 Opera on the web
The huge worldwide interest in opera is reflected in the recent appearance
of many high quality websites. Expanding on our brief coverage in last week's
Site Seeing, I can report on the following opera sites:
Opera America
'The service organization for Opera', Opera America's members
include 162 professional company members, 265 affiliates and more than 2000
individual members. Mostly US-based, there is some international coverage.
A database of season schedules (covering repertory and performance details
from 1996 to 2000) is open to all visitors. Their Set and Costume Directory
(a searchable database of sets, costumes, props, musical materials etc.
available for rent from member organizations, with over 1500 records) and
Online Artists Database are available only to their organizational
members. Opera America (who also have a significant off-line presence)
are at www.operaam.org .
Opera World
An online opera store with over 450 opera videos, laser discs, opera
CDs, DVDs and posters for sale. Their titles are arranged in alphabetical
order of opera name, artist and composer, but are not strictly searchable
- the visitor has to browse the catalogue. Opera World (a subsidiary of
Opera America) is at www.operaworld.com
. They sell online and through a print catalogue, but only to customers
in the USA and Canada.
Operastuff
OperaStuff is mostly a collection
of links to opera-related web sites, but also contains original content
which is to be expanded over the coming months. Includes a list of 600 hyperlinks
to opera singers on the web, links to opera companies, statistics on opera
house seating capacities, opera-selling webstores, record companies, pages
on operas and opera composers and operas themselves, broadcasts and webcasts,
opera magazines and links to other operatic homepages.
New Grove Dictionary
As previously reported, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera will
be on-line at www.groveopera.com
from May 1st, as an annual subscription service providing the full text
of the four-volume dictionary - all 11,000 articles. Benefits include a
free text search for finding terms and topics quickly, new and revised articles,
two thousand cross-references for instant access to related articles, music
examples, diagrams and drawings displayed in the text and biographical searches
by nationality, occupation and date.
Bob's Opera Madness
Otherwise known as the Virtual Opera Museum, Bob's
Opera Madness contains the web's only three-dimensional gallery of opera
singers!
Opera-L
The Opera-L
mailing list is a lively e-mail list. Postings cover all aspects of
opera, and there are regular postings of links to opera stories in the online
versions of international newspapers.
Opera Notes
Mike Richter' Opera Notes
page has audio files, a reference encyclopedia, opera on video, reference
recordings, opera timings and other goodies.
Coordinated Opera Resource Pages
CORPUS is a coordinated
index of links to opera resources on the net. It looks very comprehensive,
with sections on composers and their operas, opera houses and festivals,
schedule services, magazines, interactive and other resources.
Opera Web
Opera Web, with Italian and English
versions, is 'the starting point for the Opera world'. A high quality site
which has won many awards.
Operadata
Operadata, compiled by the
Opera Now team, is 'the most comprehensive source of information
on opera'.
Magazines
Opera Net
is a lively magazine with articles, cartoons, book and CD reviews. San Diego
magazine's music and dance critic David Gregson runs Opera
West which provides reviews and commentary on the West Coast opera scene.
Opera Magazine, published in the UK,
runs this website at which you can sample the current month's publication.
You can also read online Opera
News from Toronto. Parterre
box - the queer opera zine is difficult to describe - best visit
to find out.
Copyright © Keith Bramich, April
27th 1999
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