Wikipedia:WikiProject Opera

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Composer of the Month: edit · history · watch · refresh

The composers of the month (and their operas to be covered) will be:
Singer of the Month: edit · history · watch · refresh

The singers of the month for June are seven role creators in Puccini's operas:
Can you help? edit · history · watch · refresh

Minimal stubs needing expansion

Operas: Blooms of Dublin, Singers: Barbara Frittoli, Lisa Gasteen

Articles needed

Composers: Jakob Haibel (1762-1826), Edward Jakobowski (1858-1927), Edward Loder (1813-1865), Wenzel Müller (1767-1835), Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (1903-1969), Joelle Wallach (1946- ), contemporary singers: Stefania Bonfadelli, Lawrence Brownlee, Larissa Diadkova, Vladimir Galouzine, Sonia Ganassi, Stephan Genz, Hillevi Martinpelto, Catherine Naglestad, David Pittman-Jennings, 20th-century singers: Blanche Arral, Celestina Boninsegna, Olimpia Boronat, Karin Branzell, Lina Bruna Rasa, Anna Case, Nanny Larsen-Todsen, Blanche Marchesi, Dorothy Maynor, Malcolm McEachern, Eidé Norena, Vera Schwarz, Margarethe Siems, 19th-century singers: Amalie Materna, Enrico Tamberlik, Francesco Graziani, Fanny Salvini-Donatelli, French librettists: Louis-Adolphe Jaime, Charles-Louis-Etienne Nuitter, historic theatres in Paris: Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs, opera companies: The Julliard Center.

Translations needed

From German Wikipedia pages: singers: Anna von Mildenburg [1] historic theatres in Vienna: Johann Strauss Theater [2], German opera houses: Opernhaus Kiel [3], Theater Lübeck [4].

From Norwegian Wikipedia pages: update on Oslo Opera House[5].

See also the To do list for articles requiring clean up, expansion, expert attention, merging, splitting, verification and 'wikification'.

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You may be looking for WikiProject Opera Browser, the Wikiproject dedicated to Opera Software, or Wikiproject Orphanage, the Wikiproject devoted to creating links to articles with few or no incoming links.

[edit] Scope

This WikiProject encompasses

  1. articles on opera composers and librettists
  2. articles on individual operas
  3. articles on opera singers
  4. articles on opera houses and opera companies (sometimes but not always the same)
  5. articles on all genres of opera from grand opera to operetta
  6. articles on opera recordings
  7. articles on other opera-related topics

[edit] Statistics

In May 2006 there were 1,835 articles on opera, rising to 3,530 in June 2007. On 5 June 2008 the count was up to 4,794, and the ratio of stubs to developed articles was 1:1.96.

[edit] Project listing

Opera is an independent WikiProject listed under Performing Arts.

It was started by Viajero in June 2004.

[edit] Descendant WikiProjects

There are two descendant WikiProjects: WikiProject Gilbert and Sullivan and WikiProject Richard Wagner.

[edit] Similar WikiProjects

Similar WikiProjects are WikiProject Classical music, WikiProject Composers and WikiProject Contemporary music.

[edit] Active participants

[edit] Former and inactive participants

Viajero • Wetman • BaronLarf • DrG • Antandrus • DrGeoduck • Captbaritone • Jsch • Whfropera • Yid613 • Inge-Lyubov • starshinesfeli • Meladina  • Wootking • Figaro • Gerry Lynch • Tnmusikherr • Papertiger96 • Ehsiao • Jahenderson • Doublea • OperaDevel • ForDorothy • Scott Andrew Hutchins • James Kilbourne • Heimstern Läufer • Rahelisdolentis • Klingoncowboy4 • acs10 • Schnuckiputzi • Megazodiac • Nickbigd • NewYork1956• Emperor7 • Adam Cuerden • Ringnpassagio • Merpin • Roosterrulez • Javitomad (logo creator) • Brian Morgan

[edit] Getting started

Project logo

Welcome to the WikiProject Opera!

If you are new to Wikipedia, the first thing to do is to join. See Wikipedia:How to log in. There is also an FAQ at Wikipedia:Contributing FAQ.

We would also be delighted if you signed on to the project (above). You may also like to see our discussion page Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Opera.

[edit] Articles

The main article is of course Opera. Articles indexing operatic topics include:

Then there are articles on the voice types:
Soprano • Mezzo-soprano • Alto • Castrato • Countertenor • Tenor • Baritone • Bass-baritone • Bass

[edit] Good articles

Agrippina • Dido and Aeneas • The Fairy-Queen • Orfeo ed Euridice • Parsifal • Venus and Adonis • Erik Chisholm

[edit] Featured articles\Featured lists

List of important operas • List of major opera composers

[edit] Former featured articles

Porgy and Bess

[edit] Assessment

The Assessment table explains opera article ranking and gives examples.

[edit] Guidelines

[edit] Article titles

[edit] Operas: original vs English translation

The standard practice is to use English titles of operas for article names and in articles when it is common convention (e.g. The Marriage of Figaro. The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville). This reflects the Wikipedia convention use English in titles when possible.

Nevertheless most operas are performed in English-speaking countries under their original names (e.g. Così fan tutte and Der Freischütz) and English titles for them should not be invented.

Titles in languages using a non-Latin alphabet (usually Russian in practice) are customarily listed under an English equivalent (a translation or a transliteration), without diacritics (diacritics can, however, be used in the body of the article). If necessary a redirect under the original title will point to the article with the English name.

English names are also normally preferred for eastern European and Scandinavian operas unless the title is a simple proper name.

[edit] Operas commonly known by English names

[edit] Operas: original language titles

When listing operas by their original language title (provided that language uses the Latin alphabet), the spelling in the original language, including any accents and diacritics, should be preserved, e.g. Mosè in Egitto not Mose in Egitto, Götterdämmerung not Gotterdammerung, Les fêtes de Ramire not Les fetes de Ramire.

Capitalization of opera titles should follow the style used in the most recent editions of New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and New Grove Dictionary of Opera (as well as The Oxford Dictionary of Opera and The Viking Opera Guide):

Redirects should be included whenever possible to make the articles as accessible as possible. For example, 'La bohème' should have redirects from 'La boheme', 'La Bohème', 'La Boheme', 'Boheme' and 'Bohème' while 'La traviata' should have redirects from 'La Traviata' and 'Traviata':

#REDIRECT [[La bohème]]

[edit] Naming conventions page

Wikipedia:Naming conventions (operas) is a formal, public page which summarizes the rules above.

[edit] Operas: avoiding ambiguity

The name of the opera is normally the name of the article, however in order to avoid ambiguity:

(1) if the name of the opera has already been used (e.g. for an article on a mythological deity or a play etc), the word opera should be added to the title in parentheses, so for example Macbeth (opera) refers to the work by Verdi to distinguish it from Macbeth which is the play by Shakespeare.

(2) If there are two (or more) operas with the same title, the second (and subsequent) works take the name(s) of the composer(s) in parentheses. So for example: Miss Julie is the play, Miss Julie (opera) is the opera by Rorem, and Miss Julie (Alwyn) is the opera by Alwyn; or to take another example: Otello is the opera by Verdi, and Otello (Rossini) is the one by Rossini. (The various works should also be listed on any disambiguation page.)

[edit] Opera houses and opera companies

We use the English name of an opera house or an opera company if one exists and is used on the official website, otherwise we use the official name in the local language. In accordance with Wikipedia naming conventions, we adopt the shortest possible distinctive name, i.e. La Scala (not Teatro alla Scala or La Scala, Milan), because there is only one La Scala. However, in some cases we have to disambiguate: there is more than one Teatro Regio in Italy, so we have Teatro Regio Parma, Teatro Regio Torino etc.

Although an opera house and an opera company may be separate legal entities, we often treat them as one for convenience (e.g. La Scala). This facilitates writing articles on singers etc.

However, when an opera company is associated with two or more houses (e.g. Opéra National de Paris which performs at both the Opéra Bastille and the Palais Garnier) we need separate articles. Moreover, there are cases where the history of the theatre as well as the company are extensive and complex. In these cases, two articles are called for (e.g. Royal Opera House Covent Garden (London), which has more than 200 years of mixed history, and Royal Opera, London which was created only in 1946).

[edit] Article styles and formats

The Styles and formats page shows suggested examples.

[edit] The New Grove Dictionary of Opera

The leading reference work on opera in the English language is the New Grove Dictionary of Opera edited by Stanley Sadie and others. This should, in general, be followed for style.

[edit] Articles on specific operas

Articles may be divided into an introduction, performance history, list of roles, synopsis of the action, and a list of recordings - as appropriate to the opera. (An example of this arrangement is Il campiello.) A navigation box may be provided to enable easy navigation to other operas by the same composer - see the Navigation box templates para below for more details.

The introduction is normally in the present tense:

 
 '''''[title] ''''' (''[English title if needed]'') is an [[opera]] by [[composer]]]. 
 [[Librettist]] wrote the [language used] [[libretto]] [after the book/play/epic poem by...]

The performance history may indicate the popularity of the work and the regularity with which it is performed (in the world as whole) - again as appropriate.

When available, it's helpful to include the cast at the premiere(s) in the list of roles. See the Parsifal article for an example of standard formatting.

[edit] Role names

The norm when listing or referring to roles is to give proper names in their original form (in whatever language), while translating the others into English.

For example the roles in Richard Strauss's Salome are given as: Herodes, Herodias, Salome, Jochanaan, Narraboth, the page of Herodias, first Jew, second Jew (etc.), first Nazarene, second Nazarene (etc.), first soldier, second soldier, a Cappadocian, a slave.

[edit] Arias, duets, choruses etc.

Individual 'numbers' from operas are often referred to in different ways. For example, the song and duet from Act I of Carmen may be called (by the first line) Près des remparts de Séville, or (in translation) Near to the walls of Seville, or as 'the Seguidilla' or as a Chanson et duo.

We recommend referring to the first line in the original language (in italics), followed by the popular title (if there is one) or English translation. Thus Près des remparts de Séville (The Seguidilla) and La donna è mobile (Woman is Fickle).

It is preferable to incorporate such highlights in the synopsis rather than list them out of context.

[edit] Articles on opera singers

Although biographical articles customarily begin with the name of the person, extensive experimentation reveals that the following formula works well for opera singers, as it presents all the important facts in a stylistically pleasing way:

 '''Name''' (dates) [was|is] a [[nation|nationality]]  [[opera]]tic [[soprano|tenor|etc]]
 [whose career spanned|who was closely associated with the roles|etc] 
 [one more additional descriptive line]

(This is obviously adapted for singers who also had significant non-operatic careers.)

We then follow with biographical information, highlighting important operatic debuts and the roles most closely associated with the singer.

If singers are still living, we refer to them in the present tense, but make clear that they are retired and indicate when they were active.

[edit] Referring to roles

When talking about singers, the opera world has the habit of referring to roles rather than the names of the opera, ie she made her Met debut as Mimi and went on to sing Liù. This is a useful shorthand, but it is not entirely helpful for people new to opera. One way to clarify a potentially unfamiliar role to its opera is to use the formula [[Opera title|Role name]] providng a link to the opera through the role name.

[edit] Nationality in biographical articles

The nationality of composers, singers etc. has sometimes been controversial. Here are three guidelines:

1. Nationality should refer to national identity, in other words the national group with which the person identified, not the state of which the person was a citizen or subject.
2. Nationality should not be anachronistic/retrospective, i.e. for historic figures it should not be defined by present-day borders and states, but by contemporary ones.
3. If there is any doubt about the nationality of an individual, we should be inclusive and use a double designation (e.g. Anglo-German etc.) both in the introduction and in the categories.

[edit] Referring to opera houses

It is a habit in the opera world to refer to performances at certain opera houses simply using the name of the city, ie Milan, Paris, New York, which is an indirect reference to La Scala, Opera Garnier, or the Met. One can link the city name to the relevant city article, ie [[Milan]] or pipe it to the relevant opera house, ie [[|La Scala|Milan]]. The latter solution seems elegant except its violates the Wikie principle of least surprise (it isn't exactly what the reader expects). On the other hand, a singer's Berlin debut is in fact a debut in front of the audience of a given city, not just an appearance in a theater. This issue is compounded by the fact that some big cities have more than one opera house, for which we have separate articles (London, Berlin, and Paris) and that sometimes historical references are made to theaters which no longer exist.

A special note regarding London. The opera world customarily refers to the main opera house there as Covent Garden. However, our article on Covent Garden is on the neighborhood of London of that name, not the opera house. The Royal Opera House is the name of the article, and that is what needs to be linked. A reasonable solution is to refer to them both, ie: [...] at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

[edit] Lists

Chronological lists of operas (in articles and navigation boxes) are arranged by the date of first performance if the opera was first performed during the composer's lifetime, or shortly after his/her death. If the first performance was greatly after the composer's death, the date of composition is used. Non-chronological lists should be in alphabetical order.

[edit] Images and fair use

We welcome contributions of good quality photographs for articles about operas, singers and composers etc. Images must either be already in the public domain or have written permission from the photographers (or copyright holders) to release them under a free license. Under this arrangement the holder (who would be credited) retains the copyright of the work, but grants permission to others to freely use and publish the image.

Regrettably we are unable to use photos of living opera singers, composers etc. on a 'fair use' ('fair dealing') basis in their articles. 'Fair use' images may only be acceptable in articles dealing directly with publications, recordings etc. or in articles whose subjects are deceased and therefore there is no possibility of providing a free equivalent.

When adding an image under 'fair use', detailed fair use rationales and detailed information as to souce and possible copyright holder must be provided as well as a suitable copyright tag. Fair use images cannot be used for purely decorative purposes and they must be closely tied to the article text (a good example is at Concerto delle donne). Galleries, i.e. collections of fair use material, whether visual or audio, are not permitted under any circumstances.

See also: the Online research page, and particularly the Image sources section.

[edit] Trivia

When it comes to anecdotes, influences on pop culture, and other peripheral content or "trivia", information should only be included in opera articles if it is likely to be of interest to a typical reader of the article. Examples of content which almost always fail this test are: songs, albums, video games, TV shows, or movies that reference the opera. Examples of content passing the test are: Apocalypse Now's use of The Ride of the Valkyries and direct adaptations such as Carmen Jones.

[edit] Spoiler warning tags

The use of spoiler tags before synopsis/plot summaries is regarded as unnecessary and distracting.

[edit] Guide to online research

The Online research page has a detailed guide to using and referencing online sources for articles as well as recommended web sites.

[edit] Categories

Categories are implemented on Wikipedia in an ad hoc fashion, hence tend to be erratic. Here are the currently used categories for opera topics:

[edit] Operas

All opera title articles belong in:

Operas are further categorized by language:

by genre (which should be plural and in the original language to avoid confusion):

and normally by composer, i.e.:

(N.B. for the purposes of Wikipedia (and indeed other encyclopedias such as Grove), operettas are considered a subcategory of operas, so, for example, The Merry Widow is in Category:Operas as well as Category:Operettas.)

In practice a single opera title article will have many category tags at the foot of the page. The order in which these appear should start with the most specific and end with the most general. For example, Tosca belongs to the following categories:

[[Category:Operas by Giacomo Puccini]]
[[Category:Verismo operas]]
[[Category:Italian-language operas]]
[[Category:Operas]]

Please note that for typographical reasons stubs go before category tags.

[edit] Composers, critics, directors, librettists and managers

The main and preferred category is Category:Opera composers, although Category:Operetta composers and Category:Zarzuela composers are also still used.

Category:Opera critics • Category:Opera directors • Category:Opera librettists • Category:Opera managers

[edit] Singers

Singers are categorized by nationality, ie, Category:French opera singers etc, and by voice:

Category:Operatic sopranos • Category:Operatic mezzo-sopranos • Category:Operatic contraltos • Category:Operatic countertenors • Category:Operatic tenors • Category:Operatic baritones • Category:Operatic bass-baritones • Category:Operatic basses

[edit] Other categories

There are three main categories for opera organizations: Category:Opera houses (sub-categorised by country), Category:Opera companies and Category:Opera festivals. (Opera houses may also be found in other categories, such as city, e.g. Category:Milan, and buildings, e.g. Category:Buildings and structures in Vienna.) Associations etc. are under Category:Opera organizations.

Opera terms are categorized under: Category:Opera terminology. Audio and video recordings of opera on 78, LP, CD, DVD etc. are categorized under: Category:Opera recordings. Publishers are under Category:Opera publishers, and publications under Category:Opera publications. Topics which don't fall under any of the above can always be included (temporarily) in Category:Opera.

There is also a partially-implemented family of categories taking the form [[Category:YYYY operas]]; these form sub-categories of [[Category:NNth century operas]]. These are usually years of first performances.

(Forms of Chinese opera are listed under Category:Performing arts not opera.)

[edit] Category sorting

Alphabetical order in the listing of operas/people

The titles of articles are sorted omitting the definite or indefinite article such as "A", "The", "Le", "La", "Les", "Der", "Die", "Das", etc. This is done using a "Default sort" tag, which is placed before the categories. For example La naissance d'Osiris requires {{DEFAULTSORT:Naissance d'Osiris}}. That means that the opera will file under N and not under L, although the actual article title ("La naissance d'Osiris") will appear in the Category listing under N.

Two other points here: first, the default sort title should always start with a capital letter, as lower-case initial letters are filed after upper-case Z; second, if there's a special character or accent early in the title, the default sort title should not contain the special character/accent, for a similar reason. So, in the same category, if "Zéphire" isn't changed to "Zefire", it would file after "Zwerg".

People have to be sorted in the same way, e.g. {{DEFAULTSORT:Verdi, Giuseppe}}, otherwise Verdi will appear under 'G' rather than 'V'.

[edit] Category listing

There is a complete list of categories containing opera articles at: Wikipedia:WikiProject Opera/Catlist.

[edit] Category navigation box

v • d • e
Opera Categories on Wikipedia

[edit] Stubs

Wikipedia is developed from red links to stubs and then to full articles, so creating stubs is a stage in that process. (It is helpful if the stubs include sufficient information to be viable in their own right, e.g. an opera composer stub should at least include dates, nationality and major works.)

Here are several template messages (c.f. Wikipedia:Template messages) that are used for opera topic stubs:

  • Composers: {{composer-stub}}
  • Opera singers: {{opera-singer-stub}}
  • European opera houses: {{euro-struct-stub}}
  • General opera topics: {{opera-stub}}

[edit] Infoboxes

Note: Current consensus among project participants holds that the use of currently-available biographical infoboxes and especially those which have been designed for non-classical musicians is often counterproductive on opera singer and opera composer biographies. The information that can be given below the image in infoboxes is not sufficiently flexible, can lead to oversimplification and ambiguity, and, when placed at the head of the article, simply repeats information that should be in the first sentences in any case. No infoboxes should be added to opera singer or composer articles without first obtaining consensus on the article's talk page. This position is in line with the consensus reached by the participants at the Classical Music Project and the Composers Project.

This note can be added to pages when editing:
<!-- please do not add an infobox, per [[Wikipedia:WikiProject_Opera#Infoboxes]]-->

The following archives document the various infobox discussions:

[edit] Navigation box templates

Navigation boxes have been developed to make it easier to move around. The first four are for opera genres, opera lists, opera terms and opera categories (see above). In addition, where there are Wikipedia entries for all or most of a composer's works, boxes are being developed in order to enable easy navigation from one opera to another. There is a complete list of these boxes at: Opera navigation boxes.

As with other opera lists, the operas are arranged in chronological order by the date of first performance, but date of composition may be used in individual cases if there is a significant gap between composition and first performance. What constitutes a significant gap will vary according to circumstances, but the most obvious examples are operas such as Eccles's Semele which were first performed long after their composer's death. The boxes are normally positioned at the top right of the opera articles - see, for example, La traviata.

[edit] Project banner, welcome and userboxes

We have an official Opera Project Talk Page banner indicating the involvement of the project. The banner was added to all identified opera pages by SatyrBot in June 2007, and again by MelonBot in May 2008. All articles with Opera Project banners are in Category:WikiProject Opera articles.

There is also a project welcome box for new participants, using the code {{Opera welcome}}.

A selection of available userbox templates is at Wikipedia:WikiProject Opera/User and project boxes.

[edit] Project code of conduct

The Opera Project believes in collaboration and compromise. Edit warring is evil and strongly deplored, so please don't do it. Take the initiative and be bold, but if you encounter opposition discuss matters calmly, either with the user in question on the article's talk page, or the project talk page if a wider audience is desirable. Please don't indulge in a revert-war. Thanks for reading this.

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