1865-1920: Van Gogh gets a wave of inspiration from Hokusai, the Ottoman Empire fades from view, Andrew Carnegie forges a fortune out of steel, and opera passes a point of no return.
In this resource, you will:
How’re we doing, operagoers? Did you survive the early Romantic era okay? Minds still intact? Bodies properly hydrated? Tissues still handy?
Excellent.
Because, as emotionally draining as those early Romantic operas can be, they pale in comparison to the operas of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Welcome to the late Romantic era, where pain is even more excruciating, happiness is even more ecstatic, passions run even deeper, and the old rules of music no longer apply.
We’re through the looking glass now, folks. No safety net and no turning back.
Good luck. And may the opera odds be ever in your favor.
Video
The story of late Romantic opera is the story of… wait for it… story.
And we’re not talking Cinderella-loses-a-slipper or Hansel-and-Gretel-get-lost-in-the-woods type stories.* We’re talking no-holds-barred, rip-your-heart-out, make-you-rethink-the-way-you’ve-been-living-your-life stories full of blood, sweat, tears, brutal warfare, abject poverty, backstabbing betrayal, international espionage, forbidden romance, tragic sacrifice… basically humanity in its rawest, ugliest, and most bittersweet form.
Like their early Romantic colleagues, late Romantic composers and librettists sometimes fleshed out their tales using intricate details that made the stories seem even more real and relatable. These details came from a number of inspirational sources, but a significant portion of them were born out of national pride.
* Alright, that’s technically a lie. Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel do actually make an appearance in late Romantic opera. But, in our defense, they’re not portrayed the same way they would be in your average ‘Once Upon a Time’ anthology. Instead, these and other late Romantic fairy tales tend to be much more psychologically layered, often forcing their characters into situations of high-stakes physical and emotional risk. (So… not ideal for bedtime.)
As territories like those in Italy, Germany, and Bohemia (Czechoslovakia) started forming sovereign governments of their own (see Welcome to the revolution under the Early Romantic Era), national identities intensified. Suddenly, more and more opera creators were interested in putting local lore, patriotic myth, historic folk tunes, or well-known works of indigenous literature onto the big stage, all so their home countries could be part of the larger cultural dialogue.
But while each of these territories had unique stories to tell, they also had unique ways of telling them. And this brings us to yet another crossroads question in the history of opera (sort of like the one we encountered with our guys Gluck and Mozart):
What’s the best way to tell a musical story?
Again, full disclosure: There’s no right or wrong answer here. But much of late Romantic opera is about composers squabbling with each other over the purest, most impactful method of telling a story through song. And two of the most (in)famous composers who found themselves on opposing sides of this colossal debate were Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)—already an opera legend by the 1840s—and Richard Wagner (1813-1883).
Allow us to introduce you to them…
Verdi is one of those names that makes opera fans stop what they’re doing and say: “Respect.” (And if they don’t say it, they’re definitely thinking it.)
Giuseppi Verdi
Take a look at any current opera season in any major opera house around the world and you’re guaranteed to find at least one Verdi opera on the schedule (but probably more). The reasons for this are too numerous and detailed to cover here, but these are our picks for the top three:
*The full code was “Vittorio Emanuele II, rei d’Italia” or “Vittorio Emanuele II, king of Italy.” Resurrectionists would reportedly shout, “Viva Verdi!” in solidarity with Italian independence, giving both Vittorio Emanuele II and Giuseppe Verdi a steady stream of national publicity.
Verdi was a consummate dramatist. Now, to be fair, his operas were often based on tales by heavy literary hitters like Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas fils, and William Shakespeare… so it’s not like he didn’t have a lot to work with. But miraculously, Verdi was able to zoom in on moments that packed the biggest dramatic punch, distill them down to their most basic and most powerful fundamentals, and then unleash them on his audience through a carefully calibrated balance of voice and instrumentals.
Verdi also instinctively knew human relationships were what made dramas tick. His singers were his stars, meaning their voices were the primary colors of his musical paint. Even today, singers love Verdi because his music gives them a chance to sink their voice (and their teeth) into a character.
Don’t get us wrong: Verdi was likewise a maestro of the special musical effect. His orchestral scores were designed to supply listeners with essential dramatic elements like atmosphere (think swirling strings for an oncoming storm), pacing (rhythmic brass as an army prepares for war), and commentary (an Act I love theme that replays when the lovers say goodbye in Act III). In fact, in Verdi operas, voice and orchestra became such perfect theatrical partners that traditional expositional devices like recitative began to fade away, leaving singers and instrumentalists to devote all their energies toward telling the story. Together. Without stopping (except for the occasional intermission).
Listen: Viva V.E.R.D.I.
Presented by Washington National Opera, host Saul Lilienstein
takes you through the musical world of Giuseppe Verdi.
But what if operas had no obvious “stars”?
What if every single thing about an opera—from the singers, to the orchestra, to the lighting guy—was just as important as the next? And what if the whole production had only one job and that job was just… story?
These were the kinds of rhetorical questions posed by our next composer: Richard Wagner.
Richard Wagner
Okay. Deep breaths, kids. This guy is… a lot.
Wagner is a tricky subject and an even trickier man. By all accounts, he was a cruel and bigoted egomaniac who publicly voiced his anti-Semitic opinions in print and was known to trash the work of other composers without a second thought. In addition, his music was a documented inspiration for some of the ideas behind the Nazi Party decades later, which means his operas will always be associated with a terrible legacy, no matter how beautiful or artistically valuable his scores might be.
However (and that feels really strange to say about such a deeply problematic figure): Wagner’s music made a lot of noise. In every sense. His operas—sometimes deafeningly loud and often audaciously epic in scope—were crafted to capture audience attention and never let go. His harmonies rewrote the musical playbook by twisting familiar chords into unrecognizable clusters of prismatic sound. And his take on storytelling forever redefined what opera could mean.
You see, Wagner was obsessed with the notion that true opera should bind together music, story, poetry, dance, sets, lighting, costume, and stage effects to create a transcendent, otherworldly experience for operagoers. The kind of experience where you don’t know exactly where your real life ends and the fictional story begins. The kind where you’re so engrossed in the characters, the drama, and the all-consuming “wow” factor of it all, you forget to check your phone.
Or forget you even have a phone.
Wagner called this style of collaborative opera Gesamtkunstwerk (roughly, “total artwork”), and he made it his mission to realize his style on the German stage.
The main features of Gesamtkunstwerk were:
Listen: Richard Wagner: Sonic Explorations
Presented by Washington National Opera, host Saul Lilienstein
takes you through the musical world of Richard Wagner.
As obsessive as Wagner was in his pursuit of universal truth, realistic opera actually reached its peak with a late Romantic Italian style that was literally named after truth.
We’re not kidding.
As music closed the doors on the 19th century and segued into the 20th century, many Italian composers experimented with vibrant, slice-of-life musical dramas that amplified characters from a range of backgrounds, not just from the upper classes or from the annals of history. Collectively, these works were known as verismo operas, from the Italian word for “realism” or—points if you saw this one coming—“truth.”
The heroes and heroines of verismo were often “common” folk such as artists, innkeepers, soldiers, clerics, or traveling musicians; and, their stories were just as viscerally moving as any tale of royal intrigue or supernatural adventure (perhaps even more so). These verismo characters made themselves heard using clear, conversational melodies that mimicked normal speech patterns, and their emotions were almost always profoundly stirring and a touch extreme: Fierce before fierce was considered cool.
Where Wagner tried to make opera an out-of-body experience that lifted audiences to unprecedented heights of human understanding, verismo composers like Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) and Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) brought opera back down to earth with a thundering crash, reminding listeners we don’t need mythic gods and goddesses to help us uncover new, authentic ways of looking at the world.
1865, RICHARD WAGNER
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Semperoper Dresden.
We’re going to level with you: If you want to get to know Romantic opera, you need to get to know Tristan und Isolde, Wagner’s game-changing, genre-defying love story set in pre-medieval Cornwall.
Cherry-picked from a tapestry of mythical and literary sources, Tristan is a tale of tragic romance. From the very first chords of its remarkably unsettling yet shatteringly beautiful prelude, Tristan und Isolde sounded an alarm that reverberated across all future generations of Western music, altering the course of musical storytelling and harmonic composition forever. (Like, really: The defining central chord in the opening has since been dubbed “the Tristan chord” and composers still haven’t gotten over its mind-bending tones.)
With its unapologetically dissonant score and its morally questionable tale of a love so strong it’s literally poisonous, Tristan is an experience designed to engage almost all the senses: a newer, more intoxicating breed of Romantic art. And then there’s the fact that it’s through-composed (sung and played from beginning to end without any obvious repetition or specific, segmented sections), a concept that was very edgy at the time.
All this sensory overload and artistic innovation make Tristan und Isolde a massive flashpoint in the history of opera. But, hey, we get it: Wagner was a problematic composer… to put it mildly. And, as we’ve mentioned before, it’s tough to reconcile the man with his body of work.
Yet uncomfortable as it is, it’s impossible to deny Tristan und Isolde when reckoning with late Romantic opera. Leaving it out of the discussion would be like trying to talk about U.S. history without mentioning the Civil War. Feel free to take the opera or leave it (though we maintain at least one listen is probably worth it); we just felt you needed to know it exists.
What makes Tristan und Isolde so special? Stuart Skelton, the world’s greatest Wagnerian, tells us his favorite moments of this great opera.
Listen: Tristan and Isolde
Presented by Washington National Opera, host Saul Lilienstein
takes you through the musical world of Wagner’s epic love story.
It hurts us that we only have time for one Verdi opera because, frankly, most of them qualify as stone-cold masterpieces. But we’re awarding this slot to Aïda for two reasons:
First unveiled in Cairo for the opening of the Suez Canal, Aïda traces the story of an enslaved Ethiopian princess* caught between love of country and love of an enemy soldier.
A spectacle to end all spectacles, the opera sometimes features actual circus animals (!) and includes a ballet, a marching army, and some headbanging hymns to the gods of Ancient Egypt.
Beyond the eye-popping extravaganza of it all, though, there’s an intimate human story surrounding just four main characters, each driven by a misguided love. Their heightened emotions inspire musical themes that return again and again throughout the evening, making every scene feel as if it’s part of a cohesive whole.
*A few notes to keep in mind: Like many operas of this period and previous ones, Aïda includes some undeniable elements of exoticism: a long-standing Western practice (particularly popular in Verdi’s day) of romanticizing “unfamiliar” cultures, appropriating them, and then refracting them through a Eurocentric lens.
Additionally, in the century and a half since Aïda’s premiere, this problem has only been further complicated by the use of blackface makeup for white singers cast as the story’s Egyptian and Ethiopian characters, often as a result of the systemic exclusion of Black performers.
All right, Rent heads, this is your moment to shine. This work—famously updated by Jonathan Larson for Broadway’s RENT––is the unofficial “B” of the “ABCs” of opera and ranks among the most performed and most beloved in the entire genre.
A two-tissue opera at least, La Bohème chronicles the lives and loves of six seemingly carefree Parisians who scrape by on very little, sustaining themselves on art, beauty, friendship, and not much else.
Until they can’t anymore.
Eventually, harsh reality comes knocking at their door; and, disease, poverty, and disillusion threaten to destroy their Bohemian lifestyle forever.
Rife with achingly romantic melodies and playing out amid the bustling streets of mid-19th century France, Bohème surrounds audiences with a story of lower-class artists carving out existence in an unforgiving world. An honorary verismo opera, La Bohème celebrates the joyous highs and devastating lows of everyday living, forcing you to experience all its comedy, romance, and tragedy right alongside the immortal characters.
Where you’ve heard it: You’ll hear snippets of Puccini’s original in Larson’s Rent, and parts of the 1896 score are sneakily referenced in the soundtrack to the Oscar-winning 1987 film Moonstruck.
Historically, when a woman tried to control her own destiny, it didn’t end well. The tragic tale of Carmen is no exception, but at least there’s dancing, bullfighting, and some killer melodies to distract you along the way.
Rounding out the “ABCs” of opera is this classic by Georges Bizet, brought to you by the French grand opéra tradition (though it originally had a dash of opéra comique in it as well).
Rhythmically hypnotic and outrageously tuneful from the beginning, Carmen gets our vote for opera’s most earworm-able entry. (If you claim you haven’t had at least one of Carmen’s arias stuck in your head at some point, you’re lying.)
Really, though: Carmen’s violent love story—set in the mountains of Spain—delivers hit after hit, many of which were inspired by actual Latin dances brimming with syncopated rhythms and give off a passionately defiant and seductive energy—much like the title character herself.
Where you’ve heard it: Where haven’t you? include the movies Up, The Bad News Bears, and Carmen Jones (which follows Carmen’s actual story but transports the action to 20th century America), as well as countless TV and .
Germany—or Germany as we now know it—is up first, but only because Richard Wagner dominated so much of the conversation during the late Romantic era. Love him or hate him, composers of all backgrounds and nationalities were obliged to have an opinion on Wagner. And they also had to decide whether to follow in his footsteps or take an entirely different musical path.
By breaking away from Italian traditions such as standalone arias, hummable melodies, and a supreme devotion to the human voice, Wagner helped create an operatic aesthetic that read as 100% German: a style where dramatic scenes blended effortlessly without interruption, the singer was just another instrument in a vast and powerful orchestra, and beautiful tunes were only there to move the story along… if they were there at all.
It wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but it certainly got everyone talking.
That’s not to say Wagner was some sort of musical anomaly that came out of nowhere. He was definitely a product of his time and a direct descendant of the (mostly German) composers who came before him, including Weber and Beethoven. And much like Weber, Wagner actively worked to elevate his culture by writing operas rooted in Germanic myth—an attempt to deepen nationalistic fervor and strengthen Germany’s position in the musical canon.
Yet no German composer has achieved quite the same unforgettable mixture of fantasy, innovation, and sheer, ear-splitting volume before or since. So we give his art space here, though we hold no quarter for his monstrous behavior as a human being.
While Verdi may be the most recognizable name to come out of Italy’s late Romantic era, he wasn’t the only game in town.
Sure, Verdi almost single-handedly carried the torch for Italian opera from around 1842 to 1893, and his name was all but synonymous with his native land—to the point where he didn’t really need an address. (Seriously, there’s a legendary rumor that, when someone asked Verdi where to send him some mail, he simply said, “Just label it: Maestro Verdi, Italy.” That’s pretty baller.)
Still, a few of Verdi’s contemporaries have also withstood the test of time, among them composers Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886) and Arrigo Boito (1842-1918), Verdi’s sometime librettist. Plus Verdi’s work also paved the way for verismo, a new form of Italian opera that explored the lives of everyday people as well as their interpersonal relationships, socio-political struggles, and fatalistic flaws (see above).
Two verismo composers to remember are Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919) and Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945). Why commit these names to memory? Because they’re the guys behind opera’s most famous double bill: Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry by Mascagni) and Pagliacci (The Clowns by Leoncavallo).
Almost never not performed together, these one-act operas are certified authentic™ examples of verismo, spinning tales of normal humans facing normal challenges that lead to shockingly abnormal conclusions. (No spoilers, but you know that sad clown who wields a knife? Not Sideshow Bob, but the other one? Yeah, that guy comes from Pagliacci.)
The next Italian name you should remember from this period? Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924).
Unlike Leoncavallo and Mascagni, Puccini is considered in a class by himself. Not sure if this is entirely fair, but that’s fame for you.
However, if we’re being totally objective, it’s hard not to give the man who wrote La Bohème and Tosca some sort of award for lifetime achievement.* So, in the interest of giving him his due: Puccini’s operas, if not strictly in verismo style, brought much of the verismo spirit into the early decades of the 1900s, often making heroes and heroines out of “ordinary” folks like riverboat captains, painters, poets, seamstresses, and even cowboys.
In addition, Puccini’s musical experimentation—particularly in his final opera, Turandot—pushed 19th century sonic boundaries while still remaining true to the late Romantics’ taste for gritty drama. If you’re looking for a composer to help bridge the gap between the late Romantic era and the early 20th century, Puccini just might be your uomo (or “man”).
*Nerdy aside: Leoncavallo wrote his own version of La Bohème too, but Puccini’s is just so darn good it seems to have left poor Ruggero’s Bohème in the dust.
Italy and Germany have stolen much of the late-Romantic limelight as far as history is concerned, but that doesn’t mean France didn’t have plenty to say about opera during the mid-to-late 19th century.
Paris was still very much a central operatic hub at the time, and grand opéra (though not as popular in its original form during this period) was still going semi-strong—only now emotional drama could sometimes outweigh dazzling spectacle.
Much like we do with TV and film today, 19th-century France tended to divide opera into either heavy dramas or laugh-out-loud comedies. French comedies hit their late-Romantic stride thanks to Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880) who pioneered a new-ish genre called the opéra-bouffe or, later, the operetta—a lighter comic opera that would be made mega-famous by the British team of Gilbert and Sullivan. (Offenbach is also responsible for the catchy “can-can” tune we all know and love.)
Across the aisle, French dramatic opera composers of this era churned out works influenced by music, literature, and philosophy from all over Europe and beyond. Examples included:
If someone tells you operas are only written in Italian, German, French, or English, do not believe them.
In keeping with our theme of late Romantic patriotism, composers out of 19th-century Russia and (what would become) Czechoslovakia championed their national cultures with operas inspired by Eastern European poetry, folk songs, and traditions.
When talking about this period, Russian music scholars love to cite a five-man group of nationalist composers known as “The Mighty Handful” or “The Mighty Five,” each heavily influenced by maverick Russian musician Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857). But for our purposes, we’ll focus on just three of them: standout Russian opera innovators Alexander Borodin (1833-1887), Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).
These mighty three were instrumental in building a Russian operatic style steeped in native history and folk melody, though Mussorgsky is probably *the* late Romantic to know; his epics Boris Godunov (1874) and Khovanshchina (1886) helped establish him as an unofficial “Russian Verdi.”
But let’s not forget Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikosvky (1840-1893), whose works were decidedly more Westernized and less overtly Russian, but who still composed a beautiful love letter—literally!—to his homeland with an operatic version of Alexander Pushkin’s tearjerker Eugene Onegin (1879).
Over in Czech territory, Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884) helped develop an exclusively Czech form of opera (Czech language, Czech storylines, Czech-inspired melodies and dances, etc.) as a sort of pushback against German occupation. His works are still celebrated as an emblem of Czech national pride, and his 1866 opera The Bartered Bride remains an international favorite.
To the rest of the world, though, the Romantic Czech composer with the most enduring legacy is Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) who, like Tchaikovsky, drew on a variety of influences outside his home country. However, he did compose an operatic rendition of a Slavic folktale called Rusalka (1901), which features one of the most hypnotically beautiful arias you’ll ever hear.
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Composer
Casa Vincens
1868: Gyeongbokgung Palace reconstructed (Korea)
1869: The transcontinental railroad completed (USA)
1869: The Suez Canal is constructed (Egypt)
1871: The Great Chicago fire destroys most of the city (USA)
1871: The Royal Albert Hall completed (England)
1875: The Opéra Garnier completed (France)
1876: The Palace of Westminster/Houses of Parliament completed, designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin (England)
1876: Bayreuth Festspielhaus, designed by Gottfried Semper (Germany)
1877: St. Pancras railway station, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott (England)
1883: Casa Vincens, designed by Antoni Gaudí (Spain)
1883: The Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, designed by Washington Roebling (USA)
1886: Construction of the Statue of Liberty (USA)
1889: The Eiffel Tower, designed by Gustave Eiffel (France)
1893: Hôtel Tassel, designed by Victor Horts (Belgium)
1899: The Paris Métropolitain, designed by Hector Guimard (France)
1902: The Flatiron Building in New York City, designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick P. Dinkelberg (USA)
1904: Trans-Siberian railway is completed (Russia)
1905: Unity Temple in Oak Park, IL, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (USA)
1907: Casa Batlló, designed by Antoni Gaudí (Spain)
1913: The Woolworth Building in New York City, designed by Cass Gilbert (USA)
1914: Fagus Factory, designed by Walter Gropius (Germany)
1914: The Panama Canal (Panama)
1919: Bauhaus school of design founded (Germany)
The Seasons
1871: Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, painted by James MacNeill Whistler (USA)
1872: Impression, Sunrise, painted by Claude Monet (France)
1875: Woman with a Parasol, painted by Claude Monet (France)
1876: Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, painted by Pierre-August Renoir (France)
1876: The Dance Class, painted by Edgar Degas (France)
1876: Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), painted by Winslow Homer (USA)
1881: Luncheon on the Boating Party, painted by Pierre-August Renoir (France)
1881: Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen, sculpted by Edgar Degas (France)
1882: A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, painted by Édouard Manet (France)
1886: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, painted by Georges Seurat (France)
1889: The Starry Night, painted by Vincent Van Gogh (the Netherlands)
1889: The Thinker, sculpted by Auguste Rodin (France)
1893: The Scream, painted by Edvard Munch (Norway)
1894: The Boating Party, painted by Mary Cassatt (USA)
1895: The Bronco Buster, sculpted by Frederic Remington (USA)
1896: The Seasons (series), painted by Alphonse Mucha (Czechoslovakia)
1897: Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, painted by Paul Gauguin (France)
1903: The Old Guitarist, painted by Pablo Picasso (Spain)
1907: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, painted by Pablo Picasso (Spain)
1908: The Kiss, painted by Gustav Klimt (Austria)
1909: The Dance I, painted by Henri Matisse (France)
1910: The Dream, painted by Henri Rousseau (France)
1911: I and the Village, painted by Marc Chagall (France)
1916: Water Lilies, painted by Claude Monet (France)
1917: Fountain, created by Marcel Duchamp (France)
Leon Theremin
1867: Night on Bald Mountain, composed by Modest Mussorgsky (Russia)
1873: Variations on a Theme by Haydn, composed by Johannes Brahms (Germany)
1874: Pictures at an Exhibition, composed by Modest Mussorgsky (Russia)
1874: Danse Macabre, composed by Camille Saint-Saëns (France)
1874: Messa da Requiem, by Guiseppe Verdi (Italy)
1875: In the Hall of the Mountain King, composed by Edvard Grieg (Norway)
1876: Swan Lake, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russia)
1877: Thomas Edison invents the phonograph (USA)
1880: The 1812 Overture, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russia)
1886: The Carnival of the Animals, composed by Camille Saint-Saëns (France)
1888: Trois Gymnopédies, composed by Erik Satie (France)
1889: The Sleeping Beauty, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russia)
1889: The Volta Graphophone Company and American Graphophone Company merge to form Columbia Records (USA)
1890: Death and Transfiguration, composed by Richard Strauss (Germany)
1891: Clair de Lune, composed by Claude Debussy (French)
1892: The Nutcracker, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russia)
1893: J.W. Pepper develops the sousaphone for John Philip Sousa (USA)
1893: Symphony No. 9, composed by Antonín Dvořák (Czechoslovakia)
1895: Emile Berliner develops the shellac disc gramophone record (USA)
1896: Symphony No. 1, composed by Gustav Mahler (Austria)
1896: The Stars and Stripes Forever, composed by John Philip Sousa (USA)
1896: Also Sprach Zarathustra, composed by Richard Strauss (Germany)
1897: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, composed by Paul Dukas (France)
1897: Entrance of the Gladiators, composed by Julius Fučík (Czechoslovakia)
1899: Transfigured Night, composed by Arnold Schoenberg (Austria)
1899: The Maple Leaf Rag, composed by Scott Joplin (USA)
1900: Flight of the Bumblebee, composed by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Russia)
1905: Jelly Roll Blues, composed by Jelly Roll Morton (USA)
1908: The Unanswered Question, composed by Charles Ives (USA)
1909: Symphony No. 9, composed by Gustav Mahler (Austria)
1909: The Song of the Earth, composed by Gustav Mahler (Austria)
1910: The Firebird, composed by Igor Stravinsky (Russia)
1912: Memphis Blues, composed by W.C. Handy (USA)
1912: Pierrot Lunaire, composed by Arnold Schoenberg (Austria)
1913: The Rite of Spring, composed by Igor Stravinsky (Russia)
1917: The Planets, composed by Gustav Holst (England)
1917: “Over There”, written by George M. Cohan (USA)
1919: Léon Theremin invents the touchless electro-magnetic Theremin musical instrument (Russia)
Isadora Duncan
1869: Don Quixote, choreographed by Marius Petipa, premieres (Russia)
1871: Marius Petipa is made ballet master of The Imperial Ballet of Russia (Russia)
1877: Swan Lake, choreographed by Marius Petipa, premieres (Russia)
1883: Thomas Edison introduces electric light to theatre for a production of the ballet The Excelsior (USA)
1890: The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Marius Petipa, premieres (Russia)
1891: Loie Fuller develops the Serpentine Dance (USA)
1892: The Nutcracker, choreographed by Marius Petipa, premieres (Russia)
1902: Isadora Duncan is invited by Loie Fuller to tour Europe (USA)
1906: Anna Pavlova is promoted to prima ballerina at The Imperial Ballet of Russia (Russia)
1906: Maud Allan choreographs The Vision of Salome (Canada)
1908: Grete Wiesenthal debuts her Danube Waltzes (Austria)
1909: Sergei Diaghilev establishes the Ballet Russes (France)
1913: Loie Fuller publishes her memoirs, Fifteen Years of a Dancer’s Life (USA)
1913: Choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky premiers The Rite of Spring to an unreceptive audience (France)
1914: Choreographer Mary Wigman premiers her work Hexentanz (Germany)
1914: Isadora Duncan establishes a dance school in New York City (USA)
1915: The Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts is founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn (USA)
1918: Choreographer Mary Wigman premiers her work Die Sieben Tänze des Lebens (Germany)
1918: Bill “Bojangles” Robinson debuts the stair dance at the Palace Theater in New York City (USA)
Anton Chekhov
1886: The Power of Darkeness, written by Leo Tolstoy (Russia)
1886: Genevieve Stebbins publishes The Delsarte System of Expression (USA)
1887: André Antoine founds the first independent theatre company focusing on naturalism, Théâtre-Libre (France)
1888: Miss Julie, written by August Strindberg (Sweden)
1890: Led by Georg Fuchs, theatres begin to incorporate mechanized orchestra pit apron lifts to bring actors closer to audiences (Germany)
1890: The first Symbolist theatre, Théâtre d’Art, is established by Paul Fort (France)
1890: Hedda Gabler, written by Henrik Ibsen (Norway)
1891: Salomé, written by Oscar Wilde (Ireland)
1891: Spring Awakening, written by Frank Wedekind (Germany)
1892: Widowers’ Houses, written by George Bernard Shaw (Ireland)
1892: Chitarangada, written by Rabindranath Tagore (India)
1893: Aurélien Lugné-Poë founds the Théâtre de l’Oeuvre, guided by the belief that the spoken word creates the scenery (France)
1894: The Shop Girl, written by Henry J. W. Dam, Adrian Ross, and Ivan Caryll (England)
1895: Adolphe Appia publishes La mise en scéne du théatre Wagnerien (Switzerland)
1895: The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde (Ireland)
1896: Karl Lautenschläger introduces a revolving stage at the Residenz Theater in Munich (Germany)
1896: The Seagull, written by Anton Chekhov (Russia)
1896: King Ubu, written by Alfred Jarry (France)
1896: The Theatrical Syndicate acquires almost complete control over American theatre, with a focus on profitable and popular productions (USA)
1897: Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol is founded by Oscar Méténier (France)
1897: Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko form the Moscow Art Theatre (Russia)
1897: La Ronde, written by Arthur Schnitzler (Germany)
1897: Cyrano de Bergerac, written by Edmond Rostand (France)
1899: Uncle Vanya, written by Anton Chekhov (Russia)
1901: Three Sisters, written by Anton Chekhov (Russia)
1903: Romain Rolland writes The People’s Theatre, focusing on the democratization of access to the arts (France)
1904: Edward Gordon Craig publishes The Art of the Theatre (England)
1904: The Cherry Orchard, written by Anton Chekhov (Russia)
1907: The Playboy of the Western World, written by John Millington Synge (Ireland)
1908: Baal, written by Bertolt Brecht (Germany)
1909: Murder Hope of Women, written by Oskar Kokoschka (Austria)
1913: Pygmalion, written by George Bernard Shaw (Ireland)
1913: Actors Equity Association is formed (USA)
1913: Martin Beck opens the Palace Theatre in New York City (USA)
1913: Jacques Copeau founds the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier (France)
1919: Max Reinhardt opens the Grosses Schauspielhaus, which had an open stage and a full complement of stage machinery (Germany)
1919: The Orpheum Circuit is formed, bringing together 45 vaudeville theaters in 36 cities (USA)
Mark Twain
1865: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written by Lewis Caroll (England)
1865: From the Earth to the Moon, written by Jules Verne (France)
1866: Crime and Punishment, written by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russia)
1868: Little Women, written by Louisa May Alcott (USA)
1869: War and Peace, written by Leo Tolstoy (Russia)
1870: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, written by Jules Verne (France)
1872: Around the World in Eighty Days, written by Jules Verne (France)
1873: A Season in Hell, written by Arthur Rimbaud (France)
1874: Far From the Maddening Crowd, written by Thomas Hardy (England)
1876: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written by Mark Twain (USA)
1878: Anna Karenina, written by Leo Tolstoy (Russia)
1879: The Red Room, written by August Strindberg (Sweden)
1880: Boule de Suif, written by Guy de Maupassant (France)
1880: The Brothers Karamazov, written by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russia)
1883: Treasure Island, written by Robert Louis Stevenson (Scotland)
1884: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain (USA)
1886: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, written by Robert Louis Stevenson (Scotland)
1890: The Picture of Dorian Grey, written by Oscar Wilde (Ireland)
1890: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, written by Ambrose Bierce (USA)
1891: Tess of the d’Urbervilles, written by Thomas Hardy (England)
1891: Billy Budd, written by Herman Melville (USA)
1894: The Jungle Book, written by Rudyard Kipling (England)
1895: The Time Machine, written by H.G. Wells (England)
1895: The Red Badge of Courage, written by Stephen Crane (USA)
1896: The Island of Doctor Moreau, written by H.G. Wells (England)
1897: Dracula, written by Bram Stoker (Ireland)
1897: The Invisible Man, written by H.G. Wells (England)
1898: The Turn of the Screw, written by Henry James (USA)
1898: The War of the Worlds, written by H.G. Wells (England)
1900: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum (USA)
1901: The Tale of Peter Rabbit, written by Beatrix Potter (England)
1902: Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad (USA)
1902: The Hound of the Baskervilles, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Scotland)
1903: The Call of the Wild, written by Jack London (USA)
1904: Peter Pan, written by J.M. Barrie (Scotland)
1904: Nostromo, written by Joseph Conrad (USA)
1906: The Jungle, written by Upton Sinclar (USA)
1907: The Secret Agent, written by Joseph Conrad (USA)
1908: Anne of Green Gables, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery (Canada)
1908: The Wind in the Willows, written by Kenneth Grahame (England)
1908: A Room with a View, written by E.M. Forster (England)
1910: Howards End, written by E.M. Forster (England)
1911: The Secret Garden, written by Frances Hodgson Burnett (England)
1912: Tarzan of the Apes, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs (USA)
1913: Remembrance of Things Past, written by Marcel Proust (France)
1915: Of Human Bondage, written by Somerset Maugham (England)
1915: 鲹ōDz, written by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Japan)
1915: The Metamorphosis, written by Franz Kafka (Germany)
1916: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, written by James Joyce (Ireland)
1916: Women in Love, written by D.H. Lawrence (England)
Marie Curie
1865: Gregor Mendel formulates his laws of inheritance (Germany)
1867: Alfred Nobel invents dynamite (Sweden)
1869: Dmitri Mendeleev develops the periodic table (Russia)
1876: Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone (USA)
1878: Thomas Edison patents the phonograph (USA)
1880: Thomas Edison patents the incandescent light bulb (USA)
1880: Thomas Edison patents the kinetograph motion picture camera (USA)
1885: Louis Pasteur creates the first successful vaccine against rabies (France)
1886: Sigmund Freud begins private practice in Vienna (Austria)
1888: Westinghouse licenses alternating current patents from Nicolai Tesla (USA)
1892: Dmitri Ivanovsky discovers viruses (Russia)
1892: G. Stanley Hall founds the American Psychological Association (USA)
1895: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovers x-rays (Germany)
1896: Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity (France)
1898: Marie Curie discovers radium and polonium (France)
1899: Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams, the beginning of psychoanalysis (Austria)
1903: First controlled heavier-than-air flight of the Wright Brothers (USA)
1907: Bakelite, the world's first fully synthetic plastic, invented by Leo Baekeland (USA)
1908: Henry Ford introduces the mass-produced Model T automobile (USA)
1912: Alfred Wegener theorizes continental drift (Germany)
1913: Carl Jung develops his theories of Analytical Psychology (Switzerland)
1913: Niels Bohr creates a model of the atom (Denmark)
Sitting Bull
1865: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia, ending the American Civil War (USA)
1865: President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated (USA)
1867: The United States purchases Alaska from Russia (USA)
1871: The feudal system is dismantled in Japan (Japan)
1872: Yellowstone National Park, the first national park, is created (USA)
1874: The British East India Company is dissolved (England)
1881: Lakota leader Sitting Bull surrenders (USA)
1888: Jack the Ripper murders occur in Whitechapel, London (England)
1890: The Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota (USA)
1893: New Zealand becomes the first country to enact women's suffrage (New Zealand)
1896: The modern Olympic Games are revived in Athens (Greece)
1898: The United States annexes the Republic of Hawaii (USA)
1898: The United States gains control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish–American War (USA)
1901: Edward VII becomes King of England (UK)
1902: Cuba given independence by the United States (Cuba)
1906: An earthquake in San Francisco, CA kills 3,000 (USA)
1910: George V becomes King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India (UK)
1910: Imperial Japan annexes Korea (Japan)
1912: The RMS Titanic strikes and iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks (England)
1914: World War I begins (Multinational)
1916: Grigori Rasputin is assassinated (Russia)
1917: The Russian Revolution begins (Russia)
1918: Ukraine declares independence from Russia (Ukraine)
1918: Assassination of Tsar Nicholas II and his family (Russia)
1918: The British occupy Palestine (Palestine)
1918: The Armistice of 1918 ends World War I (Multinational)
1919: The Treaty of Versailles redraws European borders (Multinational)
1919: The German Revolution ends with the collapse of the German Empire and the establishment of the Weimar Republic (Germany)
What’s been passed down to us from the late Romantic era? The easier question is: What hasn’t? For some time, late Romantic works have been seated at the top of almost everyone’s “essential operas” list, and opera houses around the world tend to gravitate toward this period more than any other. Many singers, conductors, and directors of the last 75 years or so have been required to exhibit at least some expertise in the late Romantic repertoire and demand is still insanely high for opera’s ABCs (Aïda, La Bohème, and Carmen), all of which are late Romantic masterpieces.
Late Romantic features you’re still likely to hear or see today:
Gesamtkunstwerk (“total artwork” in German) – a term invented by Richard Wagner to describe his notion of the ideal opera, which combines all art forms (music, stagecraft, poetry, etc.) to create a perfectly synthesized work that washes over audiences and guides them toward new ways of thinking and feeling.
Leitmotif – typically a bite-sized melody (or “motive”) that is repeated by the singers or the orchestra whenever an opera composer wants to call a person, place, object, thought, or idea to mind; though most often found in Wagner’s works, other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi were known to use this technique as well.
Opéra-Bouffe (sometimes referred to as “operetta,” though not all operettas are opéra-bouffe) – a “light” French opera, mostly from the mid-to-late 19th century; usually a comedy that pokes fun at the conventions of more serious or dramatic operas from earlier eras (not to be confused with opera buffa, a type of funny Italian opera developed in the 18th century).
Verismo (“realism” or “truth” in Italian) – a late 19th or early 20th century Italian opera that centers on normal, “everyday” characters going about their daily—though often highly dramatic—lives; verismo tunes are often majestic and romantic or piercing and powerful (or a combination of all four).
Writer
Eleni Hagen
Producer
Kenny Neal for
Kennedy Center Education
Digital Learning
Updated
April 19, 2023
Unfortunately, a lot of people think they don’t, and most of them have never seen one. In this audio story, opera fan Eleni and opera skeptic Samantha discuss how their experiences with opera as children influenced their opinions of the art form as adults.
A soprano is a soprano because they can sing high and a bass is a bass because they sing low, right? Not really...
A beginner’s guide to some of opera’s most challenging female roles and a unique look at how opera does girl power.
Opera has always been addicted to love, and its romances can range from the hilarious to the dramatic. But don’t expect a standard “Boy Meets Girl” story when you take your seat at the opera house.
A quick overview of Mussorgsky’s 1874 epic opera about the 17th century Russian Tsar.
A quick overview of Tchaikovsky’s 1890 opera about card games, ghosts, and revenge.
A quick overview of Mascagni’s 1890 one-act verismo opera.
A quick overview of Offenbach’s final work—an opéra fantastique based on three short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann.
A quick overview of Puccini’s 1918 comic opera inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.
A quick overview of Bartók’s 1918 opera of the French folk tale.
A quick overview of Strauss’ 1916 mixing of commedia dell’arte with opera seria.
A quick overview of Strauss’ 1909 opera based on Sophocles’ tragedy.
A quick overview of Janáček’s 1904 opera dedicated to the memory of his daughter.
A quick overview of Giordano’s 1896 biographical opera set during the French Revolution.
A quick overview of Verdi’s 1893 opera about Shakespeare’s larger than life character.
A quick overview of Puccini’s 1893 historical opera.
A quick overview of Humperdink’s 1893 opera based on the Grimm brothers fairy tale.
A quick overview of Tchaikovsky’s 1881 opera about Joan of Arc.
A quick overview of Verdi’s 1887 opera of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
A quick overview of Puccini’s 1900 tragic opera.
A quick overview of Puccini’s 1904 tragic opera.
A quick overview of Verdi’s 1886 Italian translation of his 1867 passionate political love story.
A quick overview of Tchaikovsky’s 1879 opera based on Alexander Pushkin’s novel about regret.
A quick overview of Richard Wagner’s epic 15-hour four-opera cycle.
A quick overview of Camille Saint-Saëns’ 1877 biblical epic opera.
A quick overview of Johann Strauss’ 1874 comic operetta.
A quick overview of Thomas’ 1868 opera of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
A quick overview of Bizet’s 1875 fiery tragic opera.
A quick overview of Puccini’s 1895 passionate melodrama.
A quick overview of Verdi’s 1871 historical drama.
A quick overview of Wagner’s epic 1865 love story.
Eric Friedman
Director, Digital Learning
Kenny Neal
Manager, Digital Education Resources
Tiffany A. Bryant
Manager, Operations and Audience Engagement
JoDee Scissors
Content Specialist, Digital Learning
Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;
Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Volkswagen Group of America; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; Wells Fargo; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..
The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.
![1908 poster for Verdi's Aida, performed by the Hippodrome Opera Company of Cleveland, Ohio [Source]](/globalassets/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/artsedge/media/understanding-opera/aida-2-169.jpg?format=webp&width=768&quality=70)
