Farron, Jim & Feldman, Alex. The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. http://diamond.boisestate.edu/gas/
Gilbert and Sullivan are two of the most famous "Light Opera" composers. "Light Opera," is a form that is usually comic, and similar to a musical in tone- song interrupted by dialogue. This searchable site provides plot summaries, scores, comentary, biographical information,pictures, music, articles, and over 55 librettos. Users will also find links to other Gilbert and Sullivan and Light Opera sites.
Historic Opera Images.http://www.historicopera.com.
This site is a collection of historical opera images- singers, composers, and conductor, as well as old postcards. Organized alphabetically, each group of photos includes accompanying short biographies. In order to keep people from using his images, the owner of this site has emblazoned "Historic Opera Images" on every one, which does detract a bit from their appeal.
Jones, Randye. Afrocentric Voices. http://www.afrovoices.com.
Afrocentric Voices is a site that focuses on African American singers, mostly in the classical and operatic arenas. It includes biographies of a number of singers, bibliographies on research materials about African American singers, a directory of major African American music collections, and a forum for discussion.
The Metropolitan Opera.http://www.metopera.org/home.html.
This site provide synopsis for over 80 operas, a monthly Opera Quiz, and a history of the Metropolitan opera, illustrated with numerous photographs from the mid 1800's quote to the present. There are biographies and articles about various singers, an article about Shakespearian operas, and about the first opera by a woman performed at the Met. There is also an archive of radio and television broadcasts, and an opportunity to look at some original costume designs and scores. This site provides a link to Opera News, where many articles from recent issues are available in full text. I looked at a lot of sites for individual famous opera houses and companies (Paris, London, etc), and amongst those, I thought this one, because of it's archival material and extra information, was the only one that needed to be listed here.
Neff, Lyle K.Public-Domain Opera Libretti and Other Vocal Texts . http://php.indiana.edu/~lneff/libretti.html.
This site is provides a huge archive (what seems like hundreds) of Operatic Libretti, mostly in their original languages. We can also access links to other sites with full-text libretti, and resources for other sacred and secular vocal music. There is a small and humorous archive of mistranslations. The site provides a huge annotated bibliography (some citations with links) regarding history, individual composers and works, writing styles, translation and translation issues. There were some broken links to individual libretti.
Online Classics.http://www.onlineclassics.com
This site allows users to watch and listen to a variety of performances- opera, ballet, and classical music- online. The entire performance is available for viewing, or users may watch selected parts. Performances are available at three bandwidths- 56k, 128k, or 300k. Users may watch all of the performances for free at 56k. Viewing the higher bandwidths requires a paid subscription. Each performance is supported by a combination of synopsis, cast lists, biographies, and articles. Users need the Windows Media Player (which the can download for free through the site) to view the performances. To gain access to all the free performances (including about 50 full length operas), users need to register their name, address, and e-mail address. The video quality of the free performances is not the best, but it is a good opportunity to sample a variety of productions, sounds, and styles.
OperaGlass. http://opera.stanford.edu/main.html
OperaGlass, maintained by Stanford University, describes itself as an "opera information server on the World Wide Web." This site provides a large number of libretti, synopses, a list of over 1800 composers (with complete opera lists for each) discographies, and performance histories of individual operas, as well as originators of operatic roles, organized in subcategories by composer. Also included is an index for individual pages for opera professionals, and an index of fan pages. Resources are from all over the world, and not all in English. The site invites contributions.
The Opera Index. http://wwar.com/opera.html
A part of a site by World Wide Arts Research,This site provides alphabetically organized sub-directories, each leading to between 1 and 976 annotated resources for the listed topic- i.e.: Chinese Opera. You can also search this site or use it to research other topics. Drawbacks include a relatively limited number of subjects to search, and some broken links.
Opera Memphis. http://www.operamemphis.org
I ran into this site through Yahooligans. The important thing about this site was its menu of "fun sites." This provides links to animated scores, an opera dictionary, and a list of opera titles with synopses of two sentences or less.
OperaStuff.com. http://www.operastuff.com
Offers a database with links to individual singers, both past and present, organized by type of voice (i.e.: countertenor, soprano, etc.), a list of opera companies that may be browsed by country, city, or company name, and a variety of links (including one for "operas with their own web sites." There is a list of opera related listservs. In addition to the information provided for the curious layperson or fan, this site provides information for professional singers.
OperaWeb. http://www.opera.it/Operaweb/en/home.html
This dual-language English/Italian site is designed to provide information for opera seasons all over Italy. This site also provides some fun and interesting resources, including: a discussion of the musical components of opera (geared toward the beginner); a glossary of opera terms; synopsis, musical analysis, and commentary on select operas; reviews of performances, CDs and books; a humorous (but complete) history of opera; curious anecdotes, and news.
Opulent Opera.http://www.fidm.com/features/gallery/F_Opera99.html
This site provides a gallery of costumes for 18 different operas, designed for a 1999 exhibition by students at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM). The icon for each opera brings up a window with about 5 different thumbnail images to click on and view. There is music to accompany the exhibition. These are really very beautiful and well done- some are very traditional, and some are more abstract. It is one of the only sites available with multiple costumes to view.
US Opera. http://www.hapka.com/usopera/timeline.html
This is a timeline of American operas from the 1840's to the 1990's. Arranged in a timeline that gives both date of composition and date of debut, each provides links to short biographies of the composers with a list of their works. Some titles are also linked to synopsis, performance history, and commentary.
Suhm-Binder, Andrea. Cantabile-Subito. http://www.cantabile-subito.de/index.html
Cantabile-Subito, maintained by a singer and collector of old records, is a site that focuses on singers from 1900 to 1940. It lists dicographies, biographical notes, portraits, and commentary for over 1,000 singers. Some MP3 files and a list of links are are also included.