Opera
- Malcolm Arnold – The Open Window, Op. 56 (opera in one act, libretto by S. Gilliat, after Saki), premiered on December 14, 1956 on BBC TV
- Leonard Bernstein – Candide (comic operetta in two acts, libretto by Lillian Hellman, R. Wilbur, J. La Touche, D. Parker, and Bernstein, after Voltaire)
- William Bergsma – The Wife of Martin Guerre (opera in three acts, libretto by J. Lewis)
- Wolfgang Fortner – Bluthochzeit (opera in two acts, after Federico García Lorca)
- Arnold Franchetti – The Game of Cards (opera in one act, libretto by the composer)
- Kenneth Gaburo – Blur (opera in one act, libretto by the composer)
- Hans Werner Henze – König Hirsch (opera in three acts, libretto by H. von Cramer, after Carlo Gozzi)
- Ben Johnston – Gertrude, or Would She Be Pleased to Receive It? (chamber opera in two acts, libretto by W. Leach)
- Leonard Kastle – The Swing (thirteen-minute television opera, broadcast at noon on Sunday, June 10, 1956 on NBC television)
- Frank Martin – Der Sturm (opera in three acts, libretto after William Shakespeare, in a German translation by A.W. von Schlege)
- Douglas Moore – The Ballad of Baby Doe
- Gino Negri – Vieni qui, Carla (opera in one act, after Alberto Moravia's Gli indifferenti)
- Elie Siegmeister – Miranda and the Dark Young Man (opera in one act, libretto by Edward Eager)
- Robert Ward – He Who Gets Slapped (libretto by Bernard Stambler), staged under the title Pantaloon
Read more about this topic: 1956 In Music
Famous quotes containing the word opera:
“A pretty air in an opera is prettier there than it could be anywhere else, I suppose, just as an honest man in politics shines more than he would elsewhere.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“He rides in the Row at ten o’clock in the morning, goes to the Opera three times a week, changes his clothes at least five times a day, and dines out every night of the season. You don’t call that leading an idle life, do you?”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The opera house sparkled with tiers
And tiers of eyes, like mine enlarged by belladonna,”
—James Merrill (b. 1926)