1.   Although he thought of himself as an opera composer first and foremost, Prokofiev saw only four of his operas produced.

2.   American opera composers are racing to find trendy, up-to-the-minute libretto subjects.

3.   As an opera composer, Mozart is practically Mr. Vernacular.

4.   Boito, and indeed an entire generation of Italian opera composers, never showed much patience for hesitant rumination.

5.   A successful opera composer must be a savvy dramatist, adept at handling massed forces and able to stitch swatches of music into a compelling whole.

6.   But once an opera composer, always an opera composer.

7.   But we do not really know him as an opera composer, which means we are underestimating him.

8.   Carreras came with a program of songs by opera composers he has also documented on CD.

9.   Few living composers have written as many successful operas as Musgrave, but she resists characterization as an opera composer.

10.   He was a busy opera composer but not a true one.