Operabase is an online database of opera performances,
opera houses and companies, and performers themselves as well as their agents. Found at operabase.com, it was created in 1996 by English software engineer and opera lover Mike Gibb.
[Edward Schneider (29 July 2001),]
"Singing and Their Suppers"
''The New York Times''. Retrieved 13 May 2011. Initially a hobby site, it became his full-time occupation after three years.
''Opera'' magazine describes the Operabase website as "the most comprehensive source of data on operatic activity".
Public website
By its tenth anniversary, in 2006, the site received "about 10,000 visitors a day to the public site, who look at over four million pages a month between them. Of these, fewer than half use English, 17% use German, 12% Italian, 10% French, 9% Spanish."
In autumn of that year the British magazine ''Opera Now'' reported that "Operabase has taken on the Herculean task of making
he site
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
available to every European Union citizen in their own language – not only the 21 (as at January 2007) official languages of the EU, but Catalan, Icelandic and Norwegian as well."
As of November 2012, the free public area of the site is available in 22 languages, and includes 37,000 performances, 40,000 artists, 700 opera companies, festivals and theatres, and the contact details and rosters of 400 artist managers.
Professional website
Seven years after the public site was launched, a professional site followed and within three years, "200 opera houses from the Met to La Scala" were subscribers.
The initial service offering for the 750 euro annual subscription fee had increased artist information and an opera casting tool. The casting tool was used for researching singers for a given role, but was particularly valued for finding replacement singers when there were emergency cancellations. The tool could not only put forward the names of all of the singers who had sung that role, but the artist schedules could be used to find if they were available, and the artists management and contact information could be used to make contact.
The professional services now also include a global database of opera productions available to rent or buy.
The database is now operated by Gibb and Muriel Denzler, who provide services to opera professionals for a fee, although the site is searchable by any web user at no charge.
As has been noted by Gibb and Denzler in an article on the website of
Opera Europa
Opera Europa is the international service organisation for professional opera companies and opera festivals in Europe. It is incorporated in Brussels as a not-for-profit organisation.
With roots going back to 1995, Opera Europa gained its present ...
(the European opera service organisation similar to those which exist in the US and Canada,
OPERA America and Opera.ca) they provide specialised services to opera professionals, with the site including "casting tools, artist records, management details, productions information". But they emphasise that "the site was originally created for the general public, who still provide 96% of its users".
Statistics
In autumn 2010, Operabase produced a set of statistics for the opera world to mark the 250,000th performance on file. These statistics were presented at the third European Opera Forum, organised by
Opera Europa
Opera Europa is the international service organisation for professional opera companies and opera festivals in Europe. It is incorporated in Brussels as a not-for-profit organisation.
With roots going back to 1995, Opera Europa gained its present ...
in London in March 2011.
In autumn 2013, the statistics were updated to show the 2012/13 season figures.
The Operabase rankings of the most performed operas formed the basis of a set of music questions in an edition of the BBC's ''
University Challenge'', broadcast in July 2014. Competitors were asked to identify three operas in the Operabase list from sound clips of
Maria Callas
Maria Callas . (born Sophie Cecilia Kalos; December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano who was one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised her ''bel cant ...
.
Most played composers
In the five seasons 2008/09 to 2012/13, 2415 different works from 1161 different composers were played. The most popular composers were:
#
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
, with 2,586 performances of 28 operas
#
Giacomo Puccini, with 1,893 performances of 12 operas
#
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
#
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
#
Gioachino Rossini
More than 600 of the composers played in this period were still alive. The most frequently programmed of these were
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...
,
Hans Werner Henze, and
John Adams.
Kaija Saariaho was the most played female composer, living or dead.
Most popular operas
Throughout the 2015/16 season the most popular operas overall were:
#''
La traviata
''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...
'' (1853,
Verdi) with 4190 performances over 869 runs
#''
Die Zauberflöte'' (1791,
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
) with 3310 performances over 561 runs
#''
Carmen
''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...
'' (1875,
Bizet) with 3280 performances over 691 runs
#''
La bohème'' (1896,
Puccini) with 3131 performances over 672 runs
#''
Tosca'' (1900, Puccini) with 2694 performances over 608 runs
The most popular operas by composers from the 20th century (i.e., by composers born after 1900) were ''
The Turn of the Screw'' by
Benjamin Britten and ''
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District'' (1934,
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
). The most popular works by composers alive on 31 July 2012 were the
monodrama ''
The Diary of Anne Frank'' (composed 1968,
Grigory Frid), and the opera ''
Dead Man Walking'' (2000,
Jake Heggie
Jake Heggie (born March 31, 1961) is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers.
B ...
).
Most operatic places
In the 2015/16 season, the cities with the most opera performances were:
#
Moscow with 582 performances
#
Vienna with 535 performances
#
Berlin with 527 performances
#
London with 427 performances
#
St. Petersburg with 422 performances
External links
Operabase Web Site
References
{{reflist
British music websites
Online music and lyrics databases
Internet properties established in 1996
1996 establishments in England