Music · Curated list
Carmen, The Magic Flute, Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) and 27 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
Most written-about first. Each description summarises the work's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
1
1875 opera by Georges Bizet
An opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, with a libretto by Ludovic Halévy and Henri Meilhac drawn from Prosper Mérimée's novella of the same name.
Wikidata · Photo: Lucien Métivet, Public domain
2
1791 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart's two-act opera, K. 620, written to Emanuel Schikaneder's German libretto. It belongs to the Singspiel, a popular genre that mixes spoken dialogue with song.
3
1824 symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125: a choral symphony, the last symphony he completed, written between 1822 and 1824.
Wikidata · Photo: Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770 - 1827), Public domain
4
1871 tragic opera by Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi's tragic four-act opera, written to Antonio Ghislanzoni's Italian libretto and set in Egypt's Old Kingdom. The Khedivial Opera House in Cairo commissioned it, and Giovanni Bottesini conducted its première there on 24 December 1871.
Wikidata · Photo: The Otis Lithograph Co, Cleveland and New York, Public domain
%2C%20figurino%20di%20Luigi%20Sapelli%20per%20La%20Traviata%20(1905)%20-%20Archivio%20Storico%20Ricordi%20ICON001115.jpg?width=800)
5
1853 opera by Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi's three-act opera to Francesco Maria Piave's Italian libretto. Its source is La Dame aux camélias (1852), the play Alexandre Dumas fils made from his own novel of 1848.
Wikidata · Photo: Luigi Sapelli, CC BY-SA 4.0
6
1904 opera by Giacomo Puccini
An opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica; in the Schickling catalogue it is SC 74.
Wikidata · Photo: Leopoldo Metlicovitz, Public domain
7
1786 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
A commedia per musica in four acts, K. 492, composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It opened at Vienna's Burgtheater on 1 May 1786.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
8
1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart's two-act opera to Lorenzo Da Ponte's Italian libretto. Its subject is an old Spanish legend of the libertine Don Juan, as the playwright Tirso de Molina told it in his play of 1630, El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra.
Wikidata · Photo: Lionelmozart, CC BY-SA 4.0
.jpg?width=800)
9
1900 opera by Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini's three-act opera, written to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, which opened at Rome's Teatro Costanzi on 14 January 1900.
Wikidata · Photo: Adolfo Hohenstein (1854–1928), Public domain
10
1851 opera by Giuseppe Verdi
An opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. Francesco Maria Piave wrote the Italian libretto, based on Victor Hugo's play of 1832, Le roi s'amuse.
Wikidata · Photo: Teatro La Fenice, Public domain
11
Musical composition by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, which he wrote between 1804 and 1808.
Wikidata · Photo: User Boris Fernbacher on de.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
12
Cycle of four operas by Richard Wagner
A cycle of four epic music dramas in German, WWV 86, by Richard Wagner, loosely drawing on figures of Germanic heroic legend: the Nibelungenlied and the Norse legendary sagas.
Wikidata · Photo: Original art by Otto Donner von Richter (1828-1911) Engraving by R. Bong (fl. 1880-1908), Public domain
13
1842 opera by Giuseppe Verdi
An opera in four acts in Italian, composed by Giuseppe Verdi in 1841 to a libretto by Temistocle Solera. The libretto draws on the biblical books of Daniel, Lamentations, Jeremiah and 2 Kings, and on a play of 1836 by Francis Cornu and Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois.
%20-%20Archivio%20Storico%20Ricordi%20ICON000206.jpg?width=800)
14
1926 opera by Giacomo Puccini
An opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, to an Italian libretto by Renato Simoni and Giuseppe Adami. Puccini died in 1924 before he could finish it.
Wikidata · Photo: Galileo Chini, CC BY-SA 4.0
15
1865 opera by Richard Wagner
A music drama in three acts, WWV 90, by Richard Wagner, to his own German libretto, loosely based on Tristan and Iseult, the medieval romance of the 12th century by Gottfried von Strassburg. Conceived in 1854 and composed from 1857 to 1859, it opened at the Königliches Hoftheater und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865, conducted by Hans von Bülow.
Wikidata · Photo: Josef Albert, Public domain
16
Mass composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna in 1791
A Requiem Mass in D minor, K. 626, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He wrote part of it in Vienna late in 1791, but it was still unfinished when he died on 5 December that year.
17
1816 opera by Gioachino Rossini
The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution, an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini, to an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini based on The Barber of Seville (1775), the French comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais.
18
1896 opera by Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini's four-act opera, composed between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica drawn from Henri Murger's Scènes de la vie de bohème (1851). Set in Paris around 1830, it shows a poor seamstress and her friends, who are artists, living the Bohemian life.
Wikidata · Photo: Hohenstein, Adolf (1854-1928). Illustrateur, Public domain
19
1853 opera by Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi's four-act opera, with an Italian libretto mostly by Salvadore Cammarano, based on El trovador (1836), a Spanish play by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was the playwright's greatest success, which the Verdi scholar Julian Budden calls "a high flown, sprawling melodrama flamboyantly defiant of the Aristotelian unities, packed with all manner of fantastic and bizarre incident."
Wikidata · Photo: Luigi Morgari / Adam Cuerden, Public domain
20
Ludwig van Beethoven's sole opera
The only opera by the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, Op. 72, first titled Leonore, oder Der Triumph der ehelichen Liebe.
Wikidata · Photo: Druckerei Wiener Hoftheater, Public domain
21
1790 Italian-language opera buffa by W. A. Mozart
Mozart's two-act opera buffa, K. 588, fully titled “Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti”, which opened at Vienna's Burgtheater on 26 January 1790.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 4.0
22
1890 opera by Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni's one-act opera, set to an Italian libretto by Guido Menasci and Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, adapted from Giovanni Verga's short story of 1880 of the same name and the play he later made of it. Regarded as one of the classic verismo operas, it opened at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 17 May 1890.
Wikidata · Photo: Voceditenore, Public domain
23
Rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
A rock opera sung throughout, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely drawn from the Gospel accounts of the Passion, it explores the minds of Jesus and others, with much of the story centred on Judas, disillusioned with where Jesus' ministry is heading.
Wikidata · Photo: Jef a Tino Kratochvilové, CC BY-SA 3.0 cz
1937 cantata by Carl Orff
Carl Orff's cantata, composed in 1935 and 1936, which sets 24 poems from the medieval Carmina Burana collection. In Latin its complete title reads “Carmina Burana: Cantiones profanae cantoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis”.
25
Opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo's Italian opera, with a prologue and two acts, for which he wrote both music and libretto. It tells of Canio, actor and head of a commedia dell'arte troupe, who kills his wife, Nedda, and her lover, Silvio, on stage in the middle of a performance.
Wikidata · Photo: Artist: Unknown, Public domain
26
1879 opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
An opera in 3 acts, Op. 24, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author Unknown author Original uploader was Derring at ru.wikipedia, Public domain
27
1741 sacred oratorio by Handel
An oratorio in English that George Frideric Handel composed in 1741. Charles Jennens compiled its text from the Coverdale Psalter and the King James Bible.
Wikidata · Photo: George Frideric Handel, Public domain
%20-%20Archivio%20Storico%20Ricordi%20ICON012446.jpg?width=800)
28
Music drama by Richard Wagner
The last work Richard Wagner composed, a music drama in three acts. His own libretto draws freely on Parzival, the Middle High German chivalric romance of the 13th century by the Minnesänger Wolfram von Eschenbach, and on Perceval ou le Conte du Graal, the Old French romance by Chrétien de Troyes, a trouvère of the 12th century: differing versions of the tale of the Arthurian knight Parzival (Percival) and his spiritual search for the Holy Grail.
Wikidata · Photo: Peter Hoffer, CC BY-SA 4.0
29
Opera by Richard Wagner
A Romantic opera in three acts, WWV 75, with words and music by Richard Wagner, first staged in 1850. Its hero's story comes from medieval German romance, above all Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and its sequel Lohengrin, which in turn drew on the epic Garin le Loherain.
Wikidata · Photo: August von Heckel, Public domain
30
Opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi's four-act opera after Shakespeare's Othello, with an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito. It was the last opera but one that he wrote, and La Scala in Milan staged its première on 5 February 1887.
Wikidata · Photo: Alfred Edel (1856?–1912), costume designer Photographer not identified, Public domain
Every Wikidata item that is an opera, a symphony, a concerto, a sonata, an oratorio, a mass, a symphonic poem, a string quartet or a ballet, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 30 are shown.
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
If you are reading this on the way somewhere: Computatus eSIM sells prepaid data eSIMs for 190 countries, installed by QR code before you leave, so maps, tickets and messages work without a roaming bill.
| Country | Cheapest plan | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 1GB per day | $2.33 | Get it → |
| France | 2GB per day | $2.15 | Get it → |
| Italy | 2GB per day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| United Kingdom | 2GB per day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| Germany | 2GB per day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| Canada | 1GB per day | $2.47 | Get it → |
| India | 1GB per day | $3.26 | Get it → |
| Australia | 1GB per day | $1.79 | Get it → |
See all Computatus eSIM plans →
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this site. Nothing above depends on it: every entry is chosen and ranked before any price is looked up.
%2C_figurino_di_Luigi_Sapelli_per_La_Traviata_(1905)_-_Archivio_Storico_Ricordi_ICON001115.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
_-_Archivio_Storico_Ricordi_ICON000206.jpg){kind=link}
_-_Archivio_Storico_Ricordi_ICON012446.jpg){kind=link}
