Timing Table

Some twenty years ago, I constructed a table of timing required for the operas being performed at the Metropolitan. Now there are few things in art as variable as those times. Whole Acts are dropped, split or merged; scenes are added and displaced at the director's whim; and revised versions offer alternatives of even more spectacular variety (we need not mention Don Carlos/Don Carlo in that context, need we?). Still it provides a rough guide, particularly when the warning in the Comments field is taken into account.

I will be delighted if you e-mail me with comments, new entries or corrections. Note that I cannot satisfy everyone.

Composer

Title

Timings

Comments
Barber Vanessa 48 19 53  
Beethoven Fidelio 68 57  
Bellini Capuletti e i Montecchi 80 54  
Bellini Norma 63 27 24 43 Varying number of Acts
Bellini Sonnambula 56 23 47  
Berg Wozzeck 100  
Berlioz Troyens 85 91 43  
Bizet Carmen 54 44 38 23  
Boito Mefistofele 59 56 41  
Britten Billy Budd 81 80 Acts I,II ; III, IV
Cilea Adriana Lecouvreur 36 32 28 34  
Debussy Pelleas et Melisande 30 29 33 39 24  
Donizetti Don Pasquale 38 30 35  
Donizetti Elisir d'Amore 63 48  
Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor 38 30 40 Variable
Giordano Andrea Chenier 31 29 43 17  
Gounod Faust 47 47 80  
Humperdinck Hänsel und Gretel 40 21 42  
Leoncavallo Pagliacci 49 25 Without break, ~70
Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana 70  
Massenet Manon 33 26 44 29  
Menotti The Medium 65  
Mozart Cosi fan Tutte 80 64  
Mozart Don Giovanni 88 82  
Mozart Entführung aus dem Serail 40 60 40 Timing depends on dialogue
Mozart Nozze di Figaro 42 44 39 30  
Mozart Zauberflöte 72 85 Timing depends on dialogue
Mussorgsky Boris Godounov 57 51 46 As variable as the spelling!
Mussorgsky Khovanshchina 40 56 58  
Offenbach Contes d'Hoffmann 25 37 25 46 Acts wander - caution
Offenbach Perichole 49 40 45  
Ponchielli Gioconda 49 37 37 33  
Poulenc La voix humaine 43  
Prokofiev War and Peace 110 132  
Puccini Boheme 35 17 24 27 Acts I, II often combined
Puccini Fanciulla del West 56 43 26  
Puccini Madama Butterfly 48 49 52 Acts II, III sometimes combined
Puccini Manon Lescaut 35 40 21 20  
Puccini Suor Angelica 53  
Puccini Tosca 43 42 26  
Puccini Turandot 32 43 37  
Rossini Barbiere di Siviglia 38 50 44 Act I split here - now uncommon
Rossini Italiana in Algeri 76 72  
Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila 46 40 35  
Shostakovich Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk 48 73 34  
Smetana Bartered Bride 51 35 51  
Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos 40 83  
Strauss Elektra 110  
Strauss Frau ohne Schatten 62 54 54  
Strauss Frau ohne Schatten 74 71 77 uncut - Met 2002
Strauss Rosenkavalier 69 54 59  
Strauss Salome 89  
Strauss, J. Fledermaus 48 54 42 Act II may extend with gala
Stravinsky The Rake's Progress 47 46 64  
Tchaikowsky Eugene Onegin 74 46 40  
Tchaikowsky Queen of Spades 49 42 39 64 56 44 in another production
Verdi Aida 39 40 30 31  
Verdi Attila 75 43  
Verdi Ballo in Maschera 52 56 24  
Verdi Don Carlo 55 32 48 20 Highly variable in all respects
Verdi Ernani 37 27 22 15  
Verdi Falstaff 30 41 43  
Verdi Forza del Destino 59 51 35  
Verdi Macbeth 52 32 18 45  
Verdi Nabucco 41 31 56  
Verdi Otello 33 35 36 33  
Verdi Rigoletto 15 40 29 32 Act I split here is now rare
Verdi Simon Boccanegra 26 30 28 37  
Verdi Traviata 28 34 20 28 Act II split here is now rare
Verdi Trovatore 27 42 14 37  
Verdi Vespri Siciliani 62 31 60  
Wagner Fliegende Holländer 47 56 24 May be done in one Act
Wagner Götterdämmerung 103 57 73  
Wagner Lohengrin 65 68 50  
Wagner Meistersinger 92 53 103  
Wagner Parsifal 104 62 69 108 71 76 in another production
Wagner Rheingold 146  
Wagner Siegfried 80 80 100  
Wagner Tannhäuser 66 62 51  
Wagner Tristan und Isolde 73 60 62 Without cuts: 83 78 80
Wagner Walküre 64 85 64  

A footnote: Among the recommendable sources for additional information are the 1952 standby HANDBUCH DES OPERN-REPERTOIRES, edited by George Lessing; and the book OPERA PRODUCTION by Quaintance Eaton (1961).

Mail me at operas@mrichter.com
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