Prokofiev abandoned several ideas for operas in favour of those he completed. For example, he planned an opera based on a story by Boris Lavrenev, The Story of a Simple Affair, before settling on Semyon Kotko. The scenario, typed but with added autograph notes, indicates that Prokofiev was working on this idea from 1933 and did not abandon it until the late 1940s. At the same time as he was working on Betrothal in a Monastery, the composer turned his attention to Leskov's The Wastrel, planning an opera in five acts. He worked on this between 1940 and 1942; a draft scenario and a second plan for the libretto survive. As soon as he dropped this project, he turned his attention to a scenario temporarily called Bradobray. The scenario of the first three scenes exists, with notes in Prokofiev's hand. This opera only occupied his attention for a year (1942–43) before he turned his attention to another projected opera, Khan Buzay, which he worked on alongside other non-operatic works. The composer's last abandoned project before he turned his attention to the also unfinished Distant Seas was a plan in 1948 for a lyric-comic opera entitled Tamir is calling you, based on a comedy by K. F. Isayev and A. A. Galich. The only material that remains from this project is a draft scenario in Mira Mendelson's hand.

Among these aborted projects are two unfinished operas that Prokofiev worked on in sufficient depth to warrant an examination here. Khan Buzay was started in 1942; versions of texts and scenarios, selected folk songs, and a draft libretto with text relating to songs remain. These materials are enough to provide a clear idea of Prokofiev's operatic thinking while he was working on other pieces, such as Betrothal in a Monastery, and finishing off The Story of a Real Man. The other unfinished opera that deserves attention is Distant Seas, an opera Prokofiev worked on between 1948 and 1952. What remains are libretto materials, sketches for the music for the first scene, the vocal score of the overture, and Scene 1, as well as transcribed folk songs from Sverdlovsk.

These two unfinished operas are particularly poignant because they reveal the determination of a composer whose outlook remained focused on achieving success despite his dire circumstances.