Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Opera/Archive 11

message: On FAs/GAs, it was with this in mind that I suggested (somewhere above) that it would be a good idea to grade all of the articles that fall under our aegis - then we'd have a better idea of which existing articles could be promoted to GA/FA with a little extra work.  I certainly haven't looked at all the opera articles that there are, and the quality of those that I've looked at varies considerably (apart from ones that I've created/improved myself, of course, which are perfect!). --GuillaumeTell 17:09, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have created an article ranking page at Article ranking. I hope this kicks this off in a productive way. Please add examples to the table! - Kleinzach 18:03, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Opera/Article ranking|Article ranking]]

message: Someone has, rather creatively, written a page covered three different works by Eccles, Handel and Marais. I have put some split/merge tags on it but would appreciate help sorting it all out and checking what the page titles should be. - Kleinzach 23:56, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorted. It's all a bit rough and ready and crude but will do for now. I've also done a whack of redirects for the various split-offs. Cheers, Moreschi 20:26, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks. Much appreciated. - Kleinzach 20:38, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Semele (opera)]]

message: Is this actually a valid opera genre? Looking at Grove, I see Opera Féerie- a French operatic genre - and some German genre - that's Märchenoper - but no "Fairy opera" per se - and certainly not in English. If there are no objections I reckon this should be whacked up at CFD. Cheers, Moreschi 18:24, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It sounds pretty bogus to me too. I haven't seen the phrase being used too often in opera histories. Maybe it would help if there were a referenced WP article on the genre. --Folantin 19:01, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Which there isn't, just in case anyone was wondering. Moreschi 19:03, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've never heard of it. It seems to be a catch-all category for operas which are based on fairy-tales. I think that its being so general, but rarely used as a term, makes it less useful as a category. I don't believe you could call it a genre. I might be ok with a category "operas based on fairy-tales", simply as a broad sort of category. Mak (talk) 21:25, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The only "fairy opera" reference retrieved in a search of my Viking Guide on CD-ROM relates to a project by Ravel to turn Hauptmann's Die versunkene Glocke (aka La cloche engloutie or The Sunken Bell) into an opera.  A "féerie" search turns up Boieldieu and Rameau, but no specific operas.  CFD, agreed. --GuillaumeTell 22:12, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[:Category:Fairy opera]] 

message: I have started an article on the relatively recent opera, Jeppe: The Cruel Comedy.  It has not been commercially released on CD or DVD, but its composer, Sven-David Sandström, has many other works avaiable on Amazon.com.  I hope this makes the opera notable enough for the article to be retained.  I saw it on Valentine's Day 2003, so there might be some minor errors, and I couldn't comment too much on the music, because the only bit I remember beyond a general sense well enough to sing is the refrain of Jeppe's  "One step forward, three steps back, then I shrug my shoulders". 
By the way, I credited the librettist first, since Sandström in the pre-show talk implied that Fellbom was the major creative force behind the opera, and that he himself came into the project relatively late.  --Scottandrewhutchins 07:02, 21 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Jeppe: The Cruel Comedy]]

message: Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 16:11, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia Day Awards 

message: I made some changes to the Opera of the Month box for January on the main page (i.e. for Rameau) but they don't seem to have appeared there. Can someone fix this? --Folantin 15:03, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Eh, seems like it's showing now. Sometimes you have to purge the server cache...somehow...Cheers, Moreschi  Deletion! 16:55, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Query

message: I volunteer to write the article about Renato Bruson. That would be my first. However English is not my native language so I might need some help. Any suggestion on writing for this project is very welcome. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Luca priorelli (talk • contribs) 
:No problem. We've had several editors before who did not have English as their first language and we've found it works well if you just write your articles and we'll copy-edit it for you. If you plan to write a lot of articles, it works well if one person does specific copy-editing duties. When you've finished just leave a note here and I'll come along and clean it up. If you plan on doing some more we can discuss a more permanent arrangement. Good luck, and welcome! Cheers, Moreschi  Deletion! 19:26, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have added the article. What about pictures? How can I know if a picture found somewhere in internet can be uploaded here? Luca priorelli 23:31, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The article looks very nice; well done! I've added a couple  tags where there are quotes that need specific sources (perhaps they're from the references listed at the bottom of the article? If so, specific references for each quote would be great.) Heimstern Läufer 00:14, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Volunteering

message: In dance and theater companies the director of the company is generally called the Artistic Director, the single individual most in charge of all artistic output.  Is this term used with opera companies?  Is there a standard for opera companies?  Thanks.  KP Botany 21:18, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Question about opera company director 

message: I've done for librettists, which I hope has come out alright. It's  and expanded goes to:

Best to all, Moreschi  Deletion! 20:00, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  New template 

message: I wish to add some information on the process (creative, circumstantial, financial) that led to the completion of The Rake's Progress. I found no adequate subtitle for this section anywhere, neither on the the few major opera pages I scanned through nor on this project's page. Which title would be appropriate for this chapter on pre-performance history? (Or does this not belong in the article?)--Sluzzelin 23:35, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: "Origins"?   By the way, the whole article could do with a rewrite and expansion - feel free to arrange it as you wish. --GuillaumeTell 01:18, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Or even "Influences"? That can work sometimes. Cheers, Moreschi  Deletion! 08:32, 4 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  subtitle for ''pre-''performance history? 

message: I've requested a peer review for Agrippina (opera) at Wikipedia:Peer review/Agrippina (opera)/archive1: all opinions welcome and requested. Cheers, Moreschi  Request a recording? 16:10, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Peer review 

message: Now that I'm zapping all sorts of opera articles with navigational boxes, and adding said articles to my watchlist, I find that there are moves to rename a couple of them - see Talk:Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Talk:La_bohème#_An_evil_poll.  I'll weigh in on the latter front in support of Alexs some time tomorrow, but feel free to defend the Opera Project's principles (if you wish) without waiting for me.  Unity is strength, or something like that. --GuillaumeTell 01:44, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've weighed in on La boheme. I certainly hope we aren't saying that the move at Seraglio is an attack on the project's principles, though. As I've said there, I believe the move is more consistent with WP:UE. If the community finds otherwise, fine by me, but it's not going against the principles of this project to make this move. Heimstern Läufer 01:54, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Renaming of opera articles 

message: Kudos to Moreschi, who, I think, did most of the heavy lifting.  Now, how do we take it out of the box at the top of the Project page?  And what should replace it there? --GuillaumeTell 21:40, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorted. Thanks to GT for the praise, but lots of people helped. It's a nice article now. Cheers, Moreschi  Request a recording? 09:36, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Talk:Orfeo ed Euridice|Orfeo ed Euridice]] gains GA status 

message: Might it be possible to add "castrato" to the list of voice types? I did a new article today for Gaspare Pacchierotti, and would be happy to do some more, time permitting. There are quite a lot of articles already on individual castrati, but there is plenty of scope for expanding them.--voxclamans 20:16, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Added castrato to the list.  I'm sure that all of us (especially Moreschi!) will be happy to have your input. --GuillaumeTell 01:52, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Seconded. Lots of work that can be done in :Category:Castrati. Cheers, Moreschi  Request a recording? 10:10, 23 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Castrati

message: Greetings, the editors over at Richard Wagner were wondering if the opera project would like to give the article a grade.  Comments would be especially welcome as we are looking for ways in which the article can be further improved.  Thanks.  Jvbishop 13:20, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: No problem. Jusr looking into it, I'll comment fully later. Cheers, Moreschi  Request a recording? 15:35, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Grading Richard Wagner 

message: I've discovered that a couple of opera articles (The Flying Dutchman and Pelléas et Mélisande) have separate pages for comprehensive discographies - both good work by User:Roope.  This looks like an excellent option for operas with numerous recordings (e.g. the popular Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini operas, plus others such as Orfeo ed Euridice) in order to avoid overburdening their articles or having to be selective. --GuillaumeTell 22:21, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: (Greetings to all from Hokkaido!). I agree the discographies (The Flying Dutchman and Pelléas et Mélisande) are excellent and would be good models for future pages. - Kleinzach 04:39, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discographies 

message: Any ideas? My own preference would be for Vincenzo Bellini: most of the articles on his operas are lacking either synopses or context or both, which is not a good state of affairs. I don't think we've done him. Bellini apart, one possibility - perhaps for April? - would be the operas of one those Baroque composers who don't get performed these days because they aren't Handel: Alessandro Scarlatti, Leonardo Vinci, Johann Adolf Hasse, Giovanni Bononcini, etc. But, as I said, my own preference would be for Bellini. Thoughts? Cheers, Moreschi  Request a recording? 15:11, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Bellini sounds like a good idea to me.  I've had a look through the articles and none of them is really complete (I Capuleti e i Montecchi is nearest);  as well as what you say above, some of them don't have lists of roles, most say little or nothing about recordings and hardly any have any references. --GuillaumeTell 18:19, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Don't know much about Bellini but I'm unlikely to be able to contribute much in March anyway so my vote doesn't really count. Better idea than taking on Scarlatti (he wrote a lot of operas). --Folantin 22:06, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: On the assumption that it is to be Bellini, I've produced a table of which articles currently have what content.  Arrangement within the articles is inconsistent, as are some of the subheadings, but my columns deal with what's there, whatever it is called. If it isn't to be Bellini, this was still worth doing, and might form the basis for an article-assessment project sometime. --GuillaumeTell 01:30, 28 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: What's going on here?  I discovered, in the small hours of 1 March, that the Composer of the Month box on the Project Page had ticked on and was displaying a red link.  I attempted to rectify this, but failed (and it was late at night).  So - do we ask Vanished user to fix it and make Bellini CoTM for February, or do we have a holiday and insert Bellini into the March slot up above now - or at least before 31 March, so that it does the box thing by itself?  Either way, I'd be keen to see my table (above) in the box, if that's technically possible.  --GuillaumeTell 21:58, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

text: I have gone ahead and listed Bellini on the project page. Can I add a link to Guillaume Tell's Bellini table? Or perhaps even better can we move it to a project subpage? Thanks. Kleinzach 02:24, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've put the table at Wikipedia:WikiProject Opera/Bellini operas but my attempts to put in a link from the OoTM page have failed (it opens in edit mode, bizarrely). --GuillaumeTell 11:23, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think I have fixed it. Let me know if I haven't! - Kleinzach 12:57, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, it looks fine, thanks.  God knows what I was doing wrong.  It would be good if anyone working on Bellini could update the table when they do anything significant (I'm afraid that it's in html rather than Wiki-ese) so that we can see what progress has been made.  I'm probably going to concentrate on synopses. (And, by the way, I personally see the table as the basis for a rather more concrete way of rating articles on operas than the standard Wikipedia "B-class" waffle.) --GuillaumeTell 14:56, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

text: Sorted! Cheers, Moreschi  Request a recording? 09:32, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Composer of the month for March 

message: I'd like to suggest either Offenbach or Franz Lehár, partly as a change and partly because our coverage is patchy of their operas. Rossini also needs attention, but perhaps we have done enough early 19th century Italian opera for a while. Other candidates for the future might be Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Grétry, or Paul Hindemith, but perhaps they can wait until we have covered more major figures? - Kleinzach 02:34, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: My own preference would be for Offenbach, for no terribly good reason. Moreschi  Request a recording? 14:02, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Mine too, for the (maybe also not terribly good) reason that I rate Offenbach a great deal higher than Lehar! --GuillaumeTell 14:58, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Good, that's three votes so I will list Offenbach above. There are a lot of works so I assume we will be concentrating on getting up as many viable stubs as possible rather than improving Les contes d'Hoffmann, though the latter could do with some extra sections (roles, recordings etc.). - Kleinzach 23:15, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Composer of the month for April

message: Fantastic job by everybody on List of important operas! Is it complete now? Should we remove it from the project page? Kleinzach 09:46, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It's complete in that all the entries have annotations, provided entirely (as far as I'm aware) by Moreschi and Folantin working at high speed.  I'm sure that they won't mind if I say that quite a few of the annotations don't really relate to the importance of the opera - they say what the source of the story was, or where the opera comes in the composer's chronology, or whatever.  The other thing is the question of the citations.  Has anyone looked at the suggestion by Elipongo at the bottom of the Talk:List_of_important_operas#The_appearance_of_.22Notes.22_on_this_list_of_operas section? --GuillaumeTell 15:13, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have just seen this - and also the entries from Viva Verdi. I'm not sure i understand what happened. If Viva Verdi is no longer involved that is disappointng as he made such important contributions to the companies and festivals pages. I wonder if anyone has attempted to reconcile the different parties (whoever they may be!) to this dispute? Can i help in any way? - Kleinzach 23:51, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

text: As far as List of important operas is concerned, maybe leave it for know. Unsurprisingly, I'm sick to my back teeth of the damn thing and don't really want to see it for a while. It was thought good enough to be featured, so we can always come back and fine-tune later. Moreschi  Request a recording? 15:18, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah, I'm sick to my back teeth with it too. If someone with more technical ability wants to fix the notes, then go ahead. In fact, as far as I'm concerned the page references to "Viking" are extraneous anyway. You'd have to be pretty dumb not to be able to locate the relevant info in the book in a matter of seconds, given that it's arranged alphabetically by composer and there is an index of every opera by name at the back. But we had to add them because some pedant at FL would complain. As for Viva Verdi, I don't really know what happened. He disappeared for ages then re-emerged from nowhere with that personal attack. I don't know the guy, but judging from the edit summaries in his contributions over the past few months, he doesn't seem to be in the best of moods. The summaries for the operas aren't perfect but everything on Wikipedia is a work in progress. The trouble with the entries I did for Wagner's Ring, for instance, is that the operas were listed individually. It's immensely easy to give a brief introduction to the significance of the cycle as a whole, but try doing it for each of the four individual operas without getting into technical detail. Some of the other operas in the list are important mainly because they are/were immensely popular; it gets very hard to keep rephrasing that. --Folantin 12:07, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: WikiProject Opera Work in Progress/ [[List of important operas]]

message: I see that List of unrecorded operas has never really been developed. Is this of interest to us? Could this be a new collaborative project? It was originally started by Mllefifi who was interested in promoting César Cui. Any thoughts on this or perhaps other candidates for WIP ventures? - Kleinzach 09:46, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't have the slightest interest in this list.  What is it for? --GuillaumeTell 15:13, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, I'm not sure this list is such a bad idea. Maybe a tad crufty but potentially useful. The only real problem I can think of is sourcing it properly: how can we really be sure that the list is complete/exhaustive? It's easy to find out whether individual operas should be on the list but as to knowing where to stop, finding a definitive version? Maybe a little tricky. Thoughts? Best, Moreschi  Request a recording? 15:18, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Complete/exhaustive?!  How many operas have been written since 1600?  How many of those have been recorded?  Less than 1% is my uneducated guess.  Even a list of unrecorded operas that appear in the Viking Guide (mostly in the "other operas" lists at the end of the articles) would be pretty long (and, IMNSHO, pretty useless).  --GuillaumeTell 15:26, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Hmmm, agreed. What might be feasible could be a List of currently performed operas that haven't been recorded, but that could easily get deleted at articles for deletion, and we've have a nightmare of a time both sourcing it and deciding what constitutes "currently performed" a neutral manner. Moreschi  Request a recording? 15:31, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

text: How about just turning this list into a category? --Folantin 09:37, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: At :Category:Unrecorded operas? Moreschi  Request a recording? 10:48, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, that would make it easier to handle. There are probably too many unrecorded operas out there for a maintainable list. But any opera with its own article is by definition notable so it can be put in this category until a recording appears. --Folantin 11:16, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Introducing a new category applicable to all opera title articles would be a big job, especially as the percentage of articles with sections covering recordings is still relatively small. Assuming all minor operas without recording sections are unrecorded would create lots of errors. After thinking this over my view is that a bad category would be much worse than a single bad (or undeveloped in this case) page. Perhaps i have misunderstood your proposal? If so please say so. Best. - Kleinzach 23:41, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd guess that almost all of the operas which have existing articles have been recorded.  Exceptions:  operas premiered recently (say, post 1960) and, uh, operas by Cesar Cui.  I ask again - what is the purpose of this list?  Is it to entice record-company executives to start recording previously unrecorded operas?  Dream on! If not that, what?  This question hasn't been addressed in the discussion above.   I'll put this list up for WP:AfD if no-one else does. --GuillaumeTell 00:54, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree, the list is little more than opera fancruft.- DrGeoduck 01:09, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

text: Yes, I don't really see the point of a list. Cataloguing the dozens and dozens of unrecorded opera serias by Alessandro Scarlatti, for instance? Rather you than me. Also, if I'm not mistaken, unlike categories Wiki-lists are supposed to be more than a bare string of names. What comments could we add to each unrecorded opera? --Folantin 09:25, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: If the consensus is for deletion, I will support this - at least it would be a quick and efficient solution. We could then get on with more significant work. - Kleinzach 13:04, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: WikiProject Opera Work in Progress/[[List of unrecorded operas]]