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Opera open thread: Operas for Valentine's Day [1]

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Date: 2026-02-14  

Last year, I started an open thread about operas for Valentine’s Day. I’m going to go over some of the recommendations that were made in that thread, offer a recommendation of my own and ask you for other recommendations.

I don’t know if there are even any operas being produced in your area. The Washington National Opera, recently moved out of the illegally renamed Trump-Kennedy Center, has nothing scheduled for this month. The upcoming production of Treemonisha is slated for next month at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, where the opera troupe débuted in 1956, according to a press release from the university.

In Detroit, as part of the Broadway in Detroit series at the Detroit Opera House, The Phantom of the Opera is slated for two performances. That’s romantic, right?

The Lyric Opera of Chicago put on Così fan tutte, last night and you can buy tickets for a performance tomorrow afternoon, but alas, none tonight. With libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte and music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, it was one of the recommendations for Valentine’s Day last year.

From the Pacific Opera production of Salieri's La scuola de' gelosi.

The commenter brought it up in relation to my recommendation last year for La scuola de’ gelosi, as the libretto by Caterino Mazzolà has similarities to the one by Da Ponte, and Mozart’s music has similarities to the music by Antonio Salieri, who was one of Beethoven’s mentors for setting Italian words to music. The Pacific Opera livestreamed it last year. You can still watch that performance, but note that there’s a lot of “pre-roll” in it.

This year I’d like to make a recommendation for a much more obviously political opera, Fidelio, libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner with additions by Georg Friedrich Treitschke, and music by Ludwig van Beethoven. Leonore disguises herself as a boy, Fidelio, to go to a prison to try to figure out how to rescue her husband from unjust imprisonment.

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At least one of the other recommendations also has a political angle. Un ballo in maschera, libretto by Antonio Somma and music by Giuseppe Verdi, was recently put on by the San Francisco Opera.

King Gustav III secretly harbors a love for Amelia, the wife of his closest advisor and friend. When a visit to a fortune teller confirms that his love is reciprocated and reveals a plot against his life, the seeds of his undoing take root.

Maybe that should have a spoiler alert. I doubt this next one is a “they lived happily ever after” story either. La Bohème, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa and music by Giacomo Puccini. This one was put on by the San Francisco Opera last year.

Rent is overdue, and the poet Rodolfo’s manuscript is reduced to kindling. But as the fire in the hearth dwindles, passion burns brightly amongst a group of young friends.

Three other opere with music by Mozart were also suggested. La Nozze di Figaro has a libretto in Italian, whereas Die Zauberflöte and Die Entführung aus dem Serail are in German.

I’d been aware of Béatrice et Bénédict for a long time, I have listened to the overture by Berlioz in both the orchestral version and the band arrangement by Franz Henning. The trailer for the Glyndebourne production gives me no clue as to what this opera is about, but it sure does sound like a fun time for you and your date.

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But maybe the most obvious choice is L’elisir d’amore.

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The open thread question: which opera do you recommend for Valentine’s Day?

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