Music based on the works of Oscar Wilde
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| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Grant Foster | The Ballad of Reading Gaol | tenor and piano | 2012 | premiered in Saint Petersburg, Russia, by Andrew Goodwin and Mira Yevtich |
| 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 is a short poem, the second of the two Fantaisies Décoratives, the first being Le Panneau.| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| 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. |
The Birthday of the Infanta
Short story| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| John Alden Carpenter | The Birthday of the Infanta | ballet | 1919 | |
| Mario 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 | ballet | ||
| Elisabeth Lutyens | The Birthday of the Infanta | ballet | 1932 | |
| Miklós Radnai | Az infánsznö születésnapja | 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 | ballet-pantomime | 1923 | revised version of Der Geburtstag der Infantin, 1908 |
| Bernhard Sekles | Der Zwerg und die Infantin, Op. 22 | ballet | 1913 | |
| Alexander von Zemlinsky | Der Zwerg, Op. 17 | opera | 1919–21 | libretto by George C. Klaren based on Wilde ; 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 | ballet | 1941–42 | Zítek 1894–1955 |
The Canterville Ghost
Short story| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| George Bassman | The Canterville Ghost | film score | 1944 | |
| Alexander Knaifel | The Canterville Ghost | opera | 1966 | |
| Jaroslav Křička | Bily pan, 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, 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, published in 1899 in the collection "The City of the Soul". |
| "The Canterville Prophecy" and "The Canterville Ghost" | popular music | 2004 | Recorded by Austrian metal band Edenbridge on their 2004 album "Shine". |
De Profundis
Letter| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| 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 player |
Endymion
Poem| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Joseph Horovitz | Endymion | solo voice and chorus | 1985 | soprano and chamber choir |
E Tenebris
Poem. Included in his collection Rosa Mystica.| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Erwin Schulhoff | song | 1914 | No. 3 of Rosa Mystica, three songs to Wilde texts for alto voice and piano, Op. 15. The other two songs are Madonna mia and Requiescat. |
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.| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Sergei Prokofiev | Maddalena, Op. 13 | opera | 1 act; his own libretto, after a blank verse play by Baroness Liven, 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 is the second of the two poems in Impressions, the first being Les Silhouettes.| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Charles Griffes | song | 1912 | Griffes wrote a setting of this poem as No. 1 of his Tone-Images, Op. 3. |
The Happy Prince
Short story| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| 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 1914 |
| 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 | c. 2013 | www.mtapublishing.com |
The Harlot's House
Poem| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| 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| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Arthur Benjamin | An Ideal Husband | film score | 1947 | |
| Edison Denisov | An Ideal Husband | film score | 1980 |
The Importance of Being Earnest
Play| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Erik Chisholm | The Importance of Being Earnest | opera | 1963 | - |
| Vivian Ellis | Half in Ernest | musical | 1958 | |
| Benjamin Frankel | The Importance of Being Earnest | film score | 1952 | |
| Lee Pockriss, Anne Croswell | Ernest in Love | musical | 1960 | |
| Gerald Barry | The Importance of Being Earnest | opera | 2011 |
Impression du matin
Poem| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Charles Griffes | song | 1915 | Griffes included this song in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems. Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970. |
Impression: Le Réveillon
Poem| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Charles Griffes | Le Réveillon | song | 1914 | Griffes included this song in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems. 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| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Charles Griffes | Le Jardin | song | 1915 | Griffes included this song in his Four Impressions, all settings of Wilde poems. Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970. |
Lady Windermere's Fan
Play| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| 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| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| 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.| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Erwin Schulhoff | song | 1914 | No. 1 of Rosa Mystica, three songs to Wilde texts for alto voice and piano, Op. 15. The other two songs are "Requiescat" and "E tenebris" |
La Mer
Poem| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| 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. Four Impressions was not published until c. 1970. |
The Nightingale and the Rose
Story| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Renzo Bossi | Rosa rossa, Op. 18 | opera | 1910 | also seen as L'Usinguolo e la rosa ; one act; Bossi described it as a "poemetto lirico"; staged Turin 1938 |
| Hooper Brewster-Jones | The Nightingale and the Rose | opera | 1927 | only an orchestral suite survives |
| Elena Firsova | The Nightingale and the Rose, Op. 46 | chamber opera | to her own English libretto based partly on Wilde's story, and partly on poetry by Christina Rossetti | |
| Harold Fraser-Simson | The Nightingale and the Rose | ballet | 1927 | |
| Margaret Garwood | The Nightingale and the Rose | opera | 1973 | |
| Henry Hadley | The Nightingale and the Rose, Op. 54 | cantata | 1911 | soprano solo, SSAA chorus, orchestra; libretto by E. W. Grant; performed New York 1911 |
| Philip Hagemann | The Nightingale and the Rose | opera | 2003 | |
| Roger Hannay | The Nightingale and the Rose | stage and mixed media | 1986 | |
| Janis Kalnins | The Nightingale and the Rose | ballet | 1938 | |
| Jan Müller-Wieland | The Nightingale and the Rose | chamber opera | 1996 | 1 act; 7 singers, percussion, cello or piano, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass; staged Darmstadt 1996 |
| Bright Sheng | The Nightingale and the Rose | ballet | 2007 | - |
| Jonathan Rutherford | The Nightingale and the Rose | opera | 1966 | |
| Friedrich Voss | The Nightingale and the Rose | ballet | 1961 | staged Oberhausen 1962 |
| Saltatio Mortis | Nachtigall und Rose | Medieval metal | 2011 | |
| Aziza Mustafa Zadeh | The Nightingale & The Rose | Jazz composition | 2006 |
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Novel| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes | - |
| Boris Arapov | The Picture of Dorian Gray | ballet | 1971 | - | |
| Lowell Liebermann | The Picture of Dorian Gray | opera | 1996 | 12 scenes; libretto by Liebermann based on the novel; commissioned by Opera Monte Carlo; premiered Salle Garnier, Monaco, 8 May 1996; dedicated to Princess Caroline of Monaco; US premiere, Florentine Opera, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 5 February 1999 | - |
| W. Arundel Orchard | The Picture of Dorian Gray | opera | 3 acts; performed at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music 11 September 2019; unpublished | - | |
| Hans Schaeuble | Dorian Gray, Op. 32 | opera | - | ||
| Herbert Stothart | The Picture of Dorian Gray | film score | 1945 | - | |
| Stephen DeCesare | The Picture of Dorian Gray | musical theatre | 2005 | Published at MTA Publishing | |
| Randy Bowser | Dorian – the Remarkable Mister Gray | musical theatre | 2008 | Premiered in Salem, Oregon, in 2008; produced in Russian in Moscow, at the Stas Namin Theatre. | - |
Popular music
- Post-punk band Television Personalities recorded a song titled "A Picture of Dorian Gray" for their 1981 album ...And Don't the Kids Just Love It. The song was covered by The Futureheads on their 2003 EP 1-2-3-Nul!.
- Prog band Nirvana released a 1981 single titled "The Picture of Dorian Gray".
- "Tears And Rain" by popstar James Blunt features the line: 'Hides my true shape, like Dorian Gray' from Back to Bedlam
- The Libertines' song "Narcissist", from their 2004 album The Libertines, includes the line in the chorus, 'Wouldn't it be nice to be Dorian Gray, just for a day'.
- Demons & Wizards recorded a song entitled "Dorian" on their 2005 album Touched by the Crimson King.
- Kill Hannah's song "Scream", from their 2006 album Until There's Nothing Left of Us, includes the line, 'Enacting Sybil Vane in some tragic play'.
- Styx's song "Sing for the Day" references the titular character with the line, 'ageless and timeless as Dorian Gray'.
- William Control titled a track on their 2010 album Noir after the protagonist
- "Ballad of Dorian Gray", a song by Michael Peter Smith
- "The Picture of Dorian Gray", a song by Cherry Five
- "Portrait", a song by Alt-J
- "Vincent", a song by Don McLean references Wilde's story "The Nightingale and the Rose" with the line "A silver thorn, a bloody rose".
- Gothic metal band Pyogenesis recorded a song titled "I Have Seen My Soul" based on the novel for their 2017 album "A Kingdom to Disappear"
- Doom metal band Pagan Altar recorded a song titled "The Portrait Of Dorian Gray" inspired by the novel for their album "A Room of Shadows" in 2017.
Requiescat
Poem, included in his collection Rosa Mystica. Requiescat was written at Avignon seven years after his sister, Isola, died, less than two months before her 10th birthday. Wilde was 12 at the time of her death.| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| George Butterworth | Requiescat | song | 1911 | |
| Luigi Dallapiccola | Requiescat | choral | Chorus and orchestra; the text includes Wilde's poem as well as words taken from the Gospel of Matthew and James Joyce | |
| Otto Luening | Requiscat | song | 1917 | |
| Requiescat | song | 1932 | ||
| Ned Rorem | Requiescat | vocal | 1997 | Set for SATB and piano; Evidence of Things Not Seen is a cycle of 36 songs to texts by 24 authors, and includes solos, duos, trios and quartets; Requiescat is No. 8 of the "Middles" section of the cycle; the other songs include texts by W. H. Auden, Charles Baudelaire, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Colette, Stephen Crane, Paul Goodman, A. E. Housman, Langston Hughes, Rudyard Kipling, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Theodore Roethke, John Waldman, Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth and others; premiered Carnegie Hall, January 1998 |
| Erwin Schulhoff | Requiescat, | song | 1914 | Set to German words ; No. 2 of Rosa Mystica, three songs to Wilde texts for alto voice and piano, Op. 15. The other two songs are Madonna mia and E tenebris |
| David Van Vactor | Requiescat | song | 1932 | |
| Raymond Wilding-White | Requiescat |
La Sainte Courtisane
Play| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| La sainte courtisane | musical scene | 1930 | 4 speakers and chamber orchestra; premiered Dessau, 24 October 1930 |
Salome
Play| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Henry Hadley | 1905 | this was written after Hadley had seen a production of Oscar Wilde's play, and was a favourite among his own compositions | ||
| Richard Strauss | Salome, Op. 54 | opera | 1905 | trans. Hedwig Lachmann; premiered Dresden 1905. This opera is by far the best known musical adaptation of a work of Oscar Wilde. |
| Salomé | opera | 1905 | premiered 1908; he was involved in a debate with Richard Strauss to prove that his music was written earlier than Strauss's version, also written in 1905 |
The Selfish Giant
Short story| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Eric Coates | The Selfish Giant – A Phantasy | orchestra | 1925 | |
| Dan Goeller | The Selfish Giant | orchestra | 2011 | Official website Children's book/CD, with illustrations by Chris Beatrice |
| Jenő Hubay | Az önző óriás, Op. 124 | opera | 1934 | 1 act; libretto by László Márkus and Jenő Mohácsi after the story by Wilde |
| Graeme Koehne | The Selfish Giant | ballet | 1983 | choreography by Graeme Murphy |
| Jim and Dee Patton | The Selfish Giant | Rock opera | 2008 | Official website Performed by Bongo and the Point |
| Stephen DeCesare | The Selfish Giant | Musical theatre | 2010 | Published by MTA Publishing |
Sonnet on hearing the ''Dies Irae'' sung in the Sistine Chapel
Poem| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Malcolm Williamson | Sonnet: On hearing the Dies Irae sung in the Sistine Chapel | chorus a cappella | c. 1969 |
The Sphinx
Poem| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Granville Bantock | The Sphinx | song cycle | 1941 | for baritone or contralto with orchestra |
| Alexander Mosolov | The Sphinx | cantata | 1925 | set to a Russian translation of Wilde's poem as a graduation exercise |
Symphony in Yellow
Poem| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Charles Griffes | song | 1912 | Griffes wrote a setting of this in c. 1912, as No. 2 of his Tone-Images, Op. 3. |
Poisoned Youth
Song| Composer | Title | Genre | Year | Notes |
| England : Martin Henderson, Frank Holland, Jode Leigh, Robert Webb | Poisoned Youth | Progressive Rock | 1977 | From the album "Garden Shed" |
Unclassified
| Composer | Title | Genre | Date | Notes |
| Pierre Capdevielle | Deux Apologues d'Oscar Wilde | recitation for voice and orchestra | 1930–32 | |
| Francis George Scott | Idyll | song | unpublished |