Operas with a gambling theme

[Dave2002]

Prompted by tonight's very good performance of Manon (MET - Live cinema) I wondered how many more operas have a gambling theme.

Actually I can't think of too many immediately - though the following do feature some gambling :

Manon Lescaut
La Traviata
The Queen of Spades
The Girl of the Golden West

[Simon B]

How about:

Shostakovich: "The Gamblers"

Can't get much more on-theme than that. Ok, so there is the slight flaw that he didn't actually finish the thing, but that's just pettifogging details right?

[Dave2002]

Stravinsky - Rake’s Progress also has an element of gambling.

[Constantbee]

Prokofiev 'The Gambler'. Gambling, mainly on card games, is a big theme in C19th Russian literature. It was a popular pastime with expectations of easy returns on your investment among the bored property owning classes, army officers appearing as the victims in many cases.

[Serial_Apologist]

Kurt Weill's Mahagonny?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Kurt Weill's Mahagonny?

- with Lottery Lenya in the cast.

(Not forgetting the same composer's ITV 7 Deadly Sins)

[Pulcinella]

- with Lottery Lenya in the cast.

Dave got in with his own addition (The rake's progress) just before I did.
Still trying to think of others.

[Serial_Apologist]

- with Lottery Lenya in the cast.

(Not forgetting the same composer's ITV 7 Deadly Sins)

It has to be Lotte Lenyer for me when it comes to Weill, I'm afraid. That said, The 7 Deadly Sins could also be said to be about gambling... with people's lives, if that's not stretching the thread subject too much.

[Oakapple]

Gilbert and Sullivan's The Grand Duke. Two characters have to draw cards to determine the winner and there's a song about roulette.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Gilbert and Sullivan's The Grand Duke. Two characters have to draw cards to determine the winner

- the "Statutory Duel" of the subtitle: instead of pistols of swords, the duellists have to draw cards, the loser thereafter becoming effectively "dead".

[LezLee]

Can I sneak in 'Guys and Dolls', please?

[LezLee]

..............

[LMcD]

I guess there's gambling of a sort going on during on Samuel Barber's 'A Hand Of Bridge' .......
It's hard to disagree with LezLee's message ......... (?!)

[bluestateprommer]

Prompted by tonight's very good performance of Manon (MET - Live cinema) I wondered how many more operas have a gambling theme.

Actually I can't think of too many immediately - though the following do feature some gambling :

Manon Lescaut
La Traviata
The Queen of Spades
The Girl of the Golden West

If one broadens the idea to include scenes of gambling, rather than gambling being the overall theme of a given opera, two more to add from this side of the pond:
1. Porgy and Bess
2. The Ballad of Baby Doe

[Dave2002]

2. The Ballad of Baby Doe

Didn't know anything about that one.

https://www.liveabout.com/the-ballad-of-baby-doe-synopsis-724206