Mussorgsky - Sorochintsy Fair?

Also - Act 2 of Gounod's Faust - the Kermesse; and the scene in Chabrier's Roi malgre lui with the Fete polonaise.

Yes, and yes!

Roslyn hits a bull's-eye with SOROCHINSKY FAIR - the entire action of the opera takes place at the Annual Fair.  The young boys hits it off fine with our heroine's pa, but her ma is set against him, and chases him out with a rolling pin...

And yup, MAZEPPA it is...  yes, I somewhat remember the strip-lights, chain-saws, and, ehem, the electric drill. But there was, at least, a Hopak in there somewhere   The first scene, despite all that, is supposed to be a village festival    Funnily enough it's an opera producers love to tinker with, even on its native soil...  here's that opening scene again, at Helikon Opera...


... in which the young couple have become members of the Communist Young Pioneers

and if you look carefully as the boatload of brides goes past, you'll see... yup, an abandoned bedstead


Still waiting for our rare Vaughan Williams, which is another Fair...  T-P, this one is especially for you, I think?

As it's well past the Witching Hour for me here, I'll disclose that the little-performed RVW I had in mind was RIDERS TO THE SEA - which is set on the eve of the Galway Fair.

Any more holidays, anyone?

Thackeray called Vanity Fair A Novel without a hero.

Any operas without a heroine?  (ie a principal female lead for whom we feel at least a smidgen of sympathy.)

Cilea's L'ARLESIANA?

Tell me more, parsifal,  I don't know the work.  Is the girl from Arles a very bad girl.

Jancek From the House of the Dead