October 20 — On This Day in Opera

World premiere of Richard Wagner's opera "Rienzi" at the Royal Saxon Court Theatre in Dresden. Its enthusiastic reception marked Wagner's first major operatic success.

First documented London performance in English of Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto" at Covent Garden, an important example of opera being presented in translation to British audiences.

German premieres of Ferruccio Busoni's operas "Turandot" and "Arlecchino" at the Frankfurt Opera, presented as a double bill under conductor Gustav Brecher. Both works had previously premiered in Zurich.

Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Sydney Opera House, designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon. The landmark became one of the world's most recognizable performing-arts venues. Its first staged opera, Prokofiev's "War and Peace", had been presented the previous month.

The Royal Opera at Covent Garden presented its company premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich's satirical opera "The Nose", in a production directed by Barrie Kosky and conducted by Ingo Metzmacher.

World premiere of Jake Heggie's opera "Intelligence" at Houston Grand Opera. With a libretto by Gene Scheer, the work explores the Civil War espionage activities of Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Jane Bowser and was developed in collaboration with Urban Bush Women.

German dramatic mezzo-soprano Waltraud Meier gave her final opera performance, portraying Klytämnestra in Richard Strauss's "Elektra" at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, bringing her distinguished operatic stage career to a close.

Death of Irish composer Michael William Balfe at Rowney Abbey, Hertfordshire. His best-known opera, "The Bohemian Girl", became one of the most internationally successful British operas of the nineteenth century.

Birth of Australian operatic contralto Lauris Elms in Springvale, Melbourne. She later performed at London's Royal Opera House and became a leading contralto with the Australian Opera.

Death of Russian contralto Evgenia Zbrueva in Moscow. A prominent soloist of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres, she created the role of Alkonost in Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya".

Birth of Croatian operatic soprano and mezzo-soprano Dunja Vejzović in Zagreb. She became internationally known for Wagnerian roles, particularly Kundry in "Parsifal", and performed at Bayreuth, Salzburg, and the Metropolitan Opera.

Death of German operatic soprano Emmy Bettendorf in Berlin. Celebrated for her lyrical and dramatic repertoire, including Wagner's "Lohengrin" and Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro", she also left an important legacy of early recordings.

Death of American lyric soprano Jean Fenn in Poulsbo, Washington. A regular performer at the Metropolitan Opera between 1953 and 1970, she was particularly admired in roles from Puccini, Massenet, and Gounod.