List of fictional literature featuring opera

This is a list of literary fiction which feature opera in the plot. "Features" excludes fleeting mentions: for a literary work to be on this list opera must be a significant part of the plot, or, alternatively, provide significant context and backdrop.

Author TitleBibliographic informationRemarksKatherine AddisonThe Witness for the DeadNew York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2021 Sequel to The Goblin Emperor, the novel's mystery centers an opera singer and is set against the back drop of a working opera house.Katherine AddisonThe Grief of StonesNew York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2022 Second book in the Cemeteries of Amalo series and third in The Goblin Emperor series, the novel features the returning character Pel-Thenhior, an opera-writer and director. Significant scenes are set within the opera house, detailing its performances and its operation.Martha Albrand Final Encore New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978 Alternative title: IntermissionKingsley Amis The Alteration London: Cape, 1976 Inspired by Amis's hearing of the castrato Alessandro Moreschi; the lead character is a choir boy who undergoes castrationOskar Paul Wilhelm Anwand Die Primadonna Friedrichs des Grossen Berlin: R. Bong, 1930 Fictionalized account of the love affair between Gertrud Elisabeth Mara and Frederick the GreatHonoré de Balzac Gambara New York: New York Review Books, 2001 features an opera by its eponymous composer on the life of Mahomet, as well as a disquisition on Meyerbeer's opera Robert le diableEva Fanny Bernhardine Turk Baudissin, Grafin von Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient: der Schicksalsweg einer großen Künstlerin Berlin: Drei Masken Verlag, 1937 Malcolm BradburyRates of Exchange London: Secker & Warburg, 1983 features the interminable Slakan national opera Vedontakal Vrop, by Z. Leblat Malcolm Bradbury Why come to Slaka? London: Secker & Warburg, 1986 again features the interminable Slakan national opera Vedontakal Vrop Mittheilungen aus den geheimen Memoiren einer deutschen Sängerin; later issued as Aus den Memoiren einer Sängerin(Pauline: Memoirs of a Singer; or Promiscuous Pauline; or, The Memoirs of a German Opera Singer) Stuttgart: Gebrüder Franckh, 1829 Purported to be the memoir of the opera singer Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient (1829) F. A. Brockhaus, pp. 1000, 1196 (announcement);Mittheilungen aus den geheimen Memoiren einer deutschen Sängerin, text at zeno.org;Reprint Willa Cather The Song of the Lark Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1915Has been described as the first "bildungsroman" with a female protagonist. Thea grows up in a frontier town on the Colorado Plains, studies piano in Chicago, is discovered to have a magnificent voice, is seduced and betrayed, goes to Germany and becomes a great Wagnerian soprano. All the characters somehow reunite at her Met debut in Lohengrin.Alexander CheeThe Queen of the NightHoughton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016 A scrappy young girl escapes a traumatic childhood and reinvents herself as a diva soprano in Paris in the late 19th century. She eats dinner with the Verdis, flirts with a heldentenor and hides several secrets.Francis Marion Crawford Soprano: a Portrait (U.K. title; published in the U.S. as Fair Margaret: a Portrait) New York, Macmillan, 1905 Francis Marion Crawford The Primadonna New York, Macmillan, 1907 "A sequel to Fair Margaret"Francis Marion Crawford The Diva's Ruby New York, Macmillan, 1908 "A sequel to Primadonna and Fair Margaret"Mary DaheimBantam of the OperaNew York: Avon Books, 1993 When obnoxious opera star Mario Pacetti and his entourage come to stay at her Hillside Manor and Mario is killed by poison, bed-and-breakfast hostess Judith McMonigle sets out to find the murderer and save her inn's reputation (publishers' summary)Marcia DavenportOf Lena GeyerNew York: Scribner, 1936 Lenzka Gyruzkova, a Czech immigrant to New York City, is protected and taught by an Italian vocal coach whom she had once met in Prague, goes back to Europe for lessons with Lilli Lehmann, and becomes a sensation in opera houses all over the world, singing Mozart and Verdi and Wagner—especially Wagner—with equal success. There are adventures off-stage, but she stays true to her singing.