The soldier Wozzeck is shaving the Captain. The officer urges him to work more slowly, then tells him that he is a good man but lacks morality because he has an illegitimate child. Wozzeck replies that virtue is a luxury not meant for the poor.

Wozzeck and a fellow soldier, Andres, are cutting firewood in the fields. Wozzeck is frightened by visions: he hears noises and imagines the sinking sun as a fire setting the earth aflame. Then suddenly all is quiet.

Marie, the mother of Wozzeck’s child, and her neighbor Margret watch a military band pass by outside their window. Marie admires the handsome Drum Major and Margret mocks her. Alone with her young son, Marie sings him a lullaby. Wozzeck arrives and tells her about his visions, which he sees as an omen of evil things to come. Marie tries to comfort him, but he rushes off to the barracks without looking at his son. Overwhelmed by her own fears, Marie runs out of the room, leaving the child.

Wozzeck visits the Doctor, who pays him for use in his pseudo-scientific research. Full of self-delusion about making a grand scientific discovery, the Doctor asks Wozzeck about his diet. Wozzeck again brings up his visions, which the doctor dismisses as mere imagination.

On the street before her door, the Drum Major makes advances toward Marie.

She resists at first, then gives in to him.

ACT II

Marie is admiring the earrings the Drum Major has given her. When Wozzeck enters, she tries to hide them, then claims she found them in the street. Wozzeck is suspicious. He gives her the money he has earned and leaves. Marie is overwhelmed by remorse.

The Captain and the Doctor meet in the street and talk morbidly of sickness and death. When Wozzeck passes by, they taunt him with allusions to Marie’s infidelity. Shocked, Wozzeck asks them not to make fun of the one thing in the world that is his. Then he rushes off.

Wozzeck confronts Marie with his suspicions and tries to force her to confess. He

is about to hit her but she remains defiant, telling him that she’d rather have a knife in her belly than his hand on her.

Two drunken apprentices amuse the crowd in a beer garden. Wozzeck enters and sees Marie and the Drum Major on the dance floor. A fool approaches Wozzeck and tells him he smells blood. Wozzeck has a vision of people waltzing while covered with blood.

The same evening in the barracks, Wozzeck wakes to nightmarish memories of what happened in the beer garden. The Drum Major enters, drunk, and boasts about his conquest. The two men fight and Wozzeck is knocked down.

ACT III

Alone with her child, Marie reads from the Bible, first about the adulteress who was forgiven, then about Mary Magdalene. She begs God for mercy.

Marie and Wozzeck are walking together near a pond. Marie wants to hurry back to town, but Wozzeck makes her sit with him. He kisses her and makes ironic remarks about her fidelity. When she attempts to escape, he draws a knife and kills her.

Wozzeck is drinking in a tavern, shouting wildly, and dancing with Margret. When she notices blood on his arm, he is unable to explain where it has come from and rushes out.

At the pond, Wozzeck searches for the knife and throws it into the water. Suddenly he imagines that the moon will reveal his crime. He wades farther into the water to hide the knife in a safer place and to wash the blood off his hands. The Doctor and Captain, passing by, hear him drown.

Neighbor children playing in the street tell Marie’s son that his mother is dead. He does not understand and keeps singing and playing.

Catfish Row, a tenement neighborhood of Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1920s. The inhabitants of Catfish Row are relaxing after a day’s work. Clara sings a lullaby to her baby. The drug-dealer Sportin’ Life, Clara’s husband Jake, and some of the other men are playing craps under the disapproving eye of the religious Serena. Jake sings a lullaby of his own to the baby.

The disabled beggar Porgy arrives and is about to join the game when Crown and his partner Bess appear. The loudmouthed Crown joins the dice game. Drunk and high on drugs, he loses, starts a fight, and kills Robbins with a cotton hook. Before the police arrive, Crown runs off to hide, telling Bess that he’ll be back for her. The community shuns Bess as they await the arrival of the police. Sportin’ Life offers to take her to New York with him, but she refuses. Only Porgy is sympathetic to her: He offers her shelter and his protection, which she accepts.

In her room the following evening, Robbins’s widow Serena leads the mourners at her husband’s funeral. A collection is being taken to meet the cost of the burial. Porgy and Bess enter, and Bess offers Serena a contribution which at first she refuses thinking it must be Crown’s money. She finally accepts is when it is explained that it is Porgy’s.

The police officers arrive and accuse Peter the Honeyman of the murder. Fearing what might happen, he tells them that Crown was responsible but is himself promptly arrested as a material witness.

Serena convinces the undertaker to bury Robbins for less than his usual fee. Bess leads everyone in an exultant spiritual.

A month later, Jake and the other fishermen are mending their nets. Porgy compares his life to theirs. Sportin’ Life enters, but before he has an opportunity to peddle any of his “happy dust,” Maria, the matriarch of Catfish Row, chases him away. “Lawyer” Frazier sells Bess a divorce, even though she and Crown were never married.

Everyone is preparing to leave for a church picnic on Kittiwah Island. Sportin’ Life asks Bess again to come to New York with him and tries to give her more dope, which she refuses. Porgy threatens him and chases him off. He and Bess reflect on their newfound happiness. Porgy insists that Bess should go to the picnic without him. At first, she refuses, not wanting to leave him alone, but eventually, she yields to his persuasion and joins the others as they set off.

On Kittiwah Island, the evening of the same day, Sportin’ Life describes his own cynical view of religion to some of the revelers, until Serena chastises them for being taken in by his stories. The steamboat whistle announces that its time to leave, and everyone starts to pack up their belongings. Bess hurries along until Crown, who has been hiding on the island since the Robbins murder, calls out to her. He wants Bess to come with him, but she explains that she now has a new life with Porgy. Crown forces her to stay with him.

ACT II

In Catfish Row, at dawn a week later, fishermen leave for a day’s work at sea despite a storm warning. Bess is heard talking deliriously from Porgy’s room. She has been feverish and ill since returning from Kittiwah Island. Peter, released from police custody that morning, advises Porgy to take her to hospital, but Serena would rather pray for her recovery. Her prayers are answered: Bess emerges into the courtyard, free of the fever. She explains to Porgy that she wants to stay with him but that when Crown returns, she’ll be forced to go back to him. Porgy tells her that she doesn’t have to go with Crown, and he and Bess reaffirm their love for each other. The wind begins to rise and the hurricane bell sounds.

At dawn the following day, everyone cowers together in Serena’s room, and they pray for deliverance from the storm. Suddenly, there’s a knock at the door: It’s Crown seeking shelter and looking for Bess. She won’t go with him, insisting that she belongs to Porgy alone. He mocks Porgy and the frightened townspeople and counteracts their prayers for deliverance with a vulgar song. At the storm’s height, Clara sees Jake’s boat has overturned and rushes out to save her husband. Bess calls for one of the men to go after her. Crown is the only one to respond.

In Catfish Row the following night, the storm has passed. The women grieve for those who have been lost, including Jake, Clara and, it is assumed, Crown. Sportin’ Life appears, mocks their weeping, and hints that Crown is still alive. Bess is seen at a window lulling Clara’s baby to sleep. Under the cover of darkness, Crown steals in and approaches Porgy’s door. But Porgy is ready for him, strikes the first blow, and kills him.

The next afternoon, the detective returns to Catfish Row, accompanied by the coroner. They are investigating Crown’s murder, but their questioning of Serena and two other women draws a blank. They go to Porgy’s room and tell him he must come with them and identify Crown’s body. Horrified that he must look at Crown’s face, Porgy refuses to go and has to be dragged off.

Taking advantage of Porgy’s absence, Sportin’ Life tries to convince Bess that Porgy will be locked up for certain, and he attempts to lure her away to a new life. When Bess spurns him, he forces some dope on her and leaves more outside her door as he leaves.

A week later, the inhabitants of Catfish Row greet each other at the beginning of another day. Porgy returns from jail in jubilant mood: He distributes gifts that he has bought with money he won playing games of crap in jail. He is unaware of his friends’ discomfort as he calls out for Bess. Eventually, Serena and Maria tell him that Bess has gone to New York with Sportin’ Life. Hearing this, Porgy decides to follow her: He cannot live without Bess.

When Agrippina, wife of the Roman emperor Claudio, receives news of her husband’s death, she wastes no time in ensuring that Nerone, her son by a previous marriage, succeeds him. Prepared to go to any lengths to achieve her ends, she sends separately for Pallante and Narciso, of whose passion for her she is fully aware. She promises each of them in turn that she will reciprocate their love if they will proclaim Nerone as Claudio’s successor.

Her scheme is thwarted when Claudio’s servant Lesbo announces that the emperor’s life has been saved by Ottone, the commander of the army. When Ottone reaches the city, he declares that Claudio has rewarded his bravery by nominating him as his successor; but in a private conversation with Agrippina, he reveals that he loves Poppea more than the throne.

Agrippina now devises a fresh intrigue to secure the throne for Nerone. Aware that Claudio also desires Poppea, Agrippina tells Poppea that Ottone has betrayed her by yielding her to Claudio in exchange for the imperial throne. Agrippina suggests that, to avenge herself, Poppea must make Claudio jealous and convince him that Ottone, emboldened by his new status, has ordered Poppea to refuse Claudio and return to him: For this, the emperor will punish Ottone. When Claudio arrives, Poppea executes Agrippina’s plan.

Having discovered that Agrippina has deceived them, Pallante and Narciso decide to form an alliance. Ottone enters, apprehensive about the imminent public celebrations. The imperial family arrives, and when Ottone approaches the emperor, Claudio accuses him of treachery. To his increasing dismay, Ottone is shunned by Agrippina, Nerone, and Poppea.

PART II

Poppea begins to doubt Ottone’s guilt. Seeing him approach, she hides. When he sees her, she reveals to him what Agrippina told her. Ottone protests his innocence. Realizing that she has been a pawn in Agrippina’s plans, Poppea swears to be avenged and hatches a plot involving both Claudio and Nerone, who also desires her.

Ever ambitious, Agrippina has been plotting further to make Nerone emperor. First, she commands Pallante to murder Ottone and Narciso. Then, she asks Narciso to murder Ottone and Pallante. She tells Claudio that Ottone is seeking revenge on him for the loss of the succession and persuades him to suppress Ottone’s dissent by declaring Nerone as heir. Impatient to be with Poppea, Claudio agrees.

Poppea enacts her plan for revenge. She hides Ottone, telling him not to be jealous because of anything he overhears. Nerone arrives, eager to make love to Poppea, but she pretends that Agrippina is expected at any moment and he must therefore hide. Claudio enters, and Poppea complains that he does not truly love her. He reminds her of all that he has done for her, including Ottone’s punishment. At this, Poppea claims that he misunderstood her: It was Nerone, not Ottone, who constantly harassed her. Having hidden Claudio, Poppea calls to Nerone, who resumes his amorous pursuit of her; but Claudio interrupts and dismisses him. Poppea frees herself of Claudio on a pretext, and she and Ottone swear their eternal love.

Nerone recounts his disgrace to Agrippina and begs her to protect him from Claudio’s rage. Dismayed by all the treachery, Pallante and Narciso reveal Agrippina’s conspiracy to the emperor. When confronted by Claudio, Agrippina realizes that her schemes are now in jeopardy. She claims that she acted only in Rome’s best interests and accuses him of paying undue attention to Poppea. When Agrippina reveals that Ottone loves Poppea, Claudio lays the blame for his actions on Nerone, whom he commands to marry Poppea, and names Ottone as his successor. But Ottone renounces the throne in order to reclaim Poppea. Endorsing this exchange, Claudio nominates Nerone as his heir. Agrippina’s ambition for her son has finally come to fruition.

The Norwegian coast, 19th century. A storm has driven Daland’s ship several miles from his home. Sending his crew off to rest, he leaves the watch in charge of a young steersman, who falls asleep as he sings about his girl. A ghostly schooner drops anchor next to Daland’s ship. Its captain steps ashore and, with increasing despair, reflects on his fate: once every seven years he may leave his ship to find a wife. If she is faithful, she will redeem him from his deathless wandering. If not, he is condemned to sail the ocean until Judgment Day. Daland discovers the phantom ship, and the stranger, who introduces himself as “a Dutchman,” tells him of his plight. The Dutchman offers gold and jewels for a night’s lodging, and when he learns that Daland has a daughter, asks for her hand in marriage. Happy to have found a rich son-in-law, Daland agrees and sets sail for home.

ACT II

Daland’s daughter, Senta, is captivated by the portrait of a pale man in black—the Flying Dutchman. Her friends, working under the watchful eye of Mary, Senta’s nurse, tease Senta about her suitor, Erik, who is a hunter, not a sailor. When the superstitious Mary refuses to sing a ballad about the Dutchman, Senta sings it herself. The song reveals that the Dutchman’s curse was put on him for a blasphemous oath. To everyone’s horror, Senta suddenly declares that she will be the woman to save him. Erik enters with news of the sailors’ return. Alone with Senta, he reminds her of her father’s wish to find her a husband and asks her to plead his cause, but she remains distant. Realizing how much the Dutchman’s picture means to her, he tells her of a frightening dream in which he saw her embrace the Dutchman and sail away on his ship. Senta declares that this is what she must do, and Erik rushes off in despair. A moment later, the Dutchman enters. Senta stands transfixed. Daland follows and asks his daughter to welcome the stranger, whom he has brought to be her husband. Daland leaves, and the Dutchman, who is equally moved by the meeting, asks Senta if she will accept him. Unaware that she realizes who he is, he warns her of making a rash decision, but she vows to be faithful to him unto death. Daland is overjoyed to learn that his daughter has accepted the suitor.

ACT III

At the harbor, the villagers celebrate the sailors’ return. Baffled by the strange silence aboard the Dutchman’s ship, they call out to the crew, inviting them to join the festivities. Suddenly the ghostly sailors appear, mocking their captain’s quest in hollow chanting. The villagers flee in terror. Quiet returns and Senta appears, followed by the distressed Erik. He pleads with her not to marry the Dutchman since she has already pledged her love to him. The Dutchman, who has overheard them, lets go of all hope and boards his ship. When Senta tries to stop him, he explains she will escape damnation—the fate of those who betray him—only because she has not yet proclaimed her vows before God. He reveals his identity and Senta ecstatically replies that she knows who he is. As his ship pulls away, she throws herself into the sea, faithful unto death.

Rome, June 1800. Cesare Angelotti, an escaped political prisoner, rushes into the Church of Sant’Andrea della Valle. After finding the key his sister has hidden for him, he hides in his family’s private chapel. Soon, the painter Mario Cavaradossi arrives to work on his portrait of Mary Magdalene. The painting has been inspired by Angelotti’s sister, the Marchesa Attavanti, whom Cavaradossi had seen praying in the church. Angelotti, who was a member of the former Bonapartiste government, emerges from his hiding place. Cavaradossi recognizes him and promises help, then hurries him back into the chapel as the singer Floria Tosca, his lover, calls from outside. When he lets her into the church, she jealously asks Cavaradossi to whom he has been talking and reminds him of their rendezvous that evening. Suddenly recognizing the Marchesa Attavanti in the painting, she accuses him of being unfaithful, but he assures her of his love. When Tosca has left, Angelotti again comes out of hiding. A cannon signals that the police have discovered the escape, and he and Cavaradossi flee to the painter’s home. The sacristan enters with choirboys who are preparing to sing in a Te Deum celebrating the recent victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Marengo. At the height of their excitement, Baron Scarpia, chief of the secret police, arrives, searching for Angelotti. When Tosca comes back looking for Cavaradossi, Scarpia shows her a fan with the Attavanti crest that he has just found. Seemingly confirming her suspicions about her lover’s infidelity, Tosca is devastated. She vows vengeance and leaves as the church fills with worshippers. Scarpia sends his men to follow her to Cavaradossi, with whom he thinks Angelotti is hiding. While the congregation intones the Te Deum, Scarpia declares that he will bend Tosca to his will.

ACT II

That evening in his chambers in the Palazzo Farnese, Scarpia anticipates the pleasure of having Tosca in his power. The spy Spoletta arrives with news that he was unable to find Angelotti. Instead, he brings in Cavaradossi. Scarpia interrogates the defiant painter while Tosca sings at a royal gala in the palace courtyard. Scarpia sends for her, and she appears just as Cavaradossi is being taken away to be tortured. Frightened by Scarpia’s questions and Cavaradossi’s screams, Tosca reveals Angelotti’s hiding place. Henchmen bring in Cavaradossi, who is badly hurt and hardly conscious. When he realizes what has happened, he angrily confronts Tosca, just as the officer Sciarrone rushes in to announce that Napoleon actually has won the battle, a defeat for Scarpia’s side. Cavaradossi shouts out his defiance of tyranny, and Scarpia orders him to be executed. Once alone with Tosca, Scarpia calmly suggests that he would let Cavaradossi go free if she’d give herself to him. Fighting off his advances, she declares that she has dedicated her life to art and love and calls on God for help. Scarpia becomes more insistent, but Spoletta bursts in: Faced with capture, Angelotti has killed himself. Tosca, now forced to give in or lose her lover, agrees to Scarpia’s proposition. Scarpia orders Spoletta to prepare for a mock execution of Cavaradossi, after which he is to be freed. Tosca demands that Scarpia write her a passage of safe-conduct. After he has done so, he attempts to make love to Tosca, but she grabs a knife from the table and stabs him. She takes the pass and flees.

ACT III

At dawn, Cavaradossi awaits execution on the ramparts of Castel Sant’Angelo. He bribes the jailer to deliver a farewell letter to Tosca, and then, overcome with emotion, gives in to his despair. Tosca appears and explains what has happened. The two imagine their future in freedom. As the execution squad arrives, Tosca implores Cavaradossi to fake his death convincingly, then watches from a distance. The soldiers fire and depart. When Cavaradossi doesn’t move, Tosca realizes that the execution was real, and Scarpia has betrayed her. Scarpia’s men rush in to arrest her, but she cries out that she will meet Scarpia before God and leaps from the battlement.

At the Palace of Whitehall in London, the court are celebrating. The Duke of Anjou, brother to the King of France, has sought Queen Elizabeth’s hand in marriage and the glorious alliance of the two kingdoms is eagerly anticipated. Elizabeth is still undecided as to whether she will accept the French proposal. For a long time, her heart has belonged to her favorite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, but recently she has sensed that his love for her is waning. Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury and Mary Stuart’s custodian for many years, takes the opportunity to petition the Queen for her cousin’s release. Cecil, Elizabeth’s Secretary of State, argues that Mary presents a constant threat to the stability of England while she remains alive. Elizabeth refuses to be drawn in on the subject of her cousin but privately fears that the Queen of Scots has stolen the love of Leicester from her. In the past, Leicester has been a suitor for Mary’s hand and was dazzled by the young Queen’s beauty when he first met her, long ago in France. Leicester arrives and Elizabeth gives him a ring to convey to the French Ambassador in equivocal acceptance of Anjou’s proposal. His indifferent response fuels her suspicions and she leaves, attended by the court. Alone with Leicester, Talbot secretly hands him a letter and a miniature sent by Mary. Enmeshed in the plots of the English Catholics against Elizabeth, Mary’s life now hangs in the balance. Enraptured by the portrait, Leicester vows to give his aid and support to Talbot’s plans for Mary’s liberation. As Talbot leaves, Elizabeth returns, alone. Suspicious of Talbot, she demands to see the letter in Leicester’s hands. Mary has written to beg Elizabeth for an audience and despite herself, tears spring to Elizabeth’s eyes. Seizing his advantage, Leicester presses the Queen to agree to ride out near Mary’s prison on a hunt and under this pretext engineer a meeting between the two queens. Although mistrustful, Elizabeth agrees to her favorite’s request.

Unexpectedly allowed by Talbot to walk freely in the park outside her prison of Fotheringhay Castle, Mary rejoices, running far ahead of her lady-in-waiting, Hannah Kennedy. Her thoughts turn to times of happiness and liberty in France. The horns of the royal hunt are suddenly heard in the distance. The approaching huntsmen cry out Elizabeth’s name and Mary is struck with fear at the prospect of finally setting eyes on her cousin. Leicester has ridden ahead of the hunt to prepare Mary for the meeting. He urges her to humble herself before Elizabeth and move the Queen to pity. Pledging his love and loyalty, he promises Mary that she may yet be free. He hastens to greet Elizabeth as she arrives with the hunting party. She is agitated and suspicious and Leicester’s solicitude for Mary’s cause rouses her jealousy. Talbot leads Mary forward and the two queens stare into each other’s eyes for the first time. Mary masters her pride and shows deference before Elizabeth but her cousin remains aloof and insulting. She accuses Mary of licentiousness, murder, and treason. The tender words with which Leicester tries to calm Mary serve only to increase Elizabeth’s anger. Insulted beyond endurance, Mary turns on Elizabeth. She denounces her as the illegitimate offspring of a whore, one who’s foot sullies and dishonors the throne of England. Elizabeth orders the guards to seize Mary and drag her back to her prison.

ACT II

Time has passed and Mary has remained incarcerated at Fotheringhay, under ever harsher conditions. The marriage to Anjou is now a faded dream for Elizabeth. Cecil has procured evidence that implicates Mary in a Catholic plot to assassinate Elizabeth, and a warrant for her death lies on the Queen’s desk at the Palace of Whitehall. But Elizabeth is racked with anxiety and fear. If she signs it, she sends an anointed monarch to the scaffold and makes an enemy of all Catholic Europe. Cecil urges her to be strong: her own life could be at stake and all England will applaud her and defend her, if need be. Elizabeth’s indecision ends when Leicester enters the chamber. Quickly and indifferently she signs the warrant and hands it to Cecil. Appalled, Leicester pleads with her to rescind the order and show mercy. Elizabeth commands him to be present as witness to the execution. Leicester tells her that she has sent a sister to her death and leaves.

In her room at Fotheringhay, Mary rails bitterly against her fortune. Suddenly, Cecil and Talbot enter to tell her that she must die in the morning. Cecil offers her the services of a Protestant minister in her final hours. Angrily, she refuses and commands him to leave but asks Talbot to stay. He tells her that Leicester will be present when she dies and tries to comfort her. But Mary is tormented by the ghosts of her past and longs to make the confession to God that Cecil has denied her by refusing the ministrations of a Catholic priest. Her heart is heavy with the bloody memories of her short reign in Scotland, and the deaths of her beloved favorite, David Rizzio, and her husband, Darnley. Gently, Talbot urges her to confess to him. She agrees and begins to unburden her conscience. Finally, she confesses her unwitting acquiescence in the fatal plot of the English Catholic, Sir Anthony Babington, to assassinate Elizabeth. She and Talbot pray together for God’s absolution and Mary calmly prepares for death.

Early next morning, Mary’s faithful servants gather, weeping outside the great hall of Fotheringhay, where Mary will be beheaded. The Queen enters. She asks them not to shed tears, as death comes to liberate her. She gives Hannah a silken handkerchief to bind her eyes when the moment comes and leads the household in a fervent prayer. The shot of a cannon on the ramparts above signals that the time of execution is near and Cecil arrives with guards to conduct Mary into the hall. Elizabeth has sent word that all requests should be granted her in her final moments and Mary asks that Hannah may accompany her to the scaffold. She tells Cecil that she forgives her cousin and prays that her blood will wash away all memory of hatred between them. Leicester suddenly appears, distraught, as more shots of the cannon indicate the time has come. Mary calms him. She is content that she will die with him close at hand. She prays that England may be spared the vengeful wrath of God. Dressed in red, the color of Catholic martyrdom, she ascends the scaffold.