This is an incomplete list of music based on the works of Oscar Wilde.
Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet, novelist, short story writer and wit, whose works have been the basis of a considerable number of musical works by noted composers. In classical genres, these include operas, ballets, incidental music, symphonic poems, orchestral suites and single pieces, cantatas, and songs and song cycles. Of more recent times, some have been the subject of musicals and film scores. Some are direct settings of Wilde's words or librettos based on them, and some are wordless settings inspired by his writings.
List of works The works of Oscar Wilde that have been set to music include:
The Ballad of Reading Gaol Poem
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Grant Foster The Ballad of Reading Gaol tenor and piano 2012 premiered in Saint Petersburg, Russia, by Andrew Goodwin and Mira Yevtich"Backstage with Andrew Goodwin", Limelight, February 2013, p. 24 Gavin Friday, Maurice Seezer Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves song 1989 Jacques Ibert La Ballade de la geôle de Reading ballet 1920 published in a version by Ibert for piano duet in 1924 King Charles Wilde Love song 2012 Off the Loveblood CD, the song contains several verses from the poem in the chorus Donald Swann The Poetic Image: A Victorian Song Cycle song cycle 1991 Swann set certain parts of the Ballad, along with The Harlot's House and other texts by Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, and John Clare Arthur Wills The Sacrifice of God choral 1986 4-part choir and organ; words from Psalm 51 and The Ballad of Reading Gaol; composed on the death of the composer's young niece Henri Zagwijn declamation with music in Dutch Pete Doherty quotes the stanza beginning with "I never saw a man who looked/with such a wistful eye" in Broken Love Song on his solo album Grace/Wastelands.
Les Ballons Les Ballons (The Balloons) is a short poem, the second of the two Fantaisies Décoratives, the first being Le Panneau (The Panel).
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Charles Tomlinson Griffes Les Ballons song c. 1912 Griffes composed a song to this text in c. 1912, revising it in 1915. It was published in 1986.Mad, Scarlet Music
The Birthday of the Infanta Short story
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes John Alden Carpenter The Birthday of the Infanta ballet 1919Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco The Birthday of the Infanta, Op. 115 ballet 1942 premiered New Orleans, 1947; an orchestral suite was produced in 1944 Wolfgang Fortner Die weisse Rose (The White Rose) ballet Elisabeth Lutyens The Birthday of the Infanta ballet 1932 Miklós Radnai Az infánsznö születésnapja (The Birthday of the Infanta) ballet 1918 premiered Budapest Opera House, 26 April 1918 Franz Schreker Der Geburtstag der Infantin ballet-pantomime 1908 rev. as Spanisches Fest, 1923 Franz Schreker Spanisches Fest (Spanish Festival) ballet-pantomime 1923 revised version of Der Geburtstag der Infantin, 1908 Bernhard Sekles Der Zwerg und die Infantin (The Dwarf and the Infanta), Op. 22 ballet 1913 Alexander von Zemlinsky Der Zwerg (The Dwarf), Op. 17 opera 1919–21 libretto by George C. Klaren based on Wilde (although he took many liberties); premiered Neues Theater, Cologne, 28 May 1922, conducted by Otto Klemperer; in 1981 a new production by director Adolf Dresen was staged in Hamburg – this did away with Klaren's textual changes and was presented as Der Geburtstag der Infantin Otakar Zítek O růzi (On the Rose) ballet 1941–42 Zítek 1894–1955
The Canterville Ghost Short story (1887)
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes George Bassman The Canterville Ghost film score 1944 Alexander Knaifel The Canterville Ghost opera 1966 Jaroslav Křička Bily pan (The Gentleman in White), Op. 30 opera 2 acts, with libretto by Jan Löwenbach-Budin; a 3-act version Spuk im Schloss was produced in 1931 Jaroslav Křička Spuk im Schloss, oder Böse Zeiten fur Gespenster opera 1931 3 acts; a revised version of his 2-act 1929 opera Bily pan Heinrich Sutermeister television opera 1964 telecast by ZDF, Mainz Sergei Vasilenko The Garden of Death ("after Oscar Wilde"), Op. 13 symphonic poem 1907–08 Vasilenko's title is sometimes said to have come from one of Wilde's poems, but he wrote no such poem. It comes from a passage in Chapter V of The Canterville Ghost where the character Virginia is speaking with the eponymous ghost and asks it where it sleeps. It talks about a certain garden. She whispers: You mean the Garden of Death, and it answers, Yes, Death. Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, whom he did not meet until 1891, later used The Garden of Death as the title of one of his own sonnets,Text of Lord Alfred Douglas's poem The Garden of Death published in 1899 in the collection "The City of the Soul". "The Canterville Prophecy" (instrumental) and "The Canterville Ghost" popular music 2004 Recorded by Austrian metal band Edenbridge on their 2004 album "Shine".
De Profundis Letter
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Frederic Rzewski De Profundis speaking pianist 1992 The pianist speaks and sings excerpts from Wilde's letter Larry Sitsky De Profundis. Epistola: in Carcere et Vinculus monodrama c. 1982 Wilde's words arranged into a libretto by Gwen Harwood; for baritone, two string quartets and one percussion playerState Library of Queensland
Endymion Poem
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Joseph Horovitz Endymion solo voice and chorus 1985 soprano and chamber choir
E Tenebris Poem. Included in his collection Rosa Mystica.
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Erwin Schulhoff song 1914 No. 3 of Rosa Mystica, three songs to Wilde texts for alto voice and piano, Op. 15 (WV 33). The other two songs are Madonna mia (No. 1) and Requiescat (No. 2).
A Florentine Tragedy Blank verse play. Premiered not in England, but at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, 12 January 1906, in a German translation by Max Meyerfeld. The London premiere was on 10 June 1906.
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Sergei Prokofiev Maddalena, Op. 13 opera 1 act; his own libretto, after a blank verse play by Baroness Liven (Magda Gustavovna Liven-Orlova), which was based on Wilde's play; composed 1911, partly orchestrated 1912, revised 1913; never performed in Prokofiev's lifetime, despite some attempts; his widow Lina asked Edward Downes to complete it in 1976; concert reading, Manchester, 22 December 1978, under Downes, for a BBC radio broadcast on 25 March 1979; premiere stage performance Graz Opernhouse, 28 November 1981 , Op. 16 opera 1915–16 trans. Max Meyerfeld; premiered Stuttgart 30 January 1917, conducted by Max von Schillings; it was the fifth and most successful of Zemlinsky's seven completed operas and is among the key works of his oeuvre
La Fuite de la Lune La Fuite de la Lune (The Flight of the Moon) is the second of the two poems in Impressions, the first being Les Silhouettes.
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Charles Griffes song 1912 Griffes wrote a setting of this poem as No. 1 of his Tone-Images, Op. 3 (No. 2 was also a Wilde setting, Symphony in Yellow; and No. 3 was a poem by W. E. Henley).
The Happy Prince Short story
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Renzo Bossi Il Principe felice, Op. 52 radio opera 1950 1 act; broadcast 11 October 1951, RAI; libretto by Bossi after Wilde Henry Hadley The Golden Prince, Op. 69 cantata 1914 Soprano, baritone, SSAA chorus, orchestra; libretto by D. Stevens after Wilde; presented New York 1914Oscholars: Henry Hadley Bernard Herrmann The Happy Prince music for a narration 1945 for a recording of the story spoken by Bing Crosby and Orson Welles, with an orchestra conducted by Victor Young Malcolm Williamson The Happy Prince opera c. 1965 1 act; libretto adapted by the composer Luis de Arquer The Happy Prince Piano- Music for a Journey c. 2000 Stephen DeCesare The Happy Prince Musical Theatre (published at MTA Publishing) c. 2013 www.mtapublishing.com
The Harlot's House Poem
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes The Harlot's House – Dance Poem after Oscar Wilde chamber 1988 Free-bass accordion, timpani and percussion Donald Swann The Poetic Image: A Victorian Song Cycle song cycle 1991 Swann set The Harlot's House, along with extracts from The Ballad of Reading Gaol and other texts by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Christina Rossetti, and John Clare
An Ideal Husband Play
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Arthur Benjamin An Ideal Husband film score 1947 Edison Denisov An Ideal Husband film score 1980
The Importance of Being Earnest Play
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotesErik ChisholmThe Importance of Being Earnestopera 1963 Vivian Ellis Half in Ernest musical 1958 Benjamin Frankel The Importance of Being Earnest film score 1952 Lee Pockriss, Anne CroswellErnest in Love musical 1960 Gerald Barry The Importance of Being Earnest opera 2011
Impression du matin Poem
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Charles Griffes song 1915 Griffes included this song in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems (the other three were La Mer, Le Jardin, and Impression: Le Réveillon, which he set as Le Réveillon). Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970.
Impression: Le Réveillon Poem
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Charles Griffes Le Réveillon song 1914 Griffes included this song in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems (the other three were La Mer, Le Jardin, and Impression du matin). Griffes altered the last line of the poem, changing the word "streaked" to "flushed". Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970.
Le Jardin Poem
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Charles Griffes Le Jardin song 1915 Griffes included this song in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems (the other three were La Mer, Impression du matin, and Impression: Le Réveillon, which he set as Le Réveillon). Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970.
Lady Windermere's Fan Play
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Noël Coward After the Ball play with music 1954 play adapted by Coward, who also wrote the music
Lord Arthur Savile's Crime Short story
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Geoffrey Bush Lord Arthur Savile's Crime opera 1972 premiered London, Guildhall School of Music, 5 December 1972 Edwin Carr Lord Arthur Savile's Crime opera 1991 1 act, 8 scenes Alexandre Tansman Flesh and Fantasy film score 1943 only the 2nd part of the 3-part film is based on Wilde's story
Madonna mia Poem. Included in his collection Rosa Mystica.
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Erwin Schulhoff song 1914 No. 1 of Rosa Mystica, three songs to Wilde texts for alto voice and piano, Op. 15 (WV 33). The other two songs are "Requiescat" (No. 2) and "E tenebris" (No. 3)
La Mer Poem
ComposerTitleGenreDateNotes Charles Griffes La Mer song 1916 Griffes first sketched La Mer on 29 October 1912. After its publication was rejected by Schirmers, he wrote an entirely new setting in August 1916. It was included in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems (the other three were Le Jardin, Impression du matin, and Impression: Le Réveillon, which he set as Le Réveillon). Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970.
The Nightingale and the Rose Story