Editing List of prominent operas (section)

==1833–1849==
[[File:Gaetano Donizetti 1.jpg|thumb|[[Gaetano Donizetti]]]]
* 1833 ''[[Beatrice di Tenda]]'' ([[Vincenzo Bellini]]). Bellini's tragedy is notable for its extensive use of the chorus.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=70}}
* 1833 ''[[Hans Heiling]]'' ([[Heinrich Marschner]]). Another important Gothic horror opera from Marschner.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=609}}
* 1833 ''[[Lucrezia Borgia (opera)|Lucrezia Borgia]]'' ([[Gaetano Donizetti]]). One of Donizetti's most popular scores.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=277}}
* 1834 ''[[Maria Stuarda]]'' (Donizetti). This work was dismissed as a failure in the 19th century, but since its revival in 1958 it has made frequent appearances on stage.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=278}}
* 1835 ''[[Das Liebesverbot]]'' ([[Richard Wagner]]). An early work by Wagner loosely based on Shakespeare's ''[[Measure for Measure]]''. The composer later disowned it.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1176}}
* 1835 ''[[I puritani]]'' (Bellini). Bellini's drama, set during the [[English Civil War]], is one of his finest achievements.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=71}}
* 1835 ''[[La Juive]]'' ([[Fromental Halévy]]). This grand opera rivalled the works of Meyerbeer in popularity. The tenor aria "Rachel quand du seigneur" is particularly famous.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=412}}
* 1835 ''[[Lucia di Lammermoor]]'' (Donizetti). Donizetti's most famous tragic opera, notable for Lucia's mad scene.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=280}}
* 1836 ''[[A Life for the Tsar]]'' ([[Mikhail Glinka]]). Glinka established the tradition of Russian opera with this historical work and the later ''Ruslan and Lyudmila''.{{sfn|''Oxford Illustrated''|1994|p=246 ff}}
* 1836 ''[[Les Huguenots]]'' ([[Giacomo Meyerbeer]]). Perhaps the most famous of all French grand operas, widely regarded as Meyerbeer's masterpiece.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=660}}
* 1837 ''[[Roberto Devereux]]'' (Donizetti). Donizetti wrote this work as a distraction from the grief he felt at the death of his wife.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=282}}
* 1838 ''[[Benvenuto Cellini (opera)|Benvenuto Cellini]]'' ([[Hector Berlioz]]). Berlioz's first opera is a virtuoso score which is still highly difficult to perform.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=92}}
* 1839 ''[[Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio]]'' ([[Giuseppe Verdi]]). Verdi's first opera is a sensational melodrama.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1125}}
* 1840 ''[[La favorite]]'' (Donizetti). A grand opera in the French tradition.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=285}}
* 1840 ''[[La fille du régiment]]'' (Donizetti). Donizetti's venture into French ''opéra comique''.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=285}}
* 1840 ''[[Bátori Mária]] ''(Erkel). Erkel's first opera was also the first true opera written in Hungarian and is based on the story of Ines de Castro in ''[[Camões]]''' ''[[Os Lusiadas]]'', the Portuguese national epic.<ref name=Penguin265>''The New Penguin Opera Guide'', p. 265</ref>
* 1840 ''[[Un giorno di regno]]'' (Verdi). Verdi's only comedy apart from his last opera, ''Falstaff''.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1125}}
* 1842 ''[[Der Wildschütz]]'' ([[Albert Lortzing]]). Lortzing's "comic masterpiece", intended to show a German work could rival Italian ''opera buffa'' and French ''opéra comique''.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=584}}
* 1842 ''[[Nabucco]]'' (Verdi). Verdi described this opera as the genuine beginning of his artistic career.<ref name="Parker">{{cite encyclopedia |author1=Roger Parker|title=Nabucco [Nabucodonosor]|encyclopedia=Grove Music Online |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O008126|date=2002 |orig-year=1992}}</ref>
* 1842 ''[[Rienzi|Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen]]'' (Wagner). Wagner's contribution to the [[Grand Opera]] tradition.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1177}}
* 1842 ''[[Ruslan and Lyudmila (opera)|Ruslan and Lyudmila]]'' (Glinka). This episodic version of a [[Alexander Pushkin|Pushkin]] fairy tale was a major influence on later Russian composers.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=368}}
* 1843 ''[[Der fliegende Holländer]]'' (Wagner). Wagner regarded this German Romantic opera as the true beginning of his career.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1179}}
* 1843 ''[[Don Pasquale]]'' (Donizetti). Donizetti's "comic masterpiece" is one of the last great ''opera buffas''.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=288}}
* 1843 ''[[I Lombardi alla prima crociata]]'' (Verdi). Verdi's follow-up to ''Nabucco'' was the first of his operas to be performed in America.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1127}}
* 1843 ''[[The Bohemian Girl]]'' ([[Michael William Balfe|Michael Balfe]]). One of the few notable 19th-century English-language operas apart from the works of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]].{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=48}}
* 1844 ''[[Hunyadi László (opera)|Hunyadi László]]'' (Erkel). Erkel's second opera is generally considered his best, but is second in popularity to his later opera ''[[Bánk Bán]]'' which is considered the Hungarian "National Opera".<ref name=Penguin265 />
* 1844 ''[[Ernani]]'' (Verdi). One of the most dramatically effective of Verdi's early works.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1128}}
* 1845 ''[[Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg]]'' (Wagner). Wagner's "most medieval work" depicts the conflict between pagan love and Christian virtue.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1181}}
* 1846 ''[[Attila (opera)|Attila]]'' (Verdi). Verdi was troubled by ill health during the writing of this piece, which was only a moderate success at the premiere.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1132}}
* 1846 ''[[La damnation de Faust]]'' (Berlioz). Frustrated at his lack of opera commissions, Berlioz composed this "dramatic legend" for concert performance. In recent years, it has been successfully staged as an opera, though the critic [[David Cairns (writer)|David Cairns]] describes it as "cinematic".{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=94}}
* 1847 ''[[Macbeth (Verdi)|Macbeth]]'' (Verdi). Verdi's first venture into Shakespeare.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1132}}
* 1847 ''[[Martha (opera)|Martha]]'' ([[Friedrich von Flotow]]). Flotow unashamedly aimed at satisfying popular taste in this comic and sentimental work set in the England of [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]].{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=328}}
* 1849 ''[[Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor]]'' ([[Otto Nicolai]]). Nicolai's only German opera has been his most lasting success.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=726}}
* 1849 ''[[Le prophète]]'' (Meyerbeer). A grand opera about the life of the religious fanatic, [[John of Leiden]].{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=661}}
* 1849 ''[[Luisa Miller]]'' (Verdi). Fans of Verdi think that this setting of [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]]'s "bourgeois tragedy" has been underrated.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1138}}