Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Opera

A selection of articles, new or otherwise interesting

• Anna Bartels, a Swedish operatic soprano, who appeared at the Royal Swedish Opera in Swedish premieres such as Musetta in Puccini's La bohème (pictured) and Woglinde in Wagner's Rheingold
• Winfield Blake, an operatic bass and Broadway musical star who became a comedian in vaudeville in the comic duo Blake and Amber
• Tilman Michael, the chorus master of the Metropolitan Opera, who helped the Oper Frankfurt win multiple awards for operatic choir of the year
• Walter Kirchhoff, a tenor who made his stage debut in the title role of Gounod's Faust at the Berlin Royal Opera. and who was also an Imperial German Army cavalry officer
• Oedipus, a 1987 opera of which its composer Wolfgang Rihm said: "Sound is a weapon here – or a scalpel?"

Recent featured pictures...

• 
  Geraldine Ulmar
• 
  W.S. Gilbert
• 
  Arthur Sullivan
• 
  Michael William Balfe
• 
  A Sensation Novel
• 
  His Majesty
• 
  The Duchess of Dantzic
• 
  Fred Sullivan
• 
  Philippe Chaperon
• 
  George Grossmith in Patience
• 
  Falka
• 
  The Rose of Persia
• 
  Claude Debussy
• 
  Doris
• 
  Dimitri (Act V set design)

Composer and Opera of the Month Proposals A simple script will automatically replace the text on the front page with the appropriate month when the time comes. Here are the next three months: [edit] Composer of the Month for December 2024 Click Here to set up December's Composer of the Month! [edit] Opera of the Month for December 2024 Click Here to set up December's Opera of the Month! Click here to show the January and February Opera and Composer of the Month preparation areas [edit] Composer of the Month for January 2025 Click Here to set up January's Composer of the Month! [edit] Opera of the Month for January 2025 Click Here to set up January's Opera of the Month! [edit] Composer of the Month for February 2025 Click Here to set up February's Composer of the Month! [edit] Opera of the Month for February 2025 Click Here to set up February's Opera of the Month!

Project alerts

WikiProject Opera/Article alerts has daily reports of issues (XfDs, PRODs, FACs, Peer Reviews, etc.) on all pages bannered with WikiProject Opera. Opera Search Results lists new articles which may fall under the scope of the project. For articles that do fall within our scope, add {{WikiProject Opera}} to the talk page. A selection of clean-up tags can be found here. WikiProject Opera/New unreferenced BLPs has a daily list of all such articles. Tips on sourcing can be found here. Category:Requested edits lists all articles where an editor with a conflict of interest has requested an edit on the article's talk page. Note that this category is not currently differentiated by project.

Free subscriptions to databases

Note Do not archive this section. Voceditenore (talk) 10:17, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

• Questia Online Library – apply here for the next round ("This partnership is currently not available. It is inactive but retained for historical interest")
• Highbeam Research apply here for the next round ("HighBeam Research was a paid search engine and full text online archive ... In late 2018, the archive was shut down.")
• JSTOR apply here for the next round
• Credo Reference sign up for waiting list here ("This partnership is currently not available. It is inactive but retained for historical interest")
• Répertoire international de la presse musicale, an excellent resource, sign up here

Voceditenore (talk) 10:53, 10 January 2013 (UTC) Updated by Voceditenore (talk) 07:57, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Opera articles: Recordings - which to exclude?

Note Do not archive this section. Voceditenore (talk) 10:17, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

As there has been no further discussion on this since early December 2010, I've archived this here. But this is a topic we may want to revisit at some point, re expanding/clarifying the current article guidelines. Voceditenore (talk) 08:37, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

The latest discussion (January 2014) is archived here. – Voceditenore (talk) 09:12, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

Articles needing libretto links

Note Do not archive this section. Voceditenore (talk) 10:17, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Note that for now some of the Rossini librettos can still be accessed from the list on this page on Karadar, but it will require adding those new links to the articles, and I'm not sure how long it will be before Karadar closes that loop hole. Anyhow, here's the list of operas so far where I've removed dead links and there is currently no other alternative. It's also possible to recover some of the karadar links via the Wayback machine, as was done at L'éclair, although it's a bit fiddly. If you add a new link, just strike through the opera name(s) below. Voceditenore (talk) 16:55, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Help! Does anyone know how to access Karadar these days? It appears to be a dead link - and I've tried to get into it via a couple of ways. Viva-Verdi (talk) 16:15, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Hi Viva-Verdi. It appears to have disappeared in all its guises–.com, .org. and .it. I have a feeling they ran into copyright problems with some of their stuff. It's not showing up on Google searches at all and see this wacky note. I have found this other site which has links to zillions of libretti. Hopefully, you'll find the one(s) you're looking for. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 18:06, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

List

Le domino noir (only score found), Sigurd (opera), Ciro in Babilonia, Sigismondo, Ricciardo e Zoraide, Eduardo e Cristina, L'equivoco stravagante, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Médée (Charpentier), Emilia di Liverpool, Francesca di Foix, Il signor Bruschino

Requested opera templates

Note Do not archive this section. Voceditenore (talk) 10:17, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Archived at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Opera/Archive 120. Voceditenore (talk) 09:46, 19 June 2015 (UTC)

Place new requests here. Voceditenore (talk) 10:29, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Almanacco Amadeus – Che disastro!

Note Do not archive this section. Voceditenore (talk) 10:17, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

It's disappeared again. All links now redirect to this site. I'm keeping an eye out to see if the almanacco re-surfaces, but so far it's nowhere to be found on the new site. Grrrr! Voceditenore (talk) 15:49, 18 June 2017 (UTC)

It's finally available again: almanac-gherardo-casaglia.com. --Rodomonte (talk) 22:16, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

I attempted to adapt Template:Almanacco to the new URL and its parameters; it seems to work. Lamentably, I discovered only later that Rodomonte had already modified de:Vorlage:Almanacco similarly – that template hadn't been linked to the EN template via interwiki links (now corrected). -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 14:18, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks so much for that, Rodomonte and Michael! Not only for the good news but for fixing the template too. Brilliant! Voceditenore (talk) 16:16, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Many new illustrations from Ricordi now available

As part of the GLAM project with the Ricordi Archive, the most important historical archive in Italy about music, we have just uploaded hundreds of new quality images: photos and portraits of musicians, sketches, drawings, illustrations of operas. Many Wikipedia articles will finally have an illustration! You can find all images in Commons:Category:Media from Archivio Storico Ricordi‎ (here divided by category). Thank you in advance. --Marco Chemello (WMIT) (talk) 16:51, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

Thank YOU, Marco. What a treasure trove! Voceditenore (talk) 17:37, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

Looks great and promising! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:40, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

Yes, many thanks for all these great images! Have added some of them to articles already.Smeat75 (talk) 20:55, 15 September 2020 (UTC)

@Marco Chemello (WMIT): Are there any images the Ricordi Archive would like a restoration done of? I'd be delighted to do a few in thanks. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.5% of all FPs} 04:16, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

In the meantime, File:Giacomo Puccini (1924) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO003293 - Restoration.jpg. Would have liked more resolution on that - featured pictures generally require 1500px on the smallest side, though that one's close enough it might slip through - but I've been wanting us to have a good pic of Puccini for years, and am glad this lets that happen. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.5% of all FPs} 07:33, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

Dear @Adam Cuerden:, thank you for your interest and for your work! Most images requiring restoration are in the portraits, but the resolution is not high. We uploaded higher resolution images in the Costume designs and Set designs categories, see if you find some interesting for you. --Marco Chemello (WMIT) (talk) 08:07, 17 September 2020 (UTC)

I've loaded up my favourite dozen into my to-do list. Probably going to start with File:Gabrielle Ray (c. 1910) - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO002691.jpg. I don't suppose you could beg them for a high-resolution image related to the Ricordis? File:Giacomo Puccini, Tito II Ricordi, André Charles Messager - Archivio Storico Ricordi FOTO000883.jpg looks like a decent choice. Although I'll also be doing File:Maria Carrara Verdi, Barberina Strepponi, Giuseppe Verdi, Giuditta Ricordi, Teresa Stolz, Umberto Campanari, Giulio Ricordi, Leopoldo Metlicovitz (1900) - Archivio storico Ricordi FOTO003107.jpg Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.5% of all FPs} 02:11, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

Dear @Adam Cuerden:, thank you. I'm asking Ricordi for some hi-res images, but it may require some time. Consider also some other group image like File:Gerolamo Rovetta, Marco Praga, Giannino Antona Traversi, Augusto Novelli, Domenico Oliva, Renato Simoni, Sabatino Lopez (1907) - Archivio storico Ricordi FOTO002705.jpg (some of them already used in articles). --Marco Chemello (WMIT) (talk) 08:17, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

I shall be working through as many as I can manage. Just would feel odd to me to get this wonderful release and not do a restoration to celebrate what made the archive, y'know? Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.5% of all FPs} 09:24, 18 September 2020 (UTC)

• Completed restorations. ( marks Featured pictures)
• 
  Giacomo Puccini
• 
  Gabrielle Ray
• 
  Madama Butterfly, act 1
• 
  Rosa Raisa
• 
  La Wally, act 1 costume for Wally.
• 
  Tannhäuser, act 3
• 
  Edgar (didn't need restoration)
• 
  Seated: Maria Carrara Verdi, Barberina Strepponi, Giuseppe Verdi, and Giuditta Ricordi. Standing: Teresa Stolz, Umberto Campanari, Giulio Ricordi, and Leopoldo Metlicovitz
• 
  Amilcare Ponchielli
• 
  I vespri siciliani, act 5
• 
  Ciro Pinsuti (Much too small to be featured, but that mark on his nose annoyed me)
• 
  A basso porto (didn't need resyoration)
• 
  La bohème, act 2 set design

From these treasures, do we have something about operas by Rossini - Pacini - Respighi? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:00, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

I think Rossini and Pacini are a little early. There was a Belfagorimage, but it was a mislabelled Il Piccolo do Haydn. We can hope the real Belfagor is uploaded in the next batch. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.6% of all FPs} 17:16, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

Belfagor is on the list for next. Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 7.7% of all FPs}

Chronological list of operatic sopranos

Hi all, I just created this list by going through our various categories on operatic sopranos. There were a number of women missing their birth year within those categories and I was unable to include them. Those singers are listed on the talk page at Talk:Chronological list of operatic sopranos. Any help in sourcing dates for those singers and then placing them within the list would be much appreciated. For historical singers where the birth date is not known, the list is sorting them by the first year they were known to have flourished. Thank you for any and all assistance in advance. Best. 4meter4 (talk) 19:36, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

@Michael Bednarek, Jeanambr, Chrisdevelop, Voceditenore, Dronkle, Gerda Arendt, Smerus, Antandrus, Kosboot, Softlavender, Eastmain, Sparafucil, Ssilvers, OrestesLebt Adam Cuerden, Scarabocchio, AirshipJungleman29, Nivent2007 and Robert.Allen Apologies if I missed anyone or if I pinged someone who wouldn't find this of interest. I selected people who have commented in the last year on the project page. I could use help with sourcing this very large list. In building the list, I just accepted in good faith what was in each article. I am now going through and carefully checking for accuracy and adding sources. I've caught a few date errors while adding sources. There are a few cases though where Grove had it wrong and people did cite primary documents to prove it. If project members could help add sources, particularly on people you may have created articles on or contributed heavily to, that would be appreciated. Any additional work is also appreciated. Best.4meter4 (talk) 04:20, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Nice work! I'll see if I can add a few sources in the coming weeks. Aza24 (talk) 06:38, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Thank you. I'm on vacation, so just briefly:

• Fighting white spice: the upright images might be "upright", and the formatting changed that not a whole section is reduced to fewer columns.
• The images might relate to a a singers prime time of performance rather than birth year. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:51, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

I prefer to keep photos with names in a particular section. Otherwise new singers won't get images and what do we do in the earliest era? Not have an image?4meter4 (talk) 14:32, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

• What do you think of doing it as in List of composers by name and rely on refs in the linked articles, to avoid ref clutter?

Lists need to have refs under policy. The composer list isn't in compliance with policy.4meter4 (talk) 14:32, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

• What do you think of having only articles with a safe ref (regarding the years, especially of birth), and have the others commented out or smaller, to indicate clearly where work is needed? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:51, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

This would be an excellent idea for a Wikidata-generated list. That way you wouldn't have to worry about people who have been added subsequent to the creation of the list. The nature of Wikidata means such a list would include not only people not on English WP but also people who don't yet have a Wikipedia article (but have a Wikidata article - of which there are many). Let me know if you'd like to see examples of such lists. - kosboot (talk) 13:48, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

@Kosboot That's an excellent idea.4meter4 (talk) 14:34, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

The Women in Red project creates lists of women who have Wikidata items but lack articles. It gives an example of what information one can include. Relevant to us is a list of women opera singers who lack Wikipedia articles: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red/Missing_articles_by_occupation/Opera_singers. - kosboot (talk) 15:11, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Didn't realize there is this category which one can browse: Category:Lists_based_on_Wikidata - kosboot (talk) 15:20, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Hmm. My only issue is that wikidata does generate content on people who are not notable at times. I think I would rather keep the list to extant articles for that reason.4meter4 (talk) 15:22, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

I think, its possible to create a Wikidata list only with items, that have a Wikipedia article. Grimes2 (talk) 16:31, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Very nice query! 4,374 items! And yes, it's possible to construct a query where you can have results only if there is an existing article. -kosboot (talk) 19:23, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Here is an example syntax:

SELECT ?human ?humanLabel ?birthdate
WHERE
{
  ?human wdt:P31 wd:Q5 . # instance of human
  ?human wdt:P412 wd:Q30903 . # soprano
  ?human wdt:P106 wd:Q2865819; # opera singer
  wdt:P569 ?birthdate .
  SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],mul,en" }
}
ORDER BY DESC(?birthdate)

Grimes2 (talk) 15:33, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks User:Grimes2. I'm not up on SPARQL so I've been using ChatGPT. Others have gotten good results but I'm striking out. ChatGPT does this for returning Wikidata items with corresponding WP articles. But WQS doesn't like this. What's wrong?

::::::?article schema:about ?singer; ::::::schema:isPartOf <https://en.wiki.x.io/>. ::::::

-- kosboot (talk) 15:19, 23 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks to a kind editor on Wikidata I got the basic script for generating a list of sopranos with English (and German - the editor was a German-speaker) Wikipedia articles:

#defaultView:Table;

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# opera singers who are sopranos with article in English Wikipedia

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SELECT DISTINCT ?item ?itemLabel ?itemDescription ?article_en ?article_de

WHERE {

?item wdt:P31 wd:Q5. # is human

?item wdt:P106 wd:Q2865819. # and occupatition is opera singer

?item wdt:P412 wd:Q30903. # and voice type is soprano

?article_en schema:about ?item.

?article_en schema:isPartOf <https://en.wiki.x.io/>. # and has article in English

OPTIONAL {

?article_de schema:about ?item.

?article_de schema:isPartOf <https://de.wiki.x.io/>. # and maybe article in German

}

SERVICE wikibase:label { bd:serviceParam wikibase:language "[AUTO_LANGUAGE],en". }

}

order by ?itemLabel

This results in 2293 articles. The editor provided another script where "soprano" was not present in the voice type but elsewhere in the Wikidata (mostly in the general description of the person), resulting in another 60 people. I'll have to read up in how to order by birth date. :) - kosboot (talk) 00:41, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

Here is a list: Wikipedia:WikiProject Opera/Sopranos Grimes2 (talk) 02:31, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

Kudos to @Grimes2! @4meter4 - that's your list - wonderful! - kosboot (talk) 14:26, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

It's also a great way to see which articles need images. - kosboot (talk) 14:40, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

Great work! Perhaps we should have similar lists for all the voice types and house them on WP:WikiProject Opera pages. We could use the lists as an easy way to aid in building similar article space lists, and as the bot updates with new items it would help us keep track of missing people that need to be added.4meter4 (talk) 15:06, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

 Done Grimes2 (talk) 08:51, 30 September 2024 (UTC)

I've added a list with all operatic characters present in Wikidata: Wikipedia:WikiProject Opera/Characters list Hope its useful. Grimes2 (talk) 18:08, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

Tatyana Shlykova opera singer?

I am having trouble finding sources on this one. The few English language refs I have found all refer to her as a ballet dancer, and the one Russina language source that isn't dead doesn't mention anything on opera.4meter4 (talk) 04:46, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Have you tried searching "Татьяны Васильевны Шлыковой-Гранатовой"? That's giving more results on my end – Aza24 (talk) 06:36, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Catherine Cibber

I would like some opinions on including this soprano in our Chronological list of operatic sopranos? She technically never sang in an opera that I can tell, but did sing many soprano arias written for her by Henry Purcell in masques (a pre-cursor to the English semi-opera) and stage plays that included music. She is sort of in a weird place in history where opera hadn't fully developed yet in England. She was singing florid difficult music for soprano. I can see an argument going either way. 4meter4 (talk) 17:00, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Nico Castel

Can anyone add an image to the article? Thanks! -- Ssilvers (talk) 19:04, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

My best helper finding images is User:Storye book, see Walter Jacob. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:01, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

Done. File:Nico Castel (1b).jpg. In that picture, I think he is in his forties, because his skin is so smooth. However he may be in his fifties, in which case the caption in the article should say 1980s, not 1970s. So please change it if you think he is in his fifties. He is definitely not in his thirties or sixties. I hope that helps. Storye book (talk) 20:33, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

The picture is dated 1971 in the New York Times article from which it is taken. He is in costume as Schmidt in Werther. Keriluamox (talk) 21:02, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

I knew Castel back in the early 80s, and I'd say you are right -- he already appeared older then: this must be from the 70s. Thanks! -- Ssilvers (talk) 21:24, 26 October 2024 (UTC)

Talk:Pacific Repertory Theatre

Project members may wish to comment at Talk:Pacific Repertory Theatre where there is an ongoing discussion related to the notability of the PRT and more broadly theatre organizations. I have included this notice here as the PRT has staged light operas/musicals in the past. All opinions are welcome.4meter4 (talk) 12:59, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Brother and Sister

I recently added a page on Brother and Sister as a stub article connected to Lily Pons, who recorded an aria from it, but it was converted to a draft for insufficient sourcing. It looks like it's going to need offline research much like my article on catalogue aria. Anyone care to help? --Scottandrewhutchins (talk) 08:18, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

Kaoli Isshiki

A discussion is going on for Kaoli Isshiki, a soprano from Japan based in France. -- Gerda Arendt (talk) 17:47, 10 November 2024 (UTC)