1597 First opera performed in Florence
Dafne is performed in Florence, becoming the first example of a new art form - opera

1607 Monteverdi makes opera history
Claudio Monteverdi presents Orfeo, the first opera to win a lasting place in the international repertory

1637 First public opera house
The first public opera house, the Teatro San Cassiano, opens in Venice

1689 Chelsea schoolgirls premiere Purcell
Young gentlewomen in Chelsea give the first performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

1711 Handel brings Italian opera to London
Handel's success in London with his opera Rinaldo prompts him to settle in Britain

1730 Metastasio the man for libretti
The Italian poet Metastasio produces, in Vienna, opera libretti which are used by almost every composer of the day

1762 Gluck reforms opera
The intensely dramatic music of Gluck's Orfeo ed Eurydice introduces a much needed reform in the conventions of opera

1786 Prague hums Mozart's Figaro
Mozart's Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna and then has a huge success in Prague

1786 'Too many notes, my dear Mozart'
The emperor Joseph II is reported to have told Mozart that his opera The Marriage of Figaro has 'too many notes'

1787 Don Giovanni in Prague
Mozart's opera Don Giovanni has its premiere in Prague

1790 Così fan Tutte
Mozart's opera Così fan Tutte has its premiere in Vienna, in the court theatre of Joseph II

1791 The Magic Flute
Mozart's opera The Magic Flute has its premiere in Vienna in a popular theatre run by the librettist, Emanuel Shikaneder

1805 First version of Fidelio
The first version of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, is performed in Vienna under the title Leonore

1814 Final version of Fidelio
The final version of Beethoven's opera Fidelio has its premiere in Vienna

1816 Rossini's Barber of Seville
Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville has its premiere in Rome

1821 Der Freischutz
Carl Maria von Weber's opera Der Freischutz has its premiere in Berlin

1824 Rossini moves to Paris
Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini moves to Paris, where he becomes director of the Théatre Italien

1826 Weber's Oberon
Carl Maria von Weber's opera Oberon has its premiere (in London, at Covent Garden)

1829 Rossini's William Tell
Gioacchino Rossini's opera William Tell has its premiere in Paris

1832 L'elisir d'amore
Gaetano Donizetti's opera L'elisir d'amore has its premiere in Milan

1835 Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Gaetano Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor has its premiere in Naples

1842 Nabucco brings Verdi fame and fortune
The success of the opera Nabucco, premiered in Milan, is a turning point in the fortunes of Giuseppe Verdi

1843 The Flying Dutchman
The Flying Dutchman is the first of Richard Wagner's major operas to be staged, with its premiere in Dresden

1851 Rigoletto
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto, based on a play by Victor Hugo, is a huge success at its premiere in Venice

1853 Il Trovatore
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore is a success at its premiere in Rome

1853 Traviata flops in Venice
Just six weeks after the success of Il Trovatore, Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata is a disaster at its premiere in Venice

1858 Berlioz completes The Trojans
Hector Berlioz completes his 4-hour opera The Trojans (not performed as a complete work until 1890)

1859 Gounod's Faust
The opera Faust, by French composer Charles Gounod, has its premiere in Paris

1865 Tristan and Isolde
Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde has its premiere in the Munich court theatre

1868 Mastersingers of Nuremberg
Richard Wagner's opera The Mastersingers of Nuremberg has its premiere in Munich

1869 Das Rheingold launches Ring cycle
Das Rheingold, with its premiere in Munich, is the first part of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle to be staged

1871 Verdi goes Egyptian
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, is commissioned for the Cairo opera house, part of the process of Egypt becoming westernized

1874 Boris Godunov
Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov has its premiere in St Petersburg

1874 Die Fledermaus
Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus has its premiere in Vienna

1875 Carmen
Georges Bizet's opera Carmen has its premiere in Paris and meets at first with a lukewarm response

1876 The Ring of the Nibelungen
Richard Wagner's sequence of four operas, The Ring of the Nibelungen, has its first complete performance at Bayreuth

1879 Eugene Onegin as an opera
Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, based on Pushkin's poem, has its premiere in Moscow

1887 Prince Igor incomplete at Borodin's death
Alexander Borodin dies without finishing his opera Prince Igor (completed later by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov)

1887 Verdi's Otello
Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello has its premeiere at La Scala in Milan

1887 Melba makes her debut
The Australian soprano Nellie Melba makes her operatic debut as Gilda in Rigoletto in Brussels

1892 Peach Melba
The French chef Auguste Escoffier creates and names a dessert in honour of the Australian soprano Nellie Melba

1893 Manon Lescaut brings fame to Puccini
Giacomo Puccini has his first success when his opera Manon Lescaut opens in Turin

1893 Verdi's last opera
In Falstaff Giuseppe Verdi writes his last opera, and his only comedy since the early days of his career.

1893 Hansel and Gretl
Hansel and Gretl, an opera by German composer Engelbert Humperdinck, has its premiere in Weimar

1894 Caruso debut in Naples
The tenor Enrico Caruso makes his debut in his home town of Naples

1896 La Bohème a flop at premiere
Giacomo Puccini's opera La Bohème has an unsuccessful premiere in Turin

1898 Melba tours with her own company
The Australian soprano Nellie Melba forms the Melba Grand Opera Company as a touring venture in the USA

1900 Puccini's Tosca
Giacomo Puccini's Tosca brings in the new century with a January premiere in Rome

1900 Charpentier's opera Louise
Gustave Charpentier's opera Louise has Paris premiere at the Opéra-Comique

1901 Verdi dies
Vast crowds line the streets for the Milan funeral of a national hero, the 87-year-old composer Giuseppe Verdi

1901 Rusalka
Rusalka, by the Czech composer Anton Dvorák, is performed in Prague

1902 Pelléas et Mélisande
Claude Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande has its premiere in Paris

1903 Caruso at the Met
Italian tenor Enrico Caruso makes his US debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera

1904 Jenufa
Leos Janacek's opera Jenufa, based on a play by Gabriela Preissová, has its premiere in Brno

1904 Disastrous first night for Madam Butterfly
Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly falls victim at La Scala to claques paid for by rivals

1905 Richard Strauss's Salome
Richard Strauss's Salome, based on Oscar Wilde's play, has wide success in spite of censorship difficulties

1905 The Merry Widow
Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow opens in Vienna at the start of an immensely successful run

1906 Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers
Ethel Smyth's most successful opera, The Wreckers, is premiered in Leipzig

1908 Diaghilev takes Russian opera to Paris
Sergei Diaghilev presents Fyodor Chaliapin in Boris Godunov at the Paris Opera

1909 Strauss and von Hofmannsthal collaborate
The opera Elektra, the first collaboration between Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, has its premiere in Dresden

1909 The Golden Cockerel
Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel has its premiere in Moscow

1910 Puccini's Girl of the Golden West
Giacomo Puccini's opera Girl of the Golden West premieres in New York

1911 Der Rosenkavalier
Richard Strauss changes musical direction with his opera Der Rosenkavalier, once again with libretto by Hugo von Hoffmannsthal

1912 Berlin Opera Ballet
The Berlin Opera Ballet is founded to perform in the city's new opera house

1912 Ariadne auf Naxos
The opera Ariadne auf Naxos, by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, has its first premiere in Stuttgart

1914 Gigli creates a stir
The tenor Beniamino Gigli wins an international singing competition in Parma, and makes his operatic debut later in the same year

1916 Goyescas in opera form
The opera Goyescas, by Spanish composer Enrique Granados, has its premiere in New York

1916 Jenufa succeeds in Prague
The success of Jenufa in Prague finally brings international recognition to Leos Janacek, already in his sixties

1918 Duke Bluebeard's Castle
Béla Bartók's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle is finally staged in Budapest, nine years after its composition

1921 Kátya Kabanová
Janacek's opera Kátya Kabanová, based on Ostrovsky's play The Storm, has its premiere in Brno

1923 Roussel's Padmâvâti
Albert Roussel's opera-ballet Padmâvâti is premiered in Paris

1924 The Cunning Little Vixen
Leos Janacek's opera The Cunning Little Vixen, based on verses by Rudolf Tesnohlídek, is premiered in Brno

1924 Puccini dies with Turandot incomplete
Giacomo Puccini dies without finishing his opera Turandot, which is subsequently completed by Franco Alfani

1925 Ravel and Colette write an opera
Maurice Ravel and Colette provide music and libretto for the opera The Child and the Enchantments

1925 Wozzeck as an opera
Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck has its premiere in Berlin

1926 Szymanowski's King Roger
Karel Szymanowski's opera King Roger has its first performance in Warsaw

1926 Janacek's Makropoulos Affair
Leos Janacek's opera The Makropoulos Affair, based on the play by Karel Capek, has its first performance in Brno

1927 Jonny Strikes Up
Ernst Krenek's jazz opera Jonny Strikes Up has its premiere in Leipzig

1928 Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, opens to great acclaim in Berlin

1930 Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
The opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, opens in Leipzig

1933 Richard Strauss's Arabella
Arabella, by Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, is first performed four years after von Hofmannsthal's death left it incomplete

1934 Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
Dmitry Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District has its premiere in Leningrad's Maly Theatre

1934 Opera at Glyndebourne
The first opera festival at Glyndebourne, a country house in Sussex, opens with a performance of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro

1934 Björling makes operatic debut
Swedish tenor Jussi Björling makes his debut in Stockholm, in Puccini's Manon Lescaut

1934 Mathis der Maler
Paul Hindemith's opera Mathis der Maler is banned by the Nazis and is not performed until 1938 in Zurich

1935 Kirov commemorated in company name
Leningrad's opera and ballet company is renamed the Kirov, in memory of the city's recently assassinated commissar

1935 Gobbi makes debut in Gubbio
Italian baritone Tito Gobbi makes his operatic debut in Gubbio in Bellini's La Somnambula

1935 Porgy and Bess as an opera
George Gershwin's 'folk opera' Porgy and Bess, based on the novel by DuBose Heyward, opens on Broadway

1935 Berg's Lulu
Alban Berg's opera Lulu is incomplete when the composer dies

1939 Britten and Pears form creative partnership
Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears give a series of recitals in the USA at the start of a lifelong partnership

1939 Von Karajan directs Berlin State Opera
Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan becomes music director of the Berlin State Opera

1941 Maria Callas begins her career
Greek soprano Maria Callas sings her first Tosca, in the opera house in Athens

1945 Peter Grimes
Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes has its premiere in London, at the Sadler's Wells theatre

1946 Christoff makes debut in La Bohème
Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff makes his debut in Puccini's La Bohème in Reggio Calabria

1947 Mamelles de Tiresias in opera form
Francis Poulenc makes an opera of Guillaume Apollinaire's play Les Mamelles de Tirésias ('The Breasts of Tiresias')

1952 Henze's Boulevard Solitude
Hans Werner Henze's first full-length opera, Boulevard Solitude, has its premiere in Hanover

1954 Walton's Troilus and Cressida
William Walton's opera Troilus and Cressida has its premiere at Covent Garden

1955 Midsummer Marriage
Michael Tippett's first opera, A Midsummer Marriage, has its premiere at Covent Garden

1956 Henze's Stag King
Hans Werner Henze's opera The Stag King has its premiere in Berlin

1957 Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron
Arnold Schoenberg's opera Moses and Aaron, incomplete at his death, has its premiere in Zurich

1959 Joan Sutherland as Lucia
Australian soprano Joan Sutherland becomes a star overnight with her performance at Covent Garden in Lucia di Lammermoor

1960 Placido Domingo's first major role
20-year-old Spanish tenor Placido Domingo sings his first major role, as Alfredo in La Traviata in the Mexican city of Monterrey

1961 Pavarotti makes operatic debut
Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti makes his operatic debut in Reggio Emilia, as Rodolfo in La Bohème

1965 Maria Callas takes her final bow
Maria Callas gives her last performance, as Tosca at Covent Garden in London

1970 The Knot Garden
Michael Tippett's opera The Knot Garden has its premiere at Covent Garden

1972 Maxwell Davies's Taverner
Peter Maxwell Davies's opera Taverneris performed at Covent Garden

1973 Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House opens with a performance by Australian Opera of Prokofiev's War and Peace

1975 Hockney's Rake's Progress
David Hockney begins a new career as a set designer, with The Rake's Progress by Stravinksky at Glyndebourne

1981 Stockhausen's Thursday from Light
Karlheinz Stockhausen's Thursday from Light, the first of a seven-part opera cycle, is performed in Milan

1983 Messiaen's opera St Francis of Assisi
Olivier Messiaen's opera St Francis of Assisi has its premiere in Paris

1984 Luciano Berio's Un re in ascolto
Luciano Berio's opera Un re in ascolto has its premiere in Salzburg

1984 Glass's Akhnaten
The opera Akhnaten, by US composer Philip Glass, has its first performance in Stuttgart

1986 The Mask of Orpheus
Harrison Birtwistle's second opera, The Mask of Orpheus, brings him an international reputation

1986 Penderecki's Black Mask
Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki's opera The Black Mask is premiered in Salzburg

1987 Nixon in China
John Adams' opera Nixon in China is performed in Houston

1988 Mark-Anthony Turnage's Greek
English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage's first opera, Greek, is premiered in Munich