This list provides a guide to opera composers, as determined by their presence on a majority of compiled lists of significant opera composers. (See the "Lists Consulted" section for full details.) The composers run from Jacopo Peri, who wrote the first ever opera in late 16th century Italy, to John Adams, one of the leading figures in the contemporary operatic world. The brief accompanying notes offer an explanation as to why each composer has been considered major. Also included is a section about major women opera composers, compiled from the same lists. For an introduction to operatic history, see opera. The organisation of the list is by birthdate.

Major opera composers

1550–1699

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Jacopo Peri as Arion in La pellegrina

1700–1799

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Gluck in a 1775 portrait by Joseph Duplessis.

1800–1849

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Giuseppe Verdi, by Giovanni Boldini, 1886 (National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome)

1850–1899

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Giacomo Puccini

1900–present

Female opera composers

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Drawing of Ethel Smith by John Singer Sargent, 1901
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Shafiga Akhundova

A number of reasons, including the high cost of production and high status of opera,[75] have been suggested to explain the relatively few women who have been composers of opera, and no woman composer met the criteria for inclusion above. However, some experts in our sample disagreed,[76] and named either or both of the women below as comparable to those already listed:

  • Shafiga Akhundova (21 January 1924 – 26 July 2013) was a prominent Azerbaijani composer, the first professional female author of an opera in the East. She is also The People’s Artist of Azerbaijan.

Other notable women opera composers include Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Lori Laitman, Missy Mazzoli, Rachel Portman, and Olga Neuwirth.

See also

References

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