In 1914 the young Italian composer Carlo Ravasegna (Turin 1891-Rome 1964) wrote a short opera titled
Una tragedia fiorentina to a translation/libretto by Ettore Moschino. The libretto was published with Wilde's name by the Tipografia Subalpina, Turin, 1914. Giacomo Puccini considered Wilde's play as a potential source material for a new opera before discarding it.
Alexander von Zemlinsky wrote an opera based on a German translation of the play, entitled
Eine florentinische Tragödie, which premiered in 1917.
Sergei Prokofiev wrote his opera
Maddalena to his own libretto based on a play by Magda Gustavovna Lieven-Orlova written under the pen name Baron Lieven. That play was in turn based on Oscar Wilde's play. The opera had its premiere in a BBC studio recording in London in 1979; and its first live staging was in
Graz (Austria) in 1981.
T. Sturge Moore wrote an opening scene for this play for "presentation" purposes. In 1989,
Caspar René Hirschfeld wrote a chamber opera titled
Bianca based on the
Florentine Tragedy. He used the German translation by Max Meyerfeld. Filling in for the absent first scene, a love scene between Bianca and the prince, Hirschfeld used love poetry from Oscar Wilde himself. The opera was first performed at the
Salzburg Festival in 1991. The play was
adapted for television in 1964. ==See also==