Missing opera by Liszt to premiere

NEW YORK - A rare opera by Franz Liszt has been meticulously restored by a scholar, who described the work as unique in the history of music.

The 19th-century Hungarian composer was prolific and won a feverish fan base, but he was best known for his piano pieces and only premiered one opera, a one-act work the prodigy completed when he was 13.

Sardanapale, based on Lord Byron's tragedy Sardanapalo about the overthrow of a peace-loving but hedonistic Assyrian king, was long thought to have been abandoned.