# Shakespeare based operas?



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I've loved Shakespeare for awhile now, but I didn't realize that this was the 400th year since his death, so I'm wondering what well known Shakespeare operas are there? I'm thinking like Macbeth by Verdi (it's the only one I can come up with with my tired brain) I think there's an Othello out there, but can't remember who it's by.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

There are at least two Othello´s one by Rossini and one by Verdi.

Then there is Romeo and Julia by Gounod and another one by Zandonai and others that other users can mention.
There are at least three operas based on The Merry Wives of Windsor by Antonio Salieri, Otto Nicolai and Guiseppe Verdi.
There is a Macbeth opera by Sciarrino.
Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas
Das Liebesverbot by Richard Wagner
Giulio Cesare and Antonio and Cleopatra by Gian Francesco Malipiero
Antonio and Cleopatra by Samuel Barber.

There are loads of operas based on Shakespeare plays.


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## Autumn Leaves (Jan 3, 2014)

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Britten.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

An interesting thought--many Composers have attempted to set a Shakespeare play, but only a few have entered the repertoire.
Do we think that WS would be harder to dramatize than some of the hacks that have written the librettos of very famous Operas?


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Berlioz's _Béatrice et Bénédict _(after _Much Ado About Nothing _)
Goetz's _Taming of the Shrew_
Hahn's _Marchand de Venise_
Bellini and Vaccai both did _Romeo and Juliet_
Halévy's _Tempête_
Adès's _Tempest _
Reimann's _Lear_
Thomas's _Songe d'une nuit d'été_ features Shakespeare as a character
Salieri's _Falstaff_
Holst's _At the Boar's Head_ (after _Henry IV_)
Stephen Storace's _Gli Equivoci_ (_Comedy of Errors _)


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

I recall in the 1990's ENO putting on an opera by Stephen Oliver, 'Timon of Athens'. I saw it twice in its (only) run. It was awful. The play doesn't seem too popular either.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Don Fatale said:


> I recall in the 1990's ENO putting on an opera by Stephen Oliver, 'Timon of Athens'. I saw it twice in its (only) run. It was awful. The play doesn't seem too popular either.


Timon's an awful play - it's a sub-_Lear_, sub-Beckett which Shakespeare apparently didn't bother finishing. The only memorable speech is where Timon orders prostitutes to infect everyone in Athens with syphilis. It's down there with _Troilus and Cressida_, _Titus Andronicus_, _Pericles_, _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, and _King John_.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Sloe said:


> There are at least two Othello´s one by Rossini and one by Verdi.
> 
> Then there is Romeo and Julia by Gounod and another one by Zandonai and others that other users can mention.
> There are at least three operas based on The Merry Wives of Windsor by Antonio Salieri, Otto Nicolai and Guiseppe Verdi.
> ...


According to wiki the most reliable list :tiphat:


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Purcell's _The Fairy Queen_ based on A Midsummer Night's Dream.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Don Fatale said:


> I recall in the 1990's ENO putting on an opera by Stephen Oliver, 'Timon of Athens'. I saw it twice in its (only) run. It was awful. The play doesn't seem too popular either.


:lol:

Why did you go again?


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Verdi wrote three operas on Shakespeare - Macbeth (an early opera he revised), and his two greatest operas - Othello and Falstaff. The latter is taken by Boito from The Merry Wives of Windsor and speeches from Henry IV. Apparently The Merry Wives was written by Shakespeare at the request of Queen Elizabeth I as she wanted to see Sir John in love.
Of course, Vaughan Williams also wrote an opera about Falstaff called Sir John in Love.
Nicolai wrote the Merry Wives of Windsor.
Other 'Shakespeare' settings include Romeo and Juliet (Gounod, Berlioz, Bellini), Midsummer Night's Dream (Purcell, Britten), Otello by Rossini and King Lear (Aribert Reimann).
Of course, you also have West Side Story which is a musical rather than an opera./


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

I saw the Shakespeare Gala Concert at RFH on Saturday and there's some great information and photos on Simon Keenlyside's site.

Simon's Iago from _Othello_, as well as Simon's Iago from _Otello_ was brilliant. When he stops singing he wouldn't disgrace the RSC.

I was a bit disappointed there was nothing from Verdi's _Macbeth_ but I consoled myself with this mug from The Globe shop.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Verdi toyed with an opera of King Lear but it never came to anything.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

DavidA said:


> Verdi toyed with an opera of King Lear but it never came to anything.


Similarly, Beethoven wrote sketches for an opera on Macbeth, but it never came to anything. Some say the slow movement of his "Ghost" piano trio is based on his sketches for the witch's scene.

Kurosawa finally did a great King Lear, but it wasn't an opera. His movie "Ran."


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## Bardamu (Dec 12, 2011)

There are many as you can guess.
A few not cited yet:

Re Lear by Vito Frazzi
Giulietta e Romeo by Riccardo Zandonai
La bisbetica domata by Mario Persico
Amleto by Franco Faccio
Amleto by Mario Zafred
Il mercante di Venezia by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Just to remind that Bellini's _Capuleti e i Montecchi_ is not based on Shakespeare. And neither was Vaccai's _Giulietta e Romeo. _The librettist of both operas was Felice Romani. 

After this small pedantry, of course there are astonishing operas based on Shakespeare's dramas, including a towering piece like Verdi's _Otello_.

However, I'd like to highlight one opera that was already mentioned above, and that is a personal favorite of mine. This is _Antony and Cleopatra_, by Samuel Barber.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

schigolch said:


> Just to remind that Bellini's _Capuleti e i Montecchi_ is not based on Shakespeare. And neither was Vaccai's _Giulietta e Romeo. _The librettist of both operas was Felice Romani.


I wonder if there are more operas based on subjects in Shakespeare plays that are not based on Shakespeare.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

Thanks this will keep me busy!


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

sospiro said:


> Simon's Iago from _Othello_, as well as Simon's Iago from _Otello_ was brilliant. When he stops singing he wouldn't disgrace the RSC.
> 
> View attachment 83961


Absolutely. His Rigoletto is brilliant, and I don't care one bit if he isn't a true Verdi baritone, whatever that means. Neither was Gobbi, for that matter, but he was nevertheless renowned for his Rigoletto, his Iago and his Boccanegra et al.


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