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<p>List of the most famous Comic opera operas, listed alphabetically with photos when available. This list contains popular examples of operas of the genre Comic opera, and contains information such as what language the opera was composed in. If you want to know more about these historic Comic opera operas you can click on their names for even more information. Any notable operas in the Comic opera genre should be listed below, so if you're an opera lover use this list to find a few that you've never heard of. Everything from Guillaume Tell to Der Rosenkavalier is included on this list.  </p>This list helps answer the questions, "What is Comic opera?" and "What are the best Comic opera operas?"

Comic opera | List of Comic opera Operas

List of Comic opera Operas

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Alexander Twice

Alexandre bis is a surrealist comic opera in one act by Bohuslav Martinů, composed in 1937 to an original libretto written in French by André Wurmser.
The opera was intended by Martinů, who was then living in Paris, for performance at the Paris World Exhibition of 1937. However, various delays prevented its performance during the composer's lifetime.
The opera's first performance was given at the Opera House, Mannheim, on 18 February 1964, when it was conducted by Georg Calder. Shortly afterwards it was given its first performance in Martinů's native Czechoslovakia by the Brno Janáček Opera.
The opera is subtitled 'The Tragedy of a Man who Had His Beard Cut', and the surrealist libretto is set in Paris about 1900. Although Martinů had asked Wurmser for a libretto including a singing cat, he compromised on Wurmser's suggestion of a singing portrait, which acts as narrator to a tale of bourgeois infidelity.

Anyuta

Anyuta is a one-act comic opera to a libretto by Mikhail Popov. First performed in 1772, it was one of the first operas written in the Russian language.
The collection of Popov's poems, translations and plays called Dosugi was published at the request of Empress Catherine II. This collection also contained the libretto to the opera Anyuta.
The music hasn't survived and its composer is not known, however it has sometimes been attributed to Vasily Pashkevich or even to Yevstigney Fomin although at that time he was just 11 year old. It is known that the music was a selection of popular songs as specified in the libretto.

Belfagor

Belfagor is an Italian-language opera by the composer Ottorino Respighi to a libretto by Claudio Guastalla based on the comedy Belfagor of Ercole Luigi Morselli, itself loosely based on the novella Belfagor arcidiavolo by Niccolò Machiavelli. It was premiered in 1923 at La Scala in Milan, under the baton of Antonio Guarnieri, since Toscanini was unavailable. The cast featured Irish soprano Margaret Burke Sheridan as Candida, tenor Mariano Stabile as her lover Baldo, and baritone Francesco Merli as the titular Belfagor, a "arcidiavolo" who tries to marry a human maiden while in disguise as a nobleman, using gifts of money to her father.
The première obtained a «full and warm» approval, with several curtain calls for the composer, but the opinion of the critics was divided, ranging from the enthusiasm of Marinetti, enchanted by the futuristic aspects of the opera, and of the music critic S. A. Lucani, to those who judged opera and libretto absolutely not enjoyable.

Cherevichki

Cherevichki [alternative renderings are The Little Shoes, The Tsarina's Slippers, Les caprices d'Oxane, and Gli stivaletti] is a comic-fantastic opera in 4 acts, 8 scenes, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was composed in 1885 in Maidanovo, Russia. The libretto was written by Yakov Polonsky, and is based on the story "Christmas Eve", part of a collection called Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, by Nikolai Gogol. The opera is a revision of Tchaikovsky's earlier opera Vakula the Smith. The work was first performed in 1887 in Moscow.

Chi soffre, speri

Chi soffre, speri or L'Egisto is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the Italian composers Virgilio Mazzocchi and Marco Marazzoli. It has been described as the "first comic opera". The libretto, by Giulio Rospigliosi, is based on Boccaccio. It was first performed at the Palazzo Barberini, Rome on 12 February 1637. The surviving score is a revised version dating from 1639.

Claude Duval

Claude Duval – or Love and Larceny is a comic opera with music by Edward Solomon to a libretto by Henry Pottinger Stephens. The plot is loosely based on supposed events in the life of the eighteenth century highwayman, Claude Duval.
The piece was first produced at the Olympic Theatre, London, on 24 August 1881, under the management of Michael Gunn. It ran until the end of October. From January to March 1882, a D'Oyly Carte touring company played the work in the British provinces. Another D'Oyly Carte company played it in New York in March and April 1882 under Richard D'Oyly Carte's personal supervision, in tandem with Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience. In New York, a few local references were interpolated into Blood-red Bill's comic song, "William's Sure to Be Right."

Der Barbier von Bagdad

Der Barbier von Bagdad is a comic opera in two acts by Peter Cornelius to a German libretto by the composer, based on The Tale of the Tailor and The Barber’s Stories of his Six Brothers in One Thousand and One Nights. The first of three operas by Cornelius, the piece was first performed at the Hoftheater in Weimar on 15 December 1858.

Der Corregidor

Der Corregidor is a comic opera by Hugo Wolf. The German libretto was written by Rosa Mayreder-Obermayer, based on the short novel El sombrero de tres picos by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón.

Der geduldige Sokrates

Der geduldige Socrates is a comic German-language opera in three acts by Telemann to a libretto by Johann Ulrich von König.
The opera was Telemann's first full length purely comic opera, and was performed at the Oper am Gänsemarkt, while Reinhard Keiser was still running the opera.
The professional UK premiere was in 1974 by Kent Opera conducted by Roger Norrington, with April Cantelo, Thomas Lawlor and Linda Esther Gray among the cast.

Der junge Lord

Der junge Lord is an opera in two acts by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by Ingeborg Bachmann, after Wilhelm Hauff's Der Affe als Mensch from Der Scheik von Alexandria und seine Sklaven.
The style and plot owe much to Italian opera buffa, with the influence of Vincenzo Bellini and Gioachino Rossini noted. Andrew Porter has noted four distinct musical styles in the opera, corresponding to four different levels of characters:
"neo-classical" style, for the townspeople;
"neo-Straussian arioso", for Sir Edgar's entrance;
a "wilder, more erratic" style, for the traveling circus;
lyrical style, for Luise's love music.
Robert Henderson has commented on the "Brechtian" nature of Bachmann and Henze's treatment of the story.

Die Abreise

Die Abreise is a comic opera in one act by composer Eugen d'Albert. The libretto was written by Ferdinand Sporck, a friend of the composer, after a play by August Ernst Steigentesch.

Zhenitba

Zhenitba is an unfinished opera begun in 1868 by Modest Mussorgsky to his own libretto based on Nikolai Gogol's comedy Marriage. This 1842 play is a satire of courtship and cowardice, which centres on a young woman, Agafya, who is wooed by four bachelors, each with his own idiosyncrasies.

La grotta di Trofonio

La grotta di Trofonio is an opera, described as an opera comica, in two acts composed by Antonio Salieri to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Battista Casti.
The work was first performed in Vienna, Austria at the Burgtheater on October 12, 1785. The similarity of the story of the opera may have influenced Lorenzo da Ponte when he wrote the libretto of Mozart's Così fan tutte.

The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois

The Telephone, or L'Amour à trois is an English-language comic opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti, both words and music. It was written for production by the Ballet Society and was first presented on a double bill with Menotti's The Medium at the Heckscher Theater, New York City, February 18-20, 1947. The Broadway production took place on May 1, 1947, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Metropolitan Opera presented it once, on July 31, 1965.

Le diable dans le beffroi

Le diable dans le beffroi is an unfinished comic opera in one act by Claude Debussy to his own libretto, based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Devil in the Belfry.

Le portrait de Manon

Le portrait de Manon is an opéra comique in one act by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Georges Boyer. It is related to Massenet's 1884 opera Manon, widely regarded to be his masterpiece. However Le portrait de Manon is rarely performed today.

Les deux petits savoyards

Les deux petits savoyards is a comic opera in one act by the French composer Nicolas Dalayrac. It was first performed by the Comédie-Italienne at the first Salle Favart in Paris on January 14, 1789. The libretto is by Benoît-Joseph Marsollier des Vivetières. The opera was a great success; according to the records of the Comédie-Italienne, 104,000 spectators had seen it by 1793. The theme of reconciliation between the social classes appealed to audiences at the beginning of the French Revolution. Les deux petits savoyards received its British premiere at Sadler's Wells in June, 1789 and it first appeared in the United States in Philadelphia in 1797.

Li zite 'ngalera

Li zite 'ngalera is a commedia per musica in three acts by the Italian composer Leonardo Vinci. The libretto, by Bernardo Saddumene, is written in Neapolitan dialect. The opera was first performed at the Teatro dei Fiorentini, Naples on 3 January 1722.

Lottchen am Hofe

Lottchen am Hofe is a three-act singspiel by the German composer Johann Adam Hiller.
The libretto by Christian Felix Weiße was based on the opéra comique text La caprice amoureux, ou Ninette à la cour by Charles Simon Favart.

Martha

Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a romantic comic opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges.
Flotow had composed the first act of a ballet, Harriette, ou la servante de Greenwiche, derived from a text by Saint-Georges, for the ballerina Adèle Dumilâtre. This was first performed by the Paris Opera Ballet at the Salle Le Peletier on 21 February 1844. The time available for the composition was short, so the second and third acts were assigned, respectively, to Friedrich Burgmüller and Édouard Deldevez. The opera Martha was an adaptation of this ballet.

Merrie England

Merrie England is an English comic opera in two acts by Edward German to a libretto by Basil Hood. The patriotic story concerns love and rivalries at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, when a love letter sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to one of Queen Elizabeth’s Ladies in Waiting, Bessie Throckmorton, ends up in the hands of the queen. Well-known songs from the opera include "O Peaceful England", "The Yeomen of England" and "Dan Cupid hath a Garden".
It opened at the Savoy Theatre in London on 2 April 1902, under the management of William Greet, and ran for 120 performances, closing on 30 July 1902. The piece then toured while the Kitty Loftus Company played at the Savoy. The production reopened at the Savoy on 24 November 1902 for 56 additional performances, ending on 17 January 1903. It starred Henry Lytton, Louie Pounds, Rosina Brandram, Robert Evett and Walter Passmore, among other regulars of the Savoy.
The opera became popular in Britain and was often performed by amateur groups in the decades following its premiere. In Queen Elizabeth II's coronation year, over five hundred amateur societies staged the piece.

Milton

Milton is an opéra comique in one act by Gaspare Spontini. The French libretto, by Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy and Armand-Michel Dieulafoy, is based on the life of the English poet John Milton. Milton was first performed on 27 November 1804 by the Opéra-Comique at the Salle Feydeau in Paris . It was Spontini's first major success in France. The composer planned a reworked version for performances in Germany, under the title Das verlorene Paradies, but in the event it was never staged.

Pepita Jiménez

Pepita Jiménez is a lyric comedy or comic opera with music written by the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz. The original opera was written in one act and used an English libretto by Albéniz's patron and collaborator, the Englishman Francis Money-Coutts, which is based on the novel of the same name by Juan Valera. The opera was later adapted several times, first by the composer and later by others, into numerous languages and different constructs, including both a two act version and a three act version.

Pimpinone

Pimpinone, TWV 21:15, is a comic opera by the German composer Georg Philipp Telemann with a libretto by Johann Philipp Praetorius. Its full title is Die Ungleiche Heirat zwischen Vespetta und Pimpinone oder Das herrsch-süchtige Camer Mägden. The work is described as a Lustiges Zwischenspiel in three parts. It was first performed at the Theater am Gänsemarkt, Hamburg on 27 September 1725 as light relief between the acts of Telemann's adaptation of Handel's opera seria Tamerlano. Pimpinone was highly successful and pointed the way forward to later intermezzi, particularly Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's La serva padrona.

The Duenna

The Duenna is a three-act comic opera, mostly composed by Thomas Linley the elder and his son, Thomas Linley the younger, to an English-language libretto by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. At the time, it was considered one of the most successful operas ever staged in England, and its admirers included Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt and Lord George Byron.
First performed in the Covent Garden Theatre on 21 November 1775, The Duenna was performed seventy-five times in its first season, and was frequently revived in Britain until the 1840s. In total, 256 performances of the opera had been held in London from its opening in 1775 to the end of the 18th century. Another 194 performances occurred in the capital during the nineteenth century, with the last known London representation happening in January 1851. The opera was first performed in Jamaica in 1779, and subsequently spread round the English-speaking world. Soon after its first London performance, representations sprang up in British provincial theatres, though these often used invented dialogue to link the published songs and musical numbers.

List of the most famous Comic opera operas, listed alphabetically with photos when available. This list contains popular examples of operas of the genre Comic ...