This site is a collection of historical opera images- singers, composers, and conductors, 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.

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 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.

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.

Opera Memphis.http://www.operamemphis.org

This site provides "animated" (page-by-page) operatic scores and "animated" operas. The animated operas show visitors a slide show of images from an actual performance, acompanied by plot summary and character development.

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.