Research Guides @ Fordham: Opera and Song Literature Research Guide: Guide for the Study of Opera

World's Top Opera Festivals

15 Essential European operal festivals
Puccini e la sua Lucca
The first festival dedicated to Giacomo Puccini and his music in his hometown of Lucca.

Links to Major American Opera Companies

Metropolitan Opera

San Francisco Opera

Lyric Opera of Chicago

Washington National Opera

Verdian Doings

Giuseppe Verdi
A biography of Giuseppe Verdi along with information, video and audio clips concerning each of his 37 operas.

NPR special celebrating Verdi's bicentenial
Features opinions and discourses on Verdi and his music from various prominent figures from the opera world
International Giuseppe Verdi Foundation
The foundation, set up in 2007, is an international non-profit organisation focusing on the life, work and music of Verdi, with the main aim of preserving the legacy of the great composer and of those associated with Giuseppe Verdi in all areas, for the benefit of future generations.

Puccini Radio
Listen to Giacomo Puccini, the most-performed composer among his Italian contemporaries and "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi". His operas are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire.
San Francisco Classical Voice
Puccini Festival
First Festival devoted to the music of Puccini in Torre del Lago , Italy

Links to Major International Opera Companies

Teatro La Fenice

Vienna State Opera

Royal Opera House at Covent Garden

Paris Opera

Mariinsky (Kirov) Opera

Bolshoi Theater Official Website

Welcome to the Opera and Vocal Music Study Guide!

Musical Scores

IMSLP/ Petrucci Music Library
The IMSLP Petrucci Archive – a godsend to musicians everywhere – contains hundreds of thousands of public domain scores of operas, symphonies and chamber music in full-score, piano-vocal and individual instrumental parts format – all suitable for download as pdfs.
UR Research at the University of Rochester
"Scores and books in the public domain. Many of these are unique to the Sibley Music Library collection."

Opera History

Music With Ease
Music resources on classical music, opera, jazz, rock, learning music, and more. A great, far-reaching starter kit.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Explore the history of opera from its origins in the 17th century, to experimental modern productions. Learn about the lives of some of opera’s most influential performers.
Opera Develops
hroughout its history, opera has consistently presented singers with the greatest challenges of any vocal genre. Pertinent steps in the development of opera (conveniently, the longest active span of any musical form) now become the path of choice in tracing the evolution of vocal performance.
An Introduction to Opera
A brief history of opera.
Glossary of Opera-related terms
American History of Opera from the 18th Century

A Matter of Heritage: Russian Opera 101
A brief overview of the development of opera in Russia from the 18th Century through the Soviet Era

Opera as a Career

Opera America
OPERA America is dedicated to supporting the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera. The association provides members with an array of publications and online resources, regional workshops, an annual conference and network-specific services such as conference calls, listservs and direct contact with staff with expertise in opera production, administration and education. OPERA America provides members with tools to maximize the effectiveness of financial and human resources, expand the scope of repertoire and programs, and extend their reach to new and diverse audiences.
Opera-arias.com
Opera-Arias.com is an aria database containing information about more than 175 Opera Composers, 530 Operas, 2,890 Opera Arias, 860 Opera Duets, 620 Opera Ensembles, 2800 Opera Singers and a total of over 7,690 Opera Scenes. The searchability of this aria database has been designed to be as easy as possible and the information as complete as possible.

Well-Known Vocal Competitions

Cardiff Singer of the World Competition
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World is a competition known throughout the classical music world as the premier showcase for opera and concert singers at the outset of their careers. It has launched the careers of some major stars including Karita Mattila, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Bryn Terfel, Anja Harteros and Jamie Barton.
Oratorio Society of New York
In 1977 the Oratorio Society of New York inaugurated a solo competition to encourage the art of oratorio singing and to give young singers an opportunity to advance their careers. International in scope, it is the only competition dedicated solely to the art of oratorio singing.

Information on Fordham hardcopy and Ebook collection concerning the subject of Opera

In order to explore Fordham's collection of materials related to opera or song literature, click on the Fordham Library Catalogue link located on the left side of our Libary Homepage.

When the screen changes, click on Library Catalogue Search. At the next screen type 'Opera' or 'Song' into the Subject box and click on 'search'. A list of over 900 titles of both hard-copy and Electronic books will appear on the screen in scrollable format.

If you have a specific title in mind, you also have the option of typing it in the 'title' box and clicking 'search'.

If you happen to be in the library and just feel like browsing, take a stroll over to the 'M' section. The Library of Congress call number system, which we use, designates 'M' for musical scores, ML for Literature on Music and MT for Music Instruction and Study.

A sampling of subject-related Ebooks

Opera in America by John Dizikes
ISBN: 9780300061017
Publication Date: 1995-09-27
This text tells how opera, steeped in European aristocratic tradition, was transplanted into the democratic cultural enviroment of America. It includes vignettes of productions, personalities, audiences and theatres throughout the country from 1735 to the present day.
Tristan's Shadow by Adrian Daub
ISBN: 022608227X
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Experiencing Verdi by Donald Sanders
ISBN: 9780810884670
Publication Date: 2013-12-01
I
Richard Wagner by Martin Geck; Stewart Spencer (Translator)
ISBN: 9780226924618
Publication Date: 2013-09-18
Best known for the challenging four-opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung, Richard Wagner (1813-83) was a conductor, librettist, theater director, and essayist, in addition to being the composer of some of the most enduring operatic works in history, such as The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, and Tristan and Isolde.

Personal Reccomendation

The Splendid Art of Opera by Ethan Mordden
Call Number: ML1700.M67 Walsh
ISBN: 9780416007312
Publication Date: 1980-10-01
Excellent introduction to opera. Starting at the beginning, the author describes the evolution of opera, covering all the major and many minor points in a droll, humorous, often snarky way. You'll be through the whole book before you realize how much you've learned about your subject.

Opera Abroad

The Opera Wire
The high and low noted from around the international opera stage

For Research Assistance

Mike Magilligan

Contact:

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mmagilligan@fordham.edu

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Subjects: Library & Information Science

Main Contributor and Guide Creator

Nathan Bahny

Email Me

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Opera Resources on the World Wide Web

Opera Resources from Stanford University
Over 200 opera libretti and plot synopses.
An index of over 4800 opera composers.
Complete lists of over 25,000 operas
Operavore
"Operavore is WQXR's digital 24/7 audio stream, blog and weekly radio show devoted to Opera. The Operavore blog features breaking news, expert commentary and reviews by writers Fred Plotkin, David Patrick Stearns and Amanda Angel. The stream features a continuous, carefully programmed mix of classic and contemporary opera recordings. The Operavore radio show on WQXR, features opera news bulletins from the around the globe, previews of new recordings, and interviews with the players and personalities on the scene."
Opera News - online edition
Opera Online

Opera-related sites available to the Fordham community

Met Opera on Demand
Enjoy instant access to more than 650 full-length Met performances with the online streaming database for college and university libraries.
Opera News
Opera Canada

Examples of vocal types

Voice types
Descriptions and actual examples of the different operatic vocal types.

A Modicum of Mozart

Mozart Operas – Key Facts of Top 10 Operas by Mozart
Examining Mozart's Operas
Mozart's Operas: a Critical Study
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.
It's in the public domain in the United States of America, so you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on it.

All things Wagnerian

The Leitmotifs of Wagner's Ring
A complete listing of leitmotifs along with their locations and appearances in Richard Wagner's "Der Ring desNibelungen".

The Wagner Society of New York
The Wagner Society of New York, Inc., is a not-for-profit organization chartered in New York State for the purpose of furthering the appreciation and performance of the works of the great composer. Our members come from throughout the United States, Canada, and many other countries.
Wagner on Line
The International Association of Wagner Societies (RWVI) unites regional Wagner Societies around the world. The RWVI aims to create interest in and deepen the understanding of Richard Wagner's works, to provide support for the next generation of artists, to support the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation, which was founded at the behest of Richard Wagner, to ensure the continuing success of the Bayreuth Festival and to promote international co-operation.

Opera Libretti

Important Sources of Libretti in the Internet

A list of approximately 40 links to various opera and operetta libretto web-sites.

Libretto Index by H. Weber
This is an index of libretto pages in the Internet known to me. They are ordered by composer and name of the opera. In some cases also texts of other vocal pieces similar to operas are included. In some cases we have included scores of operatic works, mainly for most important works, or if a libretto was not available.
Most of the libretti are in HTML or simple ASCII text format, some others are PDF files or MS Word documents. To read these you need a PDF reader like the Adobe Acrobat reader or a MS Word viewer. This collection of links is work in progress.

Opera and Song Literature Research Guide: Guide for the Study of Opera