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Opera

Last Updated: 16-Mar-2015

Research Skills

Find printed music

Sources for conducting research on opera.

Subject Librarians

Ray Heigemeir
Ray Heigemeir
Public Services Librarian for Music
Music Library
(650) 384-9985

Subjects

Music
Opera
Voice

Related guides

Songs and singing

Around Stanford

Archive of Recorded Sound

Printed opera music

Search in SearchWorks for individual operas and excerpts by title and composer name. Choose format "scores".

Browse the stacks:

M 1500 Complete works
M 1503 Complete works, with piano accompaniment
M 1505 Excerpts
M 1507 Excerpt collections, with piano accompaniment
M 1508 Excerpts from individual works, with piano accompaniment
M 1611-1612 Aria collectiions

New opera score arrivals

Request "in process" items via SearchWorks.

› See all 55135 results
  1. 3 Concertos from "Select Harmony", H. 121-123 ; 2 Unison concertos, H. 124-125

    Francesco Geminiani ; edited by Christopher Hogwood. 2015

  2. 6 Concertos after Corelli Opp. 1 & 3, H. 126-131

    Francesco Geminiani ; edited by Christopher Hogwood. 2015

  3. Alceste [video recording]

    Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck. 2015

  4. Amants d'Apollon : l'homosexualité dans la culture

    Dominique Fernandez. 2015

  5. American-Soviet cultural diplomacy : the Bolshoi Ballet's American premiere

    Cadra Peterson McDaniel. 2015

Sound and video recordings

A strength of the Music Library's media collections are recorded opera performances. Several thousand CDs and over one thousand DVDs are available onsite; additional older formats (audio cassette, LP, VHS, Laserdisc) may be paged from off-site storage. Resources are greatly enhanced by the Archive of Recorded Sound.

See also our streaming media databases for access to audio and video recordings.

Notable CD collections include:

The complete studio recordings, 1949-1969 [sound recording].
[London]: EMI Classics, ℗2007.
Music Library » Recordings » MCD 16035 BOOKLET
The Record of singing. Volume 5 [sound recording] : 1953-2007 : from the LP to the digital era.
Germany : EMI Classics, p2009.
Music Library » Recordings » MCD 19282
Earlier volumes also available.

New opera CD arrivals

Request "in process" items via SearchWorks.

› See all 32312 results
  1. Another sunrise : for soprano with clarinet, violin, cello, bass and piano

    music by Jake Heggie ; libretto by Gene Scheer. 2015

  2. Un avvertimento ai gelosi

    Manuel García ; edited by Teresa Radomski. 2015

  3. Bilgamesh, un ballet-opéra en deux actes : symbiose d'un genre oublié, une mythologie archaïque et une langue morte

    Ashot Ariyan. 2015

  4. The Classical style : an opera (of sorts)

    music by Steven Stucky ; libretto by Jeremy Denk. 2015

Books and articles

Read the article on Opera in Grove Music Online stanford only

Find in the Reference Room:

 
 
 
Browse the stacks
ML 1700 General histories; also by country and time period
ML 3858 Philosophy and aesthetics
MT 95-100 Analysis and appreciation
MT 955 Production and direction

 

See a list of opera periodicals here.

Librettos

Online sources

Some site below provide text in modern type; most provide scans of original publications in the public domain. Availability of translations varies by site.

Opera Folio
Opernführer
Kareol
Opera Glass
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Digital Collections
Digital scores and libretti at Harvard
Virtual Library of Musicology libretti links
Internet Archive texts
Naxos Music Library libretti

Opera librettos are published separately or in collections. You may also find them contained in the booklets accompanying opera recordings.

Browse the stacks:

ML 48 Collections, multiple composers (or authors)
ML 49 Collections, single composer
ML 50 Single works, alphabetical by composer
ML 2110 Books about libretto writing, translating, etc.

 

Antiquarian publications:

Venetian opera libretti 
1286 libretti on 41 microfilm reels. A printed guide is in the Reference Room.

Terence Rees Collection of Opera Librettos 
Green Library, Department of Special Collections (M1173).

The Music Library also holds a number of late 18th- and early 19th-century librettos published primarily in France and England.

Special opera collections

Most of these special collections are located in the Archive of Recorded Sound.

Mario Ancona

Mario Ancona Collection

The Mario Ancona Collection includes photographs, memorabilia, sound recordings, and more related to Ancona's career.

Richard Bonelli

Richard Bonelli Collection

The Bonelli Collection includes letters, programs, scores, scrapbooks, recordings, posters, and news clippings.

Ruth and Mario Chamlee in Manon

Ruth and Mario Chamlee Collection

Tenor Mario Chamlee sang at the leading opera houses in the United States and abroad. His wife Ruth was a soprano and noted singing teacher.

Richard Crooks as Pinkerton

Richard Crooks Collection

Richard Crooks was a tenor with the Metropolitan Opera Company.

Ted Fagan

Theodore Fagan Collection

This is the personal collection of Theodore Fagan, United Nations translator, author, and music collector.

Kirsten Flagstad

Kirsten Flagstad Collection

Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962) was known as the premier Wagnerian soprano of her time.

Lehmann as the Marshallin

Gary Hickling Collection on Lotte Lehmann

Includes correspondence and research notes related to Hickling's discography of Lehmann's performances.

Donald Pippin, Artistic Director of Pocket Opera

Donald Pippin Collection

The Donald Pippin Collection consists primarily of Pippin's English translations of opera librettos available as pdf files.

Blanche Thebom as Laura, in La Gioconda

Blanche Thebom Collection

The Blanche Thebom Collection consists of scores, correspondence, publicity, production notes, and media from the mezzo-soprano's post-Met career as teacher and director.

James Schwabacher

James Schwabacher Collection

The James Schwabacher Collection consists of sound recordings, correspondence, scores, scrapbooks, clippings, programs, teaching material and other papers from San Francisco philanthropist and lyric tenor James Schwabacher.

Detail from Lind's vocal exercise book used at the Royal Conservatory.

Jenny Lind papers, 1835-1917

The collection includes correspondence (1835-1897), financial papers, musical compositions, and other papers.

Opera resources on the web

Operabase (current news and schedules)
Operacast (internet radio)

Opening night! Opera & oratorio premieres

Opening night! Opera and oratorio premieres
A cross-index of data for over 38,000 opera and oratorio premieres. It allows complex searches across multiple categories or simple browsing within any single category, such as genre, composer, librettist, premiere date, country, oratorio subject, or theater. The database is linked to SearchWorks, allowing users to easily find related scores, recordings, and writings.