LibGuides: Sing It!: Operas

How to Sing a Song : The Art of Dramatic and Lyric Interpretation by Yvette Guilbert
Call Number: MT892 .G82
Publication Date: 1918
An Interpretive Guide to Operatic Arias: A Handbook for Singers, Coaches, Teachers, and Students by Martial Singher
Call Number: MT892 .S5 1983
Publication Date: 1983
A premier singer and master teacher here tells other singers how to get the most from 151 famous arias selected for their popularity or greatness from 66 operas, ranging in time and style from Christopher Gluck to Carlisle Floyd, from Mozart to Menotti. For each aria, the author gives the dramatic and musical context, advice about interpretation and the lyric - with the original language (if it is not English) and an idiomatic American English translation, in parallel columns. The major operatic traditions - French, German, Italian, Russian and American - are represented, as are the major voice types - soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass-baritone and bass.
Russian Songs and Arias by Jean Piatak; Regina Avrashov
Call Number: ML54.6.P57 R8 1991
ISBN: 1877761524
Publication Date: 1991-09-01
Singing and Imagination by Thomas Hemsley
Call Number: MT892 .H446 1998
ISBN: 0198790163
Publication Date: 1998-06-04
Word-by-Word Translations of Songs and Arias by Berton Coffin, Werner Singer, and Pierre Delattre
Call Number: ML54.6 .W65
Publication Date: 1966-72
Word-by-Word translations... is an excellent resource for singers and pianists alike. All of the standard rep. and much of the not so standard rep. is included. Entries are easy to locate. The translations provided are accurate and complete. The word-by-word format is so helpful to singers--so much more accurate than the usual English "translations" found under the foreign text. Knowing exactly what each word means allows for so much more expression than just having an overall idea what the song is about.

Useful Databases & Websites

Ballad Operas Online
This ballad opera website was created at Oxford University and represents the collective efforts of a team of British and American music scholars.
The website does a great job of informing visitors about the attributes of the ballad opera and the societal context in which it came about, by including sections on "Theatre & Dance History", "Cultural History", "Political History", and "Stars of Ballad Operas". Visitors should not miss the "Audio Samples" link, on the left hand menu.

Biography Reference Bank (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Biographical information on approximately half a million people, from antiquity to the present.
Provides biographical information on approximately half a million people, from antiquity to the present, along with thousands of images. BRB offers substantive narrative profiles, each about 2,000 words long, from H.W. Wilson publications and other respected publishers.
The biographies are searchable by name, profession, title, place of origin, gender, race/ethnicity, titles of works, date of birth, date of death, keyword, and presence of images. Daily updates provide up-to-the-minute coverage of newsmakers.

Full-text articles, abstracts, and images gleaned from thousands of magazines and journals cover new names and expand on existing profiles. Book review excerpts and full text reviews help users find and select print biographies.

Met Opera Archives
This includes everything from opera synopses and historical pictures to timelines and facts. The main part of hte site discusses the Met's history.
Musicals101.com: the Cyber Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV and Film.
Site authored by John Kenrick, author of two books on musicals. Provides much useful information not only about the history of musicals and musical performers but also about the mechanics of putting on a musical.

Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
The world’s largest online classical music library offering streaming access to more than 115,000 CDs. Over 800 new CDs are added to the library every month.
The world’s largest online classical music library offering streaming access to more than 115,000 CDs. Includes sophisticated advanced search capabilities to find content, and provides music education resources.

Operabase
Operabase has documented operatic activity worldwide since 1996, with over 190,000 performances on file. It records the work of artists in over 600 theatres, and publishes season information to opera-goers in 7 languages.
OperaGlass
Includes an alphabetized list of operas and associated resources, e.g. a synopsis and/or the full libretto, performance history, discography, pictures, or other source materials.
more...less...
The "Una voce molto fa" section is an excellent aid for finding operas for six or fewer performers.

Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Portal for Grove Music Online, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Oxford Companion to Music. Authoritative resource for music research with over 52,000 articles written by nearly 9,000 scholars charting the diverse history and cultures of music around the globe.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Index and abstracts of articles, books, dissertations, conferences, and other literature on music.
An international bibliography of scholarly writings on music and related disciplines. RILM provides a broad, international coverage and concise abstracts. All scholarly works are indexed (articles, books, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, Festschriften, films and videos, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, ethnographic recordings, conference proceedings, reviews, etc.). Concert reviews, recording notes, pedagogical manuals, etc. are indexed if they are of scholarly interest.

Areas of coverage encompass historical musicology, ethnomusicology, instruments and voice, librarianship, performance practice and notation, theory and analysis, pedagogy, liturgy, dance, criticism, music therapy, and interdisciplinary studies on music and various other fields, including literature, dramatic arts, visual arts, acoustics, aesthetics, anthropology, sociology, linguistics and semiotics, mathematics, philosophy, physiology, psychology, and physics.