List of radio operas


This is a list of operas specifically written for radio performance.
Broadcast premiereCom­posedComposerOpera titleLibrettist and/or sourceRadio station
24 March 1925 Geoffrey Toye The Red Pen A. P. HerbertBritish Broadcasting Company
24 December 1929 Gustav Kneip Christkinds Erdenreise Franz Peter KürtenWERAG
May 1931 Walter Goehr MalpopitaBerlin
26 April 1932 Charles Wakefield Cadman The Willow Tree Nelle Richmond EberhartNBC
13 July 19331932 Werner Egk Columbus, Bericht und Bildnis Bayerischer Rundfunk
6 October 1935 Bohuslav Martinů Hlas lesa Vítězslav NezvalCzech Radio
15 October 1936 Heinrich SutermeisterDie schwarze Spinne Albert Rösler, after Jeremias Gotthelf's Die schwarze SpinneRadio Bern
1937 Vittorio Giannini FloraCBS radio
18 March 1937 Bohuslav Martinů Veselohra na mostě Martinů, after Václav Kliment KlicperaCzech Radio
17 October 1937 Louis Gruenberg Green Mansionsafter the novel Green Mansions by William Henry HudsonColumbia Broadcasting Company
1938 Vittorio Giannini Beauty and the Beast R. SimonCBS radio
3 April 19391928 Marcel Mihalovici L'intransigeant Pluton Jean-François RegnardRTF
22 April 1939 Gian Carlo Menotti The Old Maid and the Thief Gian Carlo MenottiNBC
2 November 1939 Vittorio Giannini Blennerhassett Norman Corwin, Phillip RollCBS radio
29 March 1942 Randall Thompson Solomon and Balkisafter The Butterfly that Stamped by Rudyard KiplingCBS
10 October 1943 Jacques Ibert Barbe-bleu W. AguetRadio Lausanne
1949 Tibor Harsányi Illusions, ou l'histoire d'un miracle P. Brive, after E. T. A. HoffmannRTF
1 December 19491944–8 Luigi Dallapiccola Il prigioniero after stories by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and Charles de Coster.RAI
18 April 1950 Marcel Mihalovici Phèdre Yvan Goll, after Jean RacineRTF
21 July 1950 Raymond ChevreuilleD'un diable de briquet Chevreuille, after Hans Christian AndersenBelgian radio
3 October 1950 Ildebrando Pizzetti Ifigenia Pizzetti and A. PerriniRAI
15 November 1950 Nino Rota I due timidi Suso Cecchi d'AmicoRAI
21 August 1951 Rezső Kókai Lészen ágyú Péter Halász and József RomhányiMagyar Rádió
11 October 19511950 Renzo Bossi Il principe felice Bossi, after Oscar WildeRAI
19 November 1951 Hans Werner Henze Ein Landarztafter Franz KafkaNordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
5 March 1952 Franz Reizenstein Anna Kraus Christopher HassallBBC Third Programme
5 May 1952 Raymond Chevreuille L'elixir du révérend père Gaucher Chevreuille, after Alphonse DaudetBelgian radio
12 June 1952 Bernd Alois Zimmermann Des Menschen Unterhaltsprozeß gegen Gott Pedro Calderón de la Barca, adapted by Matthias BungartWDR
5 November 1952 Ildebrando Pizzetti Cagliostro PizzettiRAI
1953 Hans Vogt Die Stadt hinter dem Strom Hermann KasackNordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, BBC
4 December 1953 Hans Werner Henze Das Ende einer Welt Wolfgang HildesheimerNordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
10 January 1954 Raymond Chevreuille Atta Troll Chevreuille, after Heinrich Heine Atta Troll, ein SommernachtstraumBelgian radio
24 September 1954 Henk Badings OrestesFlorence
9 November 1954 Marcel Mihalovici Die Heimkehr K. H. Ruppel, after Guy de MaupassantHessicher Rundfunk
15 November 1954 Donald Swann, channelling Dame Hilda Tablet Emily Butter Henry ReedBBC Third Programme
9 August 1955 William Alwyn Farewell CompanionsH. A. L. CraigBBC
28 December 1955 Germaine Tailleferre Monsieur Petit Pois achète un château Denise CentoreRadio France
28 December 1955 Germaine Tailleferre Le bel ambitieux Denise CentoreRadio France
28 December 1955 Germaine Tailleferre La pauvre Eugénie Denise CentoreRadio France
28 December 1955 Germaine Tailleferre La Fille d'opéra Denise CentoreRadio France
1957 Henk Badings AsterionJohannesburg
28 February 19571956 Sven-Erik Bäck Tranfjädrarna Bertil Malmberg, after Junji KinoshitaSwedish Radio
10 November 1959 Grażyna Bacewicz Przygoda Króla Artura Polish Radio
19 November 1959 Nino Rota La notte di un nevrastenico R. BacchelliRAI
12 July 19601959 Germaine Tailleferre Le MaîtreEugène IonescoRadio France
30 September 19601957 Germaine Tailleferre La petite sirènePh. Soupault after H. C. Andersen' "The Little Mermaid"Radio France
1961 Niccolò Castiglioni Attraverso lo specchio after Lewis Carroll and also his Alice in WonderlandRAI
1961 Piotr Perkowski Girlandy
14 February 1961 Sven-Erik Bäck Fågeln P. Verner-Carlson, after A. ObrenovicSwedish Radio
27 August 1961 Emil PetrovicsC'est la guerre Miklos HubayHungarian Broadcasting Corporation
12 August 1962 Bruno Maderna Don Perlimplin Bruno Maderna, after Federico García LorcaRAI
8 March 1964 Humphrey Searle The Photo of the Colonel Searle, after Eugène IonescoBBC
16 December 1969 Bent Lorentzen Euridice Bent LorentzenDR
17 May 1971 Hans Werner Henze Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer Gaston SalvatoreRAI
19721970–1 Bernadetta Matuszczak Humanae vocesafter Genesis, Saint John, Mahatma Gandhi, Anne Frank, etc.Polish Radio
1973 Tomasz Sikorski Sinbad the Sailorafter a poem by Bolesław LeśmianPolish Radio
1975 Otomar KvěchJaro je tu
14 January 1977 Anthony Gilbert The Chakravaka-Birdafter poems by Mahadevi Varma, translated by A. K. Ramanujan, Daniel H. H. Ingalls Sr. and Anthony GilbertBBC
1978 Otomar Kvěch Před vánocemi
3 July 19791976–7 Bernadetta Matuszczak Apocalypsisafter RevelationPolish Radio
1980 Otomar KvěchJak přišel podzim
2 September 1982 Karl Aage RasmussenHistorien om Jonas Poul BorumDR
4 January 19891986 Nicola LeFanuThe Story of Mary O'Neill S. McInerneyBBC
1991 Giulio Castagnoli Al Museo in volo & a zompi Ugo NespoloRai Radio 3
1996 Giulio Castagnoli Lontananze vicino a noi Dario VoltoliniRAI
14 April 2004 Jüri Reinvere The Opposite Shore Tamu Tohver, Jüri ReinvereEesti Raadio
8 July 2005 Amy Kohn 1, Plum Square Amy KohnWNYC
9 July 2010 Robert Saxton The Wandering Jew Robert SaxtonBBC Radio 3