Opera and Musical Theater Guide: Home

BASIC REFERENCE TOOLS

The following titles will be useful in tracking down information about the opera and musical theater.

Stories, plots, librettos:

• Ewen, David. Complete Book of the American Musical Theater. Stacks ML 1711 .E9 1959
• Kobbe, Gustav. Kobbe's Complete Opera Book. Ref MT 95 .K52 1954
• Ganzl and Lamb. Ganzl's Book of the Musical Theatre. Stacks MT 95 .G2 1989
• Lubbock, M. H. The Complete Book of Light Opera. Stacks MT 95 .L85 1963
• MacMurray, Jessica M. and Allison Brewster Franzetti. The book of 101 opera librettos: complete original language texts with English translations. (New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 1996). Music Reference ML48 .B66 1996.

Note: A large selection of opera plot books can be found in MT 95.

Dictionaries and encyclopedias:

• Bloom, Ken. Broadway: its history, people, and places: an encyclopedia, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2004). Music Reference ML102.M88|bB56 2004.
• Ganzl, Kurt. Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre. Ref ML 102 .M88 G3 1994
• Green, Stanley. Encyclopaedia of the Musical Theater. Ref ML 102 .M88 G7
• The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. (4 v.) Ref. ML 102 .O6 N5 1992
• Hischak, Thomas S. Stage It With Music: An Encyclopedic Guide to the American Musical Theatre. Ref. ML 102 .M88 H6 1993
• Hischak, Thomas S. The American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia. Ref. ML 102 .M88 H59 1995
• Moore, Frank L. Crowell's Handbook of World Opera. Ref ML 102 .O6 M6 1974
• Selfridge-Field, Eleanor. A new chronology of Venetian opera and related genres, 1660-1760. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2007). Music Reference ML1733.8.V4 S45 2007
• Warrack, J. & E. West. The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Ref ML 102 .O6 W37 1992
• Wlaschin, Ken. Opera on Screen: A Guide to 100 years of Films and Videos Featuring Operas, Opera Singers and Operettas. Ref. ML 102 .O6 W55 1997

Because printed music and books are classified--i.e., grouped with similar items on the shelves--browsing can be an effective method for finding material. Look on the shelves under the following numbers.

• 91.7 = Operas, vocal scores
• 93.7 = Musicals, vocal scores
• ML 1700 = History of dramatic music
• MT 955 = Production of operas
• Ref. ML 102. O6 = Dictionaries of opera

LOOKING for PRINTED MUSIC or RECORDINGS of a SPECIFIC PIECE of MUSIC:

Any or all of the following methods may work:

• Do a TITLE search in WNCLN's Library Catalog (http://wncln.wncln.org/); convert that to a WORD search to increase the number of retrievals. Use original language if known and ignore initial articles: "Traviata," not "La Traviata."
• Do a KEYWORD search in WNCLN's Library Catalog , using the most distinctive word in title.
• Do an AUTHOR search in WNCLN's Library Catalog
  
• Do a SUBJECT search in WNCLN's Library Catalog, using plural forms of the genre.
  

• Operas
• Musicals
• Librettos

FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT THESE GENRES

•  Do a SUBJECT search in WNCLN's Library Catalog, using singular form of term.

• Opera
• Operetta
• Musicals--History and criticism

Production information:

• Eaton, Quaintance. Opera Production: A Handbook. Ref. MT 955 .E25 (Note: Library does not own Opera Production II.)
• Lucha-Burns, Carol. Musical Notes: A Practical Guide to Staffing and Staging Standards of the American Musical Theater. Ref. MT 955 .L8 1986
• Lynch, R. C. Musicals! A Directory of Musical Properties Available for Production. Ref. MT 955 .L9 1984

JOURNALS

• Opera News
• Opera Quarterly

WEB SITE

• Indiana University School of Music Library Opera home page
  

Electronic Journals