Editing List of prominent operas (section)

==1921–1944==
[[File:Puccini2.jpg|thumb|[[Giacomo Puccini]]]]
* 1921 ''[[Káťa Kabanová]]'' ([[Leoš Janáček]]). The first of the great operas of Janáček's late maturity, based on an [[Alexander Ostrovsky|Ostrovsky]] play about religious fanaticism and forbidden love in provincial Russia.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=505}}
* 1921 ''[[The Love for Three Oranges]]'' ([[Sergei Prokofiev]]). A comic opera based on a fairy tale by [[Carlo Gozzi]].{{sfn|''Oxford Illustrated''|1994|p=306}}
* 1922 ''[[Der Zwerg]]'' ([[Alexander von Zemlinsky]]). Another short Zemlinsky opera inspired by a work by [[Oscar Wilde]]. The composer personally identified with the dwarf of the title.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1252}}
* 1924 ''[[Erwartung]]'' ([[Arnold Schoenberg]]). An intense [[atonalism|atonal]] monodrama.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=953}}
* 1924 ''[[Hugh the Drover]]'' ([[Ralph Vaughan Williams]]). A [[ballad opera]], much of which is based on [[folksong]]s.<ref name="Kennedy">[[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Michael Kennedy]], writing in ''Grove''</ref>
* 1924 ''[[Intermezzo (opera)|Intermezzo]]'' ([[Richard Strauss]]). A light operetta-style work based on an incident from the composer's own marriage.<ref name="Murray" />
* 1924 ''[[The Cunning Little Vixen]]'' (Janáček). One of the composer's most popular works, the story is based on a cartoon strip about animals in the Czech countryside.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=506}}
* 1925 ''[[Doktor Faust]]'' ([[Ferruccio Busoni]]). Busoni intended this opera to be the climax of his career, but it was left unfinished at his death.{{sfn|''Oxford Illustrated''|1994|p=297}}
* 1925 ''[[L'enfant et les sortilèges]]'' ([[Maurice Ravel]]). Conceived as an opera-ballet, "birds, beasts, insects, even inanimate objects, teach humanity to the child".<ref>Harman A & Mellers W. ''Man and His Music: The Story of Musical Experience in the West.'' Barrie and Rockliff, London, 1962, p. 950.</ref>
* 1925 ''[[Wozzeck]]'' ([[Alban Berg]]). One of the key operas of the 20th century. Based on a strikingly unheroic plot, Berg's work blends [[atonal]] techniques with more traditional ones.{{sfn|Orrey|Milnes|1987|p=218}}
* 1926 ''[[Cardillac]]'' ([[Paul Hindemith]]). An opera in Hindemith's neo-classical style about a psychopathic jeweller.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=477}}
* 1926 ''[[Háry János]]'' ([[Zoltán Kodály]]). Kodálys ''singspiel'' incorporated many Hungarian folksongs and dances.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Tibor Tallián |title=Háry János |encyclopedia=Grove Music Online |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O005826 |date=2002 |orig-year=1992}}</ref>
* 1926 ''[[King Roger]]'' ([[Karol Szymanowski]]). One of the most important Polish operas, this piece is full of Oriental harmonies.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1076}}
* 1926 ''[[The Makropulos Affair (opera)|The Makropulos Affair]]'' (Janáček). The first performance of ''The Makropulos Affair'' was the last that Janáček survived to see among his operas.<ref name="John Tyrrell, writing in Grove">[[John Tyrrell (musicologist)|John Tyrrell]], writing in ''Grove''{{Full citation needed|date=November 2018}}<!--title of article, id "Grove" (i.e., Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed.? Grove Dictionary of Opera? New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians?--></ref>
* 1926 ''[[Turandot]]'' ([[Giacomo Puccini]]). Puccini's last opera was left unfinished at his death.<ref name="Budden" />
* 1927 ''[[Oedipus rex (opera)|Oedipus Rex]]'' ([[Igor Stravinsky]]). Set to a Latin libretto by [[Jean Cocteau]], this highly stylised piece fuses opera and [[oratorio]].{{sfn|''Oxford Illustrated''|1994|pp=310–311}}
* 1927 ''[[Jonny spielt auf]]'' ([[Ernst Krenek]]). A "jazz opera" which enjoyed tremendous success in its day.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=542}}
* 1928 ''[[The Threepenny Opera]]'' ([[Kurt Weill]]). A modern adaptation of Gay and Pepusch's ''[[The Beggar's Opera]]''.<ref name="Hinton">{{cite encyclopedia |author1=Stephen Hinton|title=Dreigroschenoper, Die ('The Threepenny Opera')|encyclopedia=Grove Music Online |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O006155|date=2002 |orig-year=1992}}</ref>
* 1929 ''[[The Nose (opera)|The Nose]]'' ([[Dmitri Shostakovich]]). [[Nikolai Gogol|Gogol]]'s strange short story provided the plot for this grotesque satire.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=980}}
* 1930 ''[[Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny]]'' (Weill). The composition of this opera was problematic, due to tension between the composer and his librettist, Bertolt Brecht.<ref name="Hinton" />
* 1930 ''[[From the House of the Dead]]'' (Janáček). Janáček's last opera inspired by [[Fyodor Dostoevsky|Dostoevsky]]'s account of life in a Russian prison camp.<ref name="John Tyrrell, writing in Grove"/>
* 1932 ''[[Moses und Aron]]'' (Schoenberg). Left unfinished at his death, Schoenberg's opera frequently employs [[serialism|serialist]] techniques.{{sfn|Orrey|Milnes|1987|p=220}}
* 1933 ''[[Arabella]]'' (Strauss). This opera was the last that Strauss set to a libretto by [[Hugo von Hofmannsthal]].<ref name="Murray"/>
* 1934 ''[[Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (opera)|Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk]]'' (Shostakovich). An attack on the music and subject matter of the opera in the Soviet Union's government journal ''[[Pravda]]'' meant that this work was Shostakovich's last opera.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Laurel Fay |title=Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District |encyclopedia=Grove Music Online |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O002507 |date=2002 |orig-year=1992}}</ref>
* 1935 ''[[Ero s onoga svijeta]] (usually translated as Ero the Joker)'' by [[Jakov Gotovac]]. Although he composed many operas, none of the others achieved the enormous success of Ero, in Croatia and abroad. This comic opera based on a Croatian folk tale and brilliant libretto written by [[Milan Begović]] was praised by many, among whom [[Richard Strauss]] and [[Wilhelm Furtwängler]]. Inspired by the folklore of [[Dalmatian hinterland]], to the point where the boundary between the folklore and "classical music" ceases to exist, it is considered to be the best and most performed Croatian opera of all time.
* 1935 ''[[Die schweigsame Frau]]'' (Strauss). A comic opera based on a play by [[Ben Jonson]].{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1039}}
* 1935 ''[[Porgy and Bess]]'' ([[George Gershwin]]). Initially a financial failure, a 1941 production that replaced the work's recitatives with spoken dialogue was a success.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author=Richard Crawford |title=Porgy and Bess |encyclopedia=Grove Music Online |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O004106 |date=2002 |orig-year=1992}}</ref>
* 1937 ''[[Lulu (opera)|Lulu]]'' (Berg). Berg's second opera was unfinished at his death, but a completion by [[Friedrich Cerha]] was successfully performed in 1979.{{sfn|Orrey|Milnes|1987|p=219}}
* 1937 ''[[Riders to the Sea (opera)|Riders to the Sea]]'' (Vaughan Williams). Often rated as Vaughan Williams's finest opera, this short, fatalistic tragedy is set on the Aran Isles in the west of Ireland.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1120}}
* 1938 ''[[Daphne (opera)|Daphne]]'' (Strauss). A mythological opera with lyrical, pastoral music.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1041}}
* 1938 ''[[Julietta]]'' ([[Bohuslav Martinů]]). This dreamlike work set in a town where people have lost their memory is "Martinu's operatic masterpiece".{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=613}}
* 1938 ''[[Mathis der Maler (opera)|Mathis der Maler]]'' (Hindemith). Hindemith's most highly regarded opera is a parable about an artist surviving in a time of crisis, reflecting the composer's own experience under the Nazis.{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=480}}
* 1941 ''[[Paul Bunyan (operetta)|Paul Bunyan]]'' ([[Benjamin Britten]]). Britten's first venture into opera was a light piece about an American folk hero with a libretto by [[W. H. Auden]].{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=143}}
* 1942 ''[[Capriccio (opera)|Capriccio]]'' (Strauss). Strauss's final opera is a conversation piece about the genre itself.{{sfn|''Oxford Illustrated''|1994|p=316}}
* 1943 ''[[Der Kaiser von Atlantis]]'' ([[Viktor Ullmann]]). Written in the Nazi concentration camp [[Theresienstadt concentration camp|Theresienstadt]] and not performed until 1975. The composer and his librettist were murdered in [[Auschwitz concentration camp]].{{sfn|''Viking''|1993|p=1115}}