Music Reference Resources - Classical Vocal/Opera
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Repertoire for the Solo Voice, Noni Espina, (1977).
Ref. ML128 .S3 E8 vs. 1-2
An annotated guide to works for solo voice published in modern editions, covering material from the 13th century to the 1970’s.
Music for the Voice, A Descriptive List of Concert and Teaching Material, revised edition, Sergius Kagen, (1968).
Ref. ML128 .V7 K3 1968 Music Library and Tutt Library
Vocal music is organized under the following sections: Songs and Arias Before the Nineteenth Century, Songs of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Folk Songs, and Operatic Excertps.
Art Song in the United States, 1759-1999-An Annotated Bibliography, third edition, Judith Carman, et al. (2001).
Ref. ML128 .S3 C37 2001
Entries organized under composer/title of song. Songs are described by range, voice type, mood, characteristics of voice and piano parts, difficulty, uses, and discography number. Includes discography and indexed by composer, poet, and title.
The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Sadie (1992).
Ref. ML102 .O6 N5 1992 vs. 1-4
Comprehensive, scholarly source for opera. Superseded and enhanced by its inclusion in Groves Music Online (see under “ELECTRONIC“, below.)
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, second edition, Harold Rosenthal and John Warrack (1979)
Ref. ML102 .O6 R67 1979 Music Library and Tutt Library
A collection of terms, participants, creations, and localities of the operatic culture. Very brief bibliographies.
The Book of 101 Opera Librettos, edited by MacMurray (1996).
Ref. ML48 .B66 1996 Music Library and Tutt Library
Complete original language texts with English translations of many standard operas. Although some Baroque and Modern operas are included, this source concentrates on well-known examples of the Classical and Romantic tradition.
American Operas: A Checklist, by Borroff (1992).
Ref. ML111 .D46 no. 69
Over 4,000 titles comprising a “preliminary listing of operas by composers of the United States”. Includes musical theater. Indexed by composer.
Encyclopedia of Opera on Screen-A Guide to More Than 100 Years of Opera Films, Videos, and DVDs, Wlachsin (2004).
Ref. ML102 O6 W55 2004
Indexes participants, terms, and films (complete with label information). Brief entries.
Electronic
Grove Music Online , Oxford University Press (2004).
Based on The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Grove Music Online is enhanced by the electronic capability of sound files, 3D illustrations, links to external internet sources, and frequent updating of material. Other articles, from specialist dictionaries such as The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition, are now available via a link from Grove Music Online’s primary article.
ChoralNet-The Internet Center of Choral Music, (2004).
http://www.choralnet.org/
A central portal to online resources and communications for the global choral music community.
Musica Virtual Choral Library
http://www.musicanet.org
“An international index to choral scores for documentary research and pedagogy.” Indexes 80 types of information, including composer, arranger, publisher, title, genre and form, difficulty, choir type, language, century, etc.
From Don to Giovanni: Opera Database, UCLA Music Library.
http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/music/don/index.htm
“Searchable database containing the titles of 31,769 operas, the names of 8,478 composers and 9,901 librettists, and the year and location of the first performances (1946 cities in 78 countries).”
Aria Database, maintained by Glaubitz.
http://www.aria-database.com/
Contains a variety of information on over 1000 operatic arias. Includes translations and aria texts of many arias and a collection of MIDI files of operatic arias and ensembles.
OperaGlass-An Opera Information Server on the World Wide Web, maintained at Stanford University.
http://opera.stanford.edu/main.html
Includes libretti (texts), source text, performance histories, synopses, discographies, composers, librettists, companies, etc.
Lied and Song Texts Page, created and maintained by Emily Ezust.
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/
“This site houses an extensive archive of thousands of texts to Kunstlieder and other art songs in Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, etc.”