Music 100 - Opera

Getting Background Information on Your Topic

Reference books such as the music encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks listed below are a good starting point for your research because they help you become better acquainted with your specific composer and work.

Reference Books

Opera—Dictionaries

Baker’s Dictionary of opera Reference ML102.O6.B26 2000	The encyclopedia of opera Reference ML102.O6 E6
Ewen, David Encyclopedia of the opera. Reference ML102.O6 E9	The Da Capo opera manual Reference ML102.O6 M35 1997
The Metropolitan Opera encyclopedia : a comprehensive guide to the world of opera Reference ML102.O6 M47 1987	Crowell's handbook of world opera. Reference ML102.O6 M6
The new Grove dictionary of opera Reference s ML102.O6 N5 1994	The Oxford dictionary of opera Reference ML102.O6 W37 1992
Operas in English: A Dictionary Reference ML102.O6 G74 1996	The Oxford illustrated history of opera Reference ML1700.O95 1994

Operas--Stories, plots, etc.

The new Milton Cross' complete stories of the great operas. Reference MT95 .C76 1955	The Barnes book of the opera Reference MT95.D2 B4
Gänzl's book of the musical theatre Reference MT95 .G2 1989	Kobbe’s illustrated opera book Reference MT95.H2 1989
	Kobbé, Gustav Complete opera book Reference MT95 .K52 1963

General Music Reference

Baker’s biographical dictionary of musicians Reference ML105. B16 1992	The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians. 2nd ed. Reference ML100 .N48 2001
	The Milton Cross new encyclopedia of the great composers and their music. Reference ML385 .C7 1969

Getting More Information on Your Topic

Once you have done your background research you will be ready to conduct more comprehensive research using books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet.

Books

Books can provide a broad overview of a topic or in-depth information. Use the Library Catalog to find books available in the Cerritos College Library. You can search for books by author, title, subject, or keyword. Listed below are some Library of Congress Subject Headings used in the catalog for books relating to Opera. Use these terms to Search by Subject. Remember, this list is by no means conclusive.

Opera Opera--Biography Opera--Dictionaries	Music Music--Bio-bibliography Music--Dictionaries
Operas Operas--Librettos Operas--Stories, plots, etc.	Composers Composers-Biography-Dictionaries

You can do a Word search to find books on your specific work. You can also find information about a composer by searching under Subject.

The general call number for books relating to Opera is ML1700-ML2110.

Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Journals and magazines usually provide the most current information. Journal articles are more scholarly or professional while magazine articles tend to be shorter and more general. Newspaper articles, while not usually scholarly or professional, can give you the most current news and some additional facts on your topic. To find articles on your topic, use one of the online indexes listed below. They are available at http://www.cerritos.edu/library/http://www.cerritos.edu/library/e-resources.html. Use subject headings similar to those used to locate books. The Library also has print indexes that must be used to find older articles, generally anything published before 1985.

Online Indexes

EbscoHost MasterFile Premier

GaleNet-Discovering Collection

NewsBank

Project Muse

Print Indexes

Humanities Index

Los Angeles Times Index

New York Times Index

Reader’s Guide

See the Library Internet Resources handout for a complete description of our online resources.

Internet Sites

The Aria Database http://www.aria-database.com	Opera Glass http://rick.stanford.edu/opera/main.html
Operabase http://www.operabase.com/en/

LN 10/01, Rev 10/04

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Web Author: Lorraine Gersitz (lgersitz@cerritos.edu)
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