Opera guide
An opera guide is a reference work that provides information about various works of opera literature , their origins, their structure and distribution, and possibly also their cast. As with other guides , opera guides do not focus on completeness; instead, the selection is based on the fairly regularly performed works.
Translation aid
Italian as the lingua franca of past centuries was a familiar language to opera goers. Since Karajan's efforts, most of the works have been performed in their original language again. The difficulties of understanding for today's viewers are compensated for by the surtitles as well as by opera guides and programs.
Collection of works
The fact that many operas were constantly repeated has resulted in a general canon of works that belong to the repertoire of many theaters. In order to give the knowledge-hungry viewer an introduction to the work that is unfamiliar to them, various opera guides are available in bookshops that try to catalog the most famous works. For the staging of the respective performance, the program booklets of the theater are used. Not all works are listed in opera guides, just as the composition of the "standards" changes with time and society. (For example, opera guides from the GDR contain significantly more works by Russian composers.) Programs here offer an indispensable alternative for works that are difficult to access.
Many theaters also offer introductory events to the work being performed or matinees.
Examples of opera guides
- Alfred Beaujean, Michael Venhoff (Red.): Harenberg: Kulturführer Oper . 5th, completely revised edition. Meyers Lexikonverlag, Mannheim 2006, 1st edition appeared in 1995 as Harenberg's opera guide . ISBN 978-3-411-76162-3 .
- Attila Csampai , Dietmar Holland (ed.): Opera guide. New edition, fundamentally revised and expanded with the assistance of Alexandra Maria Dielitz. With DVD recommendations from Kurz Malisch. Rombach, Freiburg i. Br./Berlin/Wien 2006, ISBN 3-7930-9484-7 .
- Rudolf Fath: Reclam's opera guide . 38th edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-010638-9 .
- Rudolf Kloiber , Wulf Konold , Robert Maschka: Handbook of the Opera. New edition. 11th, revised edition. Bärenreiter / dtv, Kassel et al. / Munich 2006 (1951), ISBN 3-423-34132-7 .
- Ernst Krause : Oper A – Z: An opera guide , 6th edition. German publishing house for music, Leipzig 1989, ISBN 3-370-00148-9 . (Standard opera guide in the GDR .)
- Ulrich Schreiber : Opera guide for advanced learners: The history of music theater . Bärenreiter, Kassel 2010, ISBN 978-3-7618-1960-9 . (Five-volume paperback edition, first edition 1988.)
Other languages
- Amanda Holden: The new Penguin Opera Guide Penguin, London 2001, ISBN 0140514759 . (An abridged edition of the Viking Opera Guide )
- Amanda Holden, Nicholas Kenyon: The Viking Opera Guide Viking Press, London 1993, ISBN 0670812927 .
- Stanley Sadie: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0195221869 . (Four volumes)
literature
- Nikolaus Drebinger: The opera guide as a didactic medium: traditional publications and modern concepts in comparison . Wißner, Augsburg 2005, ISBN 3-89639-463-0 . (Dissertation at the PH Weingarten )
Web links
- Opera Glass , an opera guide on the Internet at Stanford University (Engl.)
- Opera-Guide , by Heinz Kern, Zurich (libretti, synopsis, musical highlights)