: Pizzetti, Ildebrando, in Sadie, vol. 3, pp. 1025–1027.
20. Giordano Montecchi: Rota, Nino, in Sadie, vol. 4, pp. 68–69.
21. Kókai Rezső-daljátékai: a Fülemüle, a Lészen ágyú és a Hét-falu kovácsa, pp. 38–39
22. John C. G. Waterhouse: Bossi, Renzo, in Sadie, vol 1, p. 566.
23. Andrew Clements Henze, Hans Werner, in Sadie, vol. 2, pp. 695–697
24. Hugo Cole: Reizenstein, Franz, in Sadie, vol. 3, p. 1287.
25. "Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Des Menschen Unterhaltprozess gegen Gott" (work details) (in French and English). IRCAM.
26. Vogt, Hans, in Sadie, vol. 4, p. 1037.
27. Jos Wouters, Leo Samama: Badings, Henk, in Sadie, vol 1, p. 275.
28. Lionel Salter: Radio, Early History, in Sadie, vol. 3, p. 1212
29. Emily Butter
30. Adrian Wright: The Innumerable Dance: The Life and Work of William Alwyn (2008), pp. 152–5
31. Tailleferre catalogue at Gérard Billaudot Editeur, December 1996
32. Andres Wiklund: Bäck, Sven-Erik, in Sadie, vol 1, p. 272.
33. Andreas van Leeuwen: Winfried Zillig (1905-1963): Die Verlobung in St. Domingo. Analyse und Interpretation einer vergessenen Funkoper, in Acta Musicologica, Vol. 72, Fasc. 2 (2000), pp. 189-218 (30 pages)
34. Fetzers Flucht - Eine Funkoper wird zur Fernsehoper, at mdr archives, visited 20.11.2024
35. Adrian Thomas: Bacewicz, Grażyna, in Sadie, vol 1, p. 268.
36. Niccolò Castiglioni: biography at Allmusic
37. Piotr Perkowski: Information, Videos, News and Images
38. Janos Kárpáti: Petrovics, Emil, in Sadie, vol. 3, p. 988
39. Raymond Fearn: Maderna, Bruno, in Sadie, vol. 3, pp. 140–141.
40. Hugo Cole: Humphrey Searle, in Sadie, vol. 4, p. 281.
41. Breitkopf & Härtel Catalogue, Nr. 2313
42. Jens Brincker: Lorentzen, Bent, in Sadie, vol. 3, p. 45.
43. Adrian Thomas: Matuszczak, Bernadetta, in Sadie, Vol. 3, p. 273
44. About Little Warsaw Autumn: Sinbad the Sailor by Tomasz Sikorski, after Bolesław Leśmian Archived 2013-04-16 at archive.today
45. Otomar Kvěch: List of Works
46. Hugo Cole: Gilbert, Anthony, in Sadie, vol 2, pp. 413–414.
47. "Det Virtuelle Musikbibliotek: Rasmussen, Karl Aage: Historien om Jonas". Archived from the original on 2015-12-07. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
48. Griffel, Margaret Ross (2013). Operas in English: A Dictionary. Vol. 1. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 351. ISBN   9780810883253 . Retrieved March 2, 2025.
49. Christopher Wintle: LeFanu, Nicola, in Sadie, vol. 2, p. 1122.
50. Castagnoli, Giulio at Operone.de
51. FIMIC (Finnish Music Information Centre): Jüri Reinvere: The Opposite Shore
52. WNYC: Spinning on Air, Amy Kohn's radio opera 1 Plum Sq.
53. BBC Radio 3: World premiere of The Wandering Jew, 9 July, 2010

Sources

• Sadie, Stanley, ed. (1992). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-522186-2.