User:Scarabocchio/Operabase

Operabase is a website of opera performance information, created in 1996.

Public site

It provides information to opera-lovers .. "Created in 1996 and run by an English software engineer and opera lover named Mike Gibb, Operabase does all the collating: you can search for performances by country, city, opera, composer, performer, date -- or by clicking on a map. Using another of Operabase's features, we searched for productions within seven days and 125 kilometers (78 miles) ... The site includes Web links and contact information for each theater" (nytimes)

.. it was the first .. "Avant que le Britannique ne crée cet outil inédit et formidable qu'est Operabase.com, rien d'exhaustif et de centralisé n'existait vraiment, ... En tout cas rien d'exhaustif, de régulièrement remis à jour - donc rien de fiable, attendu que le monde du lyrique est sujet à annulations et remplacements de dernière minute. En quelques années, Mike Gibb est parvenu à construire un outil d'une précision étonnante et, avant toute autre qualité, d'une flexibilité que seul le fonctionnement d'Internet permet." (lemonde)

.. went full time after three years .. .. "it is put together by a thoroughgoing enthusiast. The site started in 1996 as the hobby of Mike Gibb - designer, programmer, data-entry clerk and tea boy of Operabase - and became his full-time occupation three years later. " (guardian)

.. went pro after seven years .. "Mike saw the potential of the site to offer opera managers an incredibly powerful casting tool if he could cross reference the performance information with the singers database. To a high-flying computer programmer, this was a fairly straightforward concept, but it also made him realise that he might be able to combine his passion for opera with his professional skills and make a living out of it, even if it did take him seven years to get to that point" (opnow)

.. and it does it in multiple languages, well-translated. "La page d'accueil d'Operabase, présentée en six langues (et excellemment traduite, au moins en ce qui concerne la version française)" (lemonde)

project started "this autumn" (2006) -- "Operabase has taken on the Herculean task of making it 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."(opnow). As of 14 May 2011, the site is in 19 languages (but a list would be tedious).

Professional services

There is also a subscription service for professionals, which includes artist information and a casting tool.

"200 opera houses, from the Met to La Scala, ... use the professional side of the site" (opnow)

Partial list of cpompanies here http://www.operabase.com/abo.cgi?lang=en&type=A : Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Glyndebourne, Covent Garden, Washington National Opera, Den Norske Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Opéra national du Rhin, Opéra de Nancy, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Royal Danish Opera, Oper Graz, Welsh National Opera

"Parce que Operabase ne donne que des informations pratiques sur le monde lyrique hic et nunc, et non des commentaires et liens de qualité variable dont regorge Internet, ce site a vite été repéré par les professionnels de la profession."(lemonde)

Opera statistics

In autumn 2010, the site 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 in London in March 2011.

http://operabase.com/top.cgi?lang=en#opera

Most played composers

In the five seasons 2005/6 to 2009/10, works from more than 1000 different composers were played. The most popular composers were:

1. Giuseppe Verdi
2. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
3. Giacomo Puccini
4. Richard Wagner
5. Gioachino Rossini, then Donizetti

Over half of the composers played in this period, more than 500, are living. The most frequently programmed living composers were Philip Glass, Hans Werner Henze, and John Adams.

Most popular operas

In this five season period, a total of 2156 different works were given, including over 300 world premieres. The most popular operas overall were:

1. Die Zauberflöte (1791, Mozart)
2. La traviata (1853, Verdi)
3. Carmen (1875, Bizet)
4. La bohème (1896, Puccini)
5. The Marriage of Figaro (1786, Mozart)

The most popular operas from composers from the 20th century were Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1934, Dmitri Shostakovich) and The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten.  The most popular works by living composers were the monodrama The Diary of Anne Frank (composed 1968, Grigory Frid), and the opera Dead Man Walking (2000, Jake Heggie).

Most operatic places

• The 2009/10 season

Over 23,000 performances, one third in Germany (the most operatic country), then us, austria, france, italy

The cities with the most opera performances are

1. Vienna
2. Berlin
3. London

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