swap_horiz Moby-Dick Alternatives

1

Nixon in China

John Adams composed this 1987 minimalist opera, chronicling Richard Nixon's historic 1972 presidential visit to China in...

American Contemporary Political 1987

8.5 Great

2

Doctor Atomic

John Adams's 2005 opera focuses on the intense moral panic and scientific events leading up to the first atomic bomb tes...

American Contemporary Historical 2005

8.0 Great

3

Prince Igor

Prince Igor is a historical Russian opera by Alexander Borodin, completed in 1890, and famous for its spectacular Polovt...

Romantic Russian Epic Borodin

7.8 Good

4

The Consul

Gian Carlo Menotti's 1950 opera portrays the harrowing struggles of a woman desperately trying to escape a totalitarian...

Modern American Dramatic 1950

7.8 Good

5

Satyagraha

Composed by Philip Glass in 1980, this opera depicts Mahatma Gandhi's early years in South Africa and his non-violent ph...

American Contemporary Minimalist Glass

7.8 Good

6

The Ghosts of Versailles

John Corigliano's 1991 grand opera is a fictional sequel to Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, commissioned by the Metropo...

American Contemporary Comedy 1991

7.8 Good

7

Susannah

Carlisle Floyd's 1955 American opera boldly adapts the biblical story of Susannah to the rigid rural American South of t...

Lyric Modern American 1955

7.7 Good

8

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Gian Carlo Menotti composed this 1951 Christmas opera, notably the first opera specifically commissioned for television...

Modern American Christmas 1951

7.5 Good

9

The Medium

Gian Carlo Menotti's 1946 tragic opera explores the psychological unraveling of a fraudulent psychic during a terrifying...

Modern American Supernatural Menotti

7.5 Good

10

The Death of Klinghoffer

John Adams's 1991 controversial opera dramatizes the real-life 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro b...

American Contemporary Political 1991

7.5 Good

11

The Ballad of Baby Doe

Douglas Moore's 1956 American opera is based on the true story of Elizabeth Doe and her scandalous marriage to a wealthy...

Modern American Historical 1956

7.3 Good

12

The Voyage

Philip Glass composed this 1992 science fiction opera, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to commemorate Christopher...

American Contemporary Minimalist Glass

7.0 Good

13

Christophe Colomb

Darius Milhaud's large-scale opera (1930) about Christopher Columbus, incorporating film projections and a speaking narr...

Modern French Epic Milhaud

7.0 Good

14

Antony and Cleopatra

Samuel Barber's opera (1966), commissioned to inaugurate the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in New York...

Modern American Barber Shakespearean

6.8 Fair

15

Emmeline

Tobias Picker's opera (1996) based on Judith Rossner's novel about incest in 19th-century New England mill towns, premie...

American Contemporary 1996 Tragic

6.5 Fair

16

The Perfect American

Philip Glass's opera (2013) imagining Walt Disney's final days, with a libretto by Christopher Hampton, premiered at the...

American Contemporary Glass Biographical

6.5 Fair

17

The Telephone

Gian Carlo Menotti's one-act comic opera (1947) depicting a man unable to propose marriage to a woman perpetually distra...

Modern American Comedy 1947

6.4 Fair

18

Anna Nicole

Mark-Anthony Turnage composed this 2011 British opera, a tragic satire chronicling the highly turbulent life and death o...

Contemporary English Satirical 2011

6.3 Fair

19

An American Tragedy

Tobias Picker's opera (2005) based on Theodore Dreiser's novel, the first opera on that subject to be premiered at the M...

American Contemporary 2005 Tragic

6.3 Fair

20

Un re in ascolto

Luciano Berio's opera (1984) developed partly in collaboration with Italo Calvino, exploring a theater director's inner...

Italian Contemporary Experimental 1984

6.1 Fair