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Music: Opera Research

Online Opera Resources

Classical Scores Library This link opens in a new window
Contains more than 24,000 classical music scores from the Middle Ages to the 21st century.
Encompasses all major classical musical genres and includes full, study, piano, and vocal scores.
Classical Music Library* This link opens in a new window
Provides sound tracks of well over 1.2 million recordings of classical music.. Features the world's greatest performers from over 32 major and independent classical labels, including EMI and Hyperion. (Part of Music Online)
Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Naxos Music Library [NML] is the world's largest online classical music library. As of March 31, 2020, it offers streaming access to more than 150,000 albums with more than 2,300,000 tracks. On average, 500 new albums are added to the library every month. 10 users
Met Opera on Demand: Student Access This link opens in a new window
Streaming video access to more than 800 full-length performances from the Met's Live in HD series, as well as more than 350 full-length video and audio performances. Adobe® Flash® Player is required to access Met Opera on Demand. Internet browser(s) should be fully up to date. Not currently compatible with iPad or iPhone.

Further Reading and Research

Opera : the basics, by Denise Gallo—ML1700 .G29 2006
The Magic of Opera, by J. Merrill Knapp—ML1700 .K6 1984

Cambridge Introductions to Music: Opera, by Robert Cannon—M1700 .C195 2012
History through the Opera Glass, by George Jellinek—ML1700 .J44 2000
The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies, edited by Nicholas Till—ML1700 .C166 2012
Opera in America : A Cultural History, by John Dizikes—ML1711 .D6 1993
The Oxford illustrated history of opera, edited by Roger Parker–ML1700 .O95 1994
The Cambridge companion to twentieth-century opera, edited by Mervyn Cooke—ML1700 .C17 2005
The Cambridge companion to grand opera, edited by David Charlton—ML1727 .C43 2003
First nights at the opera, by Thomas Forrest Kelley—ML1720 .K45 2004
Opera in history : from Monteverdi to Cage, by Herbert Lindenberger—ML1700 .L54 1998
Democracy at the Opera, by Karen Ahlquist—ML1711.8.N3 A45 1997
French opera : a short history, by Vincent Giroud—ML1727 .G57 2010
American opera, by Elsie K. Kirk—ML1711 .K56 2001
The birth of opera, by F. W. Sternfeld—ML1733.2 .S73 1993
Italian opera, by David Kimball—ML1733 .K55 1991
German opera : from the beginnings to Wagner, by John Warrack—ML1729 .W37 2001
The Cambridge companion to eighteenth-century opera, edited by Anthony R. DelDonna and Pierpaolo Polzonetti—ML1704 .C36 2009
Opera and politics, by John Bokina—ML1700.B74 1997
Viva la liberta! : politics in opera, by Anthony Arblaster—ML1700 .A7 1992
A passion for opera : learning to love it : the greatest masters, their greatest music, by Peter Fox Smith–ML1700 .S65 2004
Opera and sovereignty : transforming myths in eighteenth-century Italy, by Martha Feldman—ML1733.3 .F45 2007
The Metropolitan Opera : the first twenty-five years, 1883-1908, by Paul E. Eisler—ML1711.8.N3 M426 1984

The Opera Companion, by George Martin—MT95 .M25 1984
The empty voice: acting opera, by Leon Major—MT956 .M35 2011
The opera singer's career guide : understanding the European Fach system, by Pearl Yeadon McGinnis—MT820 .M354 2010
Divas and scholars : performing Italian opera, by Philip Gossett—ML1700 .G7397 2006
Unsettling opera : staging Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, and Zemlinsky, by David J. Levin—ML3858 .L48 2007
Opera coaching : professional techniques and considerations, by Alan Montgomery—MT956 .M66 2006
The drama of opera : exotic and irrational entertainment, by Myer Friedman—ML1700 .F72 2003

Verdi and Puccini heroines : dramatic characterization in great soprano roles, by Geoffrey Edwards and Ryan Edwards—ML410.V4 E29 2001
The Cambridge Companion to Mozart, edited by Simon P. Keefe—ML.410.M9 C225 2003
Opera and modern culture : Wagner and Strauss, by Lawrence Kramer—ML1700 .K715 2004
Analyzing opera : Verdi and Wagner, edited by Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker—MT95 .A59 1989
Essays on Handel and Italian opera, edited by Reinhard Strohm—ML410.H13 S75 1985
Understanding the women of Mozart's operas, by Kristi Brown Montesano—ML410.M9 B8195 2007

Evenings at the opera : an exploration of the basic repertoire, by Jeffrey Langford—MT95 .L354 2011
A Song of Love and Death : The Meaning of Opera, by Peter Conrad—ML1700 .C668 1987
Opera seria and the evolution of classical style, 1755-1772, by Eric Weimer—ML1704 .W44 1984
The culture of opera buffa in Mozart's Vienna : a poetics of entertainment, by Mary Hunter—ML1723.8.V6 H86 1999
Reading opera between the lines : orchestral interludes and cultural meaning from Wagner to Berg, by Christopher Morris—ML3845 .M87 2002
Opera : desire, disease, death, by Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon—ML1700 .H87 1996
Opera as drama, by Joseph Kerman—ML3858 .K4 1988