User talk:Theshoveljockey

Hello, Theshoveljockey! We're delighted you've signed up to join us!

Opera is a very active, medium-sized project with more than 4,400 articles - it's smaller than the mega-projects like Music etc, but it is also larger than closely-focused projects such as Richard Wagner.

We have a discussion page linked to the main project page where you signed in. Participants work together on articles, see for example the Composer of the month, Singer of the month and Can you help? features on the Project page. Please take part!

The scope of the project is huge: 400 years of history, many countries and many languages. For that reason the editing style of opera articles can sometimes be complicated, so we have detailed guidelines for formatting on the project page, covering the tricky points like opera titles, capitalization, categories etc. Please don't be too bothered if you make a few mistakes at first - we all went through the same thing when we started!

Some opera editors use reference books such the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Oxford Dictionary of Opera and the Viking Opera Guide. These are helpful for checking facts and providing the essential references required on Wikipedia. It's great if you can get access to these books.

However if you don't have access to books, there are still many other ways you can contribute to the project: compiling lists of recordings, writing synopses of your favourite operas using CD librettos, translating texts from other languages, picture researching, writing biographies of contemporary singers from online sources etc etc - and see also the To do list for articles needing attention.

We hope you have a great time on the Opera Project.
Please don't hesitate to ask us if you have any questions! We are always here - here!
Best regards!