This might seem tangential to the project, but with so many operatic composers tackling Shakespeare’s work, these two mighty genres are inextricably linked. Besides which, if there’s any passion that competes with the Bard in my heart, it’s the opera. So, for newcomers and seasoned hands alike, here’s a quick list. Those in green are recommended for newcomers. Those in bold are particular favourites of mine.

1600s

Claudio Monteverdi, L’Incoronazione di Poppea [1642]
Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas [1688]

1700s

G.F. Handel, Giulio Cesare in Egitto [1724]
Joseph Haydn, Il Mondo della luna [1777]
W.A. Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro [1786]
Don Giovanni [1787]
Cosi fan tutte [1790]
Die Zauberflote [1791]
La clemenza di Tito [1791]

1800 – 1850

Ludwig van Beethoven, Fidelio [1805]
Gioachino Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia [1816]
Carl Maria von Weber, Der Freischutz [1821]
Vincenzo Bellini, I Capuleti e I Montecchi  [1830]
La sonnambula [1831]
Norma [1831]
I puritani [1835]
Gaetano Donizetti, Anna Bolena [1830]
L’elisir d’amore [1832]
Lucia di Lammermoor [1835]
Roberto Devereux [1837]
La fille du regiment [1840]
Giacomo Meyerbeer, Les Huguenots [1836]
Mikhail Glinka, Ruslan y Lyudmila [1842]

1850 – 1900

Richard Wagner, Der Fliegende Hollander [1843]
Tristan und Isolde [1865]
Der Ring des Nibelungen [1868]
Parsifal [1882]
Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto [1851]
Il trovatore [1853]
La traviata [1853]
Simon Boccanegra [1857]
Don Carlo [1867]
Aida [1871]
Otello [1887]
Falstaff [1893]
Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens [1863]
Georges Bizet, Les pecheurs des perles [1863]
Carmen [1875]
Ambroise Thomas, Hamlet [1868]
Arrigo Boito, Mefistofele [1868]
Modest Mussorgsky, Boris Godunov [1873]
Camille Saint-Saens, Samson et Dalila [1877]
Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin [1879]
Jacques Offenbach, Les contes d’Hoffmann [1881]
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, The Snow Maiden [1882]
Jules Massenet, Esclarmonde [1889]
Werther [1892]
Thais [1894]
Pietro Mascagni, Cavalleria Rusticana [1890]
L’amico Fritz [1891]

1900 – 1925

Giacomo Puccini, La boheme [1896]
Tosca [1900]
Madama Butterfly [1904]
La fanciulla del west [1910]
La rondine [1917]
Leos Janacek, Jenufa [1904]
The Cunning Little Vixen [1924]
The Makropulos Affair [1926]
Richard Strauss, Salome [1905]
Elektra [1909]
Der Rosenkavalier [1911]
Bela Bartok, Bluebeard’s Castle [1918]
Erich Korngold, Die tote stadt [1920]
Sergei Prokofiev, The Love For Three Oranges [1921]
Alban Berg, Wozzeck [1925]
Lulu [1937]

1926 – 1950

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sir John in Love [1929]
George Gershwin, Porgy and Bess [1935]
George Enescu, Oedipe [1936]
Benjamin Britten, Peter Grimes [1945]
Albert Herring [1947]
Billy Budd [1951]
A Midsummer Night’s Dream [1960]

1951 – 1975

Peggy Glanville-Hicks, The Transposed Heads [1954]
Carlisle Floyd, Susannah [1955]
Leonard Bernstein, Candide [1956]
Francis Poulenc, La Dialogue des Carmelites [1956]
William Walton, The Bear [1967]
Carlisle Floyd, Of Mice and Men [1969]

1976 – 2000

Gyorgy Ligeti, Le Grand Macabre [1978]
John Adams, Nixon in China [1987]
John Adams, The Death of Klinghoffer [1991]
John Corigliano, The Ghosts of Versailles [1991]
Andre Previn, A Streetcar Named Desire [1995]
Mark Adamo, Little Women [1998]

more to come…