Skip to content
Curated playlist

Plays adapted into operas

  • MacbethIn Macbeth, three witches tell a Scottish general he will be king. Murder, guilt, and paranoia follow.
  • HamletThere is no single, settled Hamlet. Three early versions of Shakespeare's play survive, each with lines the others lack.
  • The TempestIn Shakespeare's The Tempest, a girl weeps for a shipwreck her father arranged. Prospero calls up the storm himself.
  • Romeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet announces in its prologue that the lovers will die.
  • The Winter's TaleThe Winter's Tale, a play by William Shakespeare, contains the most famous stage direction in all of his work: "Exit, pursued by a bear." That single line has long overshadowed a drama of jealousy, grief and apparent resurrection. The…
  • Richard III (play)Shakespeare's Richard III opens with its villain announcing he is determined to prove a villain.
  • The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest opened to a standing ovation in 1895, and within weeks its author was ruined.
  • OthelloOthello's deadly plot hangs on a handkerchief. Shakespeare's tragedy turns on Iago's forged proof of an affair.
  • The Merchant of VeniceIn The Merchant of Venice, a pound of flesh was first offered as a joke. By the court scene, no one is laughing.
  • Goethe's FaustIn Goethe's Faust, the Devil first appears as a stray poodle. It follows the scholar Faust home from a walk.
  • Caligula (play)Camus called his play Caligula "the story of a superior suicide." He kept revising it from 1938.
  • King LearFor nearly two centuries, audiences saw King Lear with a happy ending. Nahum Tate's 1681 rewrite cut the Fool.
  • A Midsummer Night's DreamIn A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck gives a weaver a donkey's head and a fairy queen falls for him.
  • Oedipus RexIn Oedipus Rex, a king vowing to catch a murderer is the killer. Sophocles' play opens with Thebes dying of plague.
  • The BacchaeIn The Bacchae, a mother carries her son's head home believing it is a mountain lion's.
  • No ExitIn Sartre's play No Exit, the door to hell finally opens and nobody leaves.

Queue