# Most Prolific Opera Composers



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Here's the opposite of the thread about composers who produced only one opera.
Which ones produced a really large number of them? I'm not sure who has the all time record for the most.
Rossini and Donizetti must have composed nearly a hundred operas between them,
and Vivaldi composed about forty, some of which have been lost .
Alessandro Scarlatti ,father of Domenico, of keyboard sonata fame, composed a very large number of mostly forgotten operas. Can any one think of other composers who 
ground operas out like sausage ?


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## AnaMendoza (Jul 29, 2011)

I see 49 Handel operas on the big Wikipedia list.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

With Alessandro Scarlatti (65), Rossini (39) and Donizetti (75) already mentioned (Handel's case is a little different because some of these works are oratorios - but 42 of his works are considered to be operas) I can cite Wenzel Müller with 166 operas as the most prolific opera composer of all time. After him come Antonio Draghi (about 130), Niccolò Piccinni (124), and Giovanni Paisiello (110). Baldassare Galuppi comes next with 109 operas.

Offenbach who had about 102 (although the overwhelming majority of them were operettas except two), and Rheinhard Kaiser who composed over 100 operas need to be cited. Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi had 95 but 12 of them are questionable in terms of being real operas.

With less impressive numbers (but since the numbers for A. Scarlatti, Handel, Rossini and Donizetti are similar, I'll include them) one can remember André Grétry who composed 69 operas, Telemann who may have composed over 50 operas (many didn't survive), Eduard Ingris with 48 operettas and 1 opera, Nicolas Isouard with 42 operas, Francesco Cavalli (41), Salieri with 37 operas, and Massenet with 34 operas.

All these numbers are approximations because it all depends a bit on how to count (revisions with title changes, counting or not counting works that are not exactly operas, etc).


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Almaviva said:


> I can cite Wenzel Müller with 166 operas as the most prolific opera composer of all time. After him come Antonio Draghi (about 130), Niccolò Piccinni (124), and Giovanni Paisiello (110). Baldassare Galuppi comes next with 109 operas.


Have you heard any of their operas? Are they any good?


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Ravellian said:


> Have you heard any of their operas? Are they any good?


 Of course! I've heard all 530 of them!
Do you think I'd have quoted them if I hadn't heard them?
Now I'm deeply offended!:scold:

Kidding, of course. Those are mostly very obscure, except for some Paisiello. 
On the other hand, of the above quoted, as far as Offenbach, Handel, Donizetti, and Rossini go, I have heard several dozens of them, with several Massenets and the occasional Salieri.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Almaviva said:


> All these numbers are approximations because it all depends a bit on how to count (revisions with title changes, counting or not counting works that are not exactly operas, etc).


Yep. Obviously it also depends on what other works the composers wrote that took up their compositional time. Wenzel Müller may have written well over 100 operas but that was largely what he wrote, operas. Handel wrote about 40 operas but wrote another two dozen large scale oratorios and over 100 cantatas etc. (let alone instrumental works).

Telemann supposedly wrote over 50 operas but about 35 are catalogued, and far fewer at less than 10 have survived. Likewise, Vivaldi supposedly wrote as many as 90 operas but this might be misleading as many included _pasticci_ and recycling of works by himself and other composers, and far fewer at less than 20 have survived.

Thankfully, all but 2 of Handel's operas have survived complete (or 3, depending if you count the lost _Florindo_ and _Daphne_ as one or two works because it was rather long, and the theatre decided to break it into two. The other lost opera of his, _Nero_. All were pre-Italy works during his early Hamburg years).


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

Geez, I was pretty impressed with Ferdinando Paer's 54 operas until I saw the numbers for Müller, Draghi, Piccinni, and Paisiello!


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

IMHO, I think those who composed *so many operas *it's not worth listening to more than 20. I love Wagner and Rimsky-Korsakov...Rimsky composed 15...Wagner...I sould count them but a few are more or less (l'interdiction d'aimer, the fairies...). All Rimsky's are terrific, all Tchaikovsky's are terrific....You'd say this guy always speaks about Russian opera...You are right! LOL

Martin


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