List of television operas

Last updated

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.

Contents

Year of premiereCom­posedComposerOpera titleLibrettist and/or source(s)Television station
1938Cinderella [1] BBC Television
1947 BBC Television
1951 Amahl and the Night Visitors NBC
1952 BBC (rejected) [2]
1953 NBC
1953 NBC
1954 CBS
1955 Griffelkin NBC
1955Christmas SlippersWinnipeg [3]
1956 NBC
1956 NBC
1956 BBC Television [4]
1956 BBC Television [5]
1957Blind Raftery [6] BBC Television
1957 NBC
1959 BBC Television
1959Joe Mendoza, after Frank Baker, Miss Hargreaves BBC Television
1959 Maria Golovin NBC
1959Beatrice WAVE
1959Sarah CBS
1959Seraphine (Die stümme Apothekerin) Schweizer Fernsehen
1959Salto mortale Nederlandse Omroep Stichting
1959Passkontrolle ORF
1960Tobias and the Angel BBC Television [8]
1961Deseret NBC
1961 RTF
1962 CBS
1962Dark Pilgrimage BBC Television
1962 BBC Television
1962Battono alla porta RAI
1963 CBC Television
1963 Labyrinth NBC
1963 NCE
1963 Alceste Euripides Nederlandse Omroep Stichting
1964Mainz, ZDF
1965 ABC
1965 National Educational Television
1965 BBC Television
1965 Martin's Lie CBS
1966Loving CBC Television
1967 CBS Television
1967Holländaren (The Dutchman)after August Strindberg Sveriges Television
1967Some Place of Darkness [12] BBC Television
1968 Giuseppe Berto's La fantarca  [ it ] (1965) RAI
1968After the novel by Alun Owen BBC Television
1969 BBC Television
1969 TvR
1970My Heart's in the Highlands PBS
1971 Mainz, ZDF
19711969–70 Owen Wingrave BBC Two
1971And David Wept CBS Television [15] [16]
1973Myshkin [17] PBS
1976 HTV
1976 CBC Television
1976Aberfan [19] CBC Television
1977Orpheus in the Underworld [20] BBC Television
1979 BBC Television
1982Quiros [22] ABC Television
1984 Perfect Lives Channel Four
1990Reverend Everyman WFSU-TV [23]
1991 Letters, Riddles and Writs BBC Television
1993Horse Opera [24] Channel Four
1993Camera [25] Channel Four
19941991–92 Channel Four
19941992 Channel Four
19951993 Channel Four
1995 Channel Four
2005 Armida Channel Four
2006 Man on the Moon Channel Four
2006Burnt Toast: 8 Mini Comic Operas About Love CBC Television
2015 ABC TV (Australia)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warren Mitchell</span> British actor (1926–2015)

Warren Mitchell was a British actor, best known for playing bigoted cockney Alf Garnett in television, film and stage productions from the 1960s to the 1990s. He was a BAFTA TV Award winner and twice a Laurence Olivier Award winner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Whitehouse</span> British conservative activist (1910–2001)

Constance Mary Whitehouse was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permissive society. She was the founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, through which she led a longstanding campaign against the BBC. A hard-line social conservative, she was termed a reactionary by her socially liberal opponents. Her motivation derived from her Christian beliefs, her aversion to the rapid social and political changes in British society of the 1960s, and her work as a teacher of sex education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Davis</span> English conductor

Sir Colin Rex Davis was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom he was particularly associated were Mozart, Berlioz, Elgar, Sibelius, Stravinsky and Tippett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Flanders</span> English actor and writer (1922–1975)

Michael Henry Flanders was an English actor, broadcaster, and writer and performer of comic songs. He is best known for his stage partnership with Donald Swann.

Welsh National Opera (WNO) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales. WNO gave its first performances in 1946. The company began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its early days, the company gave a single week's annual season in Cardiff, gradually extending its schedule to become an all-year-round operation, with its own salaried chorus and orchestra. It has been described by The New York Times as "one of the finest operatic ensembles in Europe".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ned Sherrin</span> Author and broadcaster

Edward George Sherrin was an English broadcaster, author and stage director. He qualified as a barrister and then worked in independent television before joining the BBC. He appeared in a variety of radio and television satirical shows and theatre shows, some of which he also directed and produced.

Thomas Wilson CBE FRSE was an American-born Scottish composer, a key figure in the revival of interest in Scottish classical music after the second world war.

Robert Kemsley (Robin) Orr was a Scottish organist and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurence Olivier on stage and screen</span> Overview of the actors professional life

Laurence Olivier (1907–1989) was an English actor who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. From 1935 he performed in radio broadcasts and, from 1956, had considerable success in television roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Wallace (bass-baritone)</span> English operatic singer and actor (1919–2009)

Ian Bryce Wallace OBE was an English bass-baritone opera and concert singer, actor and broadcaster of Scottish extraction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillian Knight</span> English opera singer and actress

Gillian Knight is an English opera singer and actress, known for her performances in the contralto roles of the Savoy operas. After six years from 1959 to 1965 starring in these roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Knight began a grand opera career.

This is a list of British television related events from 1977.

This is a list of British television related events from 1965.

This is a list of British television related events from 1964.

This is a list of British television related events from 1962.

This is a list of British television related events from 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Faris</span> Northern Irish composer and conductor (1921–2015)

Samuel Alexander "Sandy" Faris was a Northern Irish composer, conductor and writer, known for his television theme tunes, including the theme music for the 1970s TV series Upstairs, Downstairs. He composed and recorded many operas and musicals, and also composed film scores and orchestral works. As a conductor, he was especially known for his revivals of Jacques Offenbach and Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Alwyn</span> British conductor and composer (1925–2020)

Kenneth Alwyn Wetherell was a British conductor, composer, and writer. Described by BBC Radio 3 as "one of the great British musical directors", Alwyn was known for his many recordings, including with the London Symphony Orchestra on Decca's first stereophonic recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. He was also known for his long association with BBC Radio 2's orchestral live music programme Friday Night is Music Night, appearing for thirty years as a conductor and presenter, and for his contribution to British musical theatre as a prolific musical director in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and married the actress Mary Law in 1960. His website and the first volume of his memoirs A Baton in the Ballet and Other Places were both published in 2015. The second volume Is Anyone Watching? was published in 2017.

Christopher Whelen was an English composer, conductor and playwright, best known for his radio and television operas. Because much of his work was written for specific theatre productions in the 1950s, or directly for broadcast in the 1960s to the 1980s, little of it survives today, though a number of his scores and related papers have been deposited in the British Library.

Lionel Salter was an English pianist, conductor, writer and administrator who had a long association with the British Broadcasting Corporation.

References

  1. Wyver, John. "A tale of six Cinders, part 2: Cinderella (BBC, 1938, 1948, 1950)", Screen Plays, 12 January 2012
  2. Alberge, Dalya. "Malcolm Arnold's The Dancing Master finally comes in from the cold", The Guardian , 11 October 2012
  3. Margaret Ross Griffel (2012). Operas in English: A Dictionary , p. 91
  4. 1 February 1956, Radio Times , issue 1681, 29 January 1956
  5. 14 December 1956 Radio Times , issue 1726, 9 December 1956
  6. Blind Raftery, Radio Times , issue 1749, 21 May 1957, pp. 6, 17
  7. Radio Times, 14 June, 1959, p. 13
  8. 19 May 1960, Radio Times , 15 May 1960
  9. BBC Arts
  10. The New York Times, 12 April, 1965
  11. Radio Times, Issue 2168, 29 May, 1965
  12. Christopher Whelen. "Thoughts on Television Opera", in Composer 24 (1967), p. 17
  13. Spence, Keith (1968). "Television". The Musical Times . 109 (1505): 656. doi:10.2307/952713. JSTOR   952713.
  14. 4 April 1969, Radio Times , issue 2368, 29 March 1969, p. 71
  15. And David Wept at IMDb   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  16. "Ezra Laderman", Milken Archive of Jewish Music
  17. Wise Music
  18. British Film Institute
  19. Dzeguze, K. 'Situation tragedy', in Maclean's, 31 October, 1977
  20. 5 June 1977, Radio Times , issue 2795, 4 June 1977, p. 29
  21. Radio Times Issue 2924, 24th November 1979
  22. Quiros : opera, Australian Music Centre
  23. Griffel, M. R., Operas in English: A Dictionary (2012), p. 413
  24. The Independent, 6 October, 1993
  25. 1 2 The Independent, 14 February, 1994
  26. Michaeltorke.com
  27. Mike Westbrook website

Further reading