Cinq-Mars, subtitled Une conjuration sous Louis XIII, is an opera in four acts by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Paul Poirson and Louis Gallet loosely adapted from Alfred de Vigny's historical novel Cinq-Mars.

Faust is a grand opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part One. It debuted at the Théâtre Lyrique on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris on 19 March 1859, with influential sets designed by Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry, Jean Émile Daran, Édouard Desplechin, and Philippe Chaperon.

La nonne sanglante (The Bloody Nun) is a five-act opera by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne, after an episode in The Monk, a gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis. Written between 1852 and 1854, it was first produced on 18 October 1854 at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera. It received 11 performances between October and November 1854. Its poor reception, in the midst of various crises, contributed to the overthrow of the Opéra director Nestor Roqueplan, who was replaced by his adversary François-Louis Crosnier. Crosnier immediately cancelled the run, saying that 'such filth' (pareilles ordures) would no longer be tolerated.

La reine de Saba (The Queen of Sheba) is a grand opera in four or five acts by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré inspired by Gérard de Nerval's La Reine de Saba, in Le voyage en Orient. It was premiered at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera on February 28, 1862. The magnificent first production was directed by Eugène Cormon, with costumes designed by Alfred Albert and Paul Lormier, and scenery by Édouard Desplechin (Act I), Charles-Antoine Cambon and Joseph Thierry (Acts II and IV, scene 2), Hugues Martin (Act III), and Joseph Nolau and Auguste Alfred Rubé (Act IV, scene 1).

Le tribut de Zamora is a grand opera in four acts by Charles Gounod, to a libretto by Adolphe d'Ennery and Jules Brésil set in Moorish Spain shortly after the Battle of Zamora in 939 CE. The work was premiered at the Paris Opera's Palais Garnier on 1 April 1881. It was Gounod's last work for the stage. The libretto was offered to Gounod after negotiations with Giuseppe Verdi stalled. The premiere was a success, Hermosa's patriotic "Debout! enfants de l'Ibérie!" (sung by Gabrielle Krauss) being enthusiastically encored, and praise being showered on the magnificent costumes by Eugène Lacoste and the four settings designed by Auguste Alfred Rubé and Philippe Chaperon (acts 1 and 4), Jean-Baptiste Lavastre (act 2), Antoine Lavastre and Eugène Carpezat (act 3). The piece ran for 34 performances. Twentieth century criticism is less kind, calling it "musty...too reminiscent of his earlier work" or dismissing it as an exercise in spagnuolismo (Hispanicism).

Mireille is an 1864 opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Michel Carré after Frédéric Mistral's poem Mirèio. The vocal score is dedicated to George V of Hanover.

Baucis and Philemon (Greek: Φιλήμων και Βαυκίς, romanized: Philēmōn kai Baukis) are two characters from Greek mythology, only known to us from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Baucis and Philemon were an old married couple in the region of Tyana, which Ovid places in Phrygia, and the only ones in their town to welcome disguised gods Zeus and Hermes (in Roman mythology, Jupiter and Mercury respectively), thus embodying the pious exercise of hospitality, the ritualized guest-friendship termed xenia, or theoxenia when a god was involved.

Polyeucte is a drama in five acts by French writer Pierre Corneille. It was finished in December 1642 and debuted in October 1643. It is based on the life of the martyr Saint Polyeuctus (Polyeucte). The drama is set in ancient Armenia (in a city, Melitene, which is in present-day Turkey) during a time when Christians were persecuted there under the Roman Empire. Polyeucte, an Armenian nobleman, converts to Christianity to the great despair of his wife, Pauline, and of his father-in-law, Felix. Despite them, Polyeucte becomes a martyr, causing Pauline and Felix to finally convert as well. There is also a romantic subplot: the Roman Severus is in love with Pauline and hopes she will be his after the conversion of Polyeucte. However, she chooses to stay at the side of her husband. Before dying, Polyeucte entrusts Severus with Pauline. Polyeucte is one of the last 17th-century French dramas with a religious subject—Corneille did also write Théodore in 1645 and Racine wrote Esther (1689) and Athalie (1691), but these were not meant for public performance. Later playwrights were not as willing to mix religious and worldly themes. In 1906, one act of the opera was performed under the auspices of the Carthage Institute in the ancient Roman theatre at Carthage, Tunisia, making it the first modern performance to have taken place in that historic space (which had functioned as an active theatre from ca. AD 150 to AD 439 and was only unearthed in 1904).

Roméo et Juliette (French pronunciation: [ʁɔmeo e ʒyljɛt], Romeo and Juliet) is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique (Théâtre-Lyrique Impérial du Châtelet), Paris on 27 April 1867. This opera is notable for the series of four duets for the main characters and the waltz song "Je veux vivre" for the soprano.

Sapho is an opera in three acts by Charles Gounod, premiered 16 April 1851 at Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera. The libretto was by Émile Augier after the life of the poet Sappho of Lesbos. The creation of the work was given an impetus by, and provided a central role for, the mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot. It was presented only nine times in its initial production, but was a succès d'estime for the young composer, with the critics praising Act 3 in particular. It was later revised to two acts on 26 July 1858, and revised again to 4 acts at the Palais Garnier on 2 April 1884, achieving a total of 48 performances.