The Singer's Companion: A Guide to Improving Your Voice and Performance, and: Singing: The First Art (review)

The Aria Database is one of those Web sites that has been around for quite a long time, and it gets linked to from many music library pages. The database was begun in 1996 when the owner/creator, Robert Glaubitz, had ample spare time while working at a help desk back in his student days. Over the years it has grown from a non-searchable database covering ten to fifteen operas to its present scope of 170 operas searchable through three separate databases (arias, ensembles, operatic roles). According to the Web site, the user can access 1,278 arias, 60 composers, 381 translations, 223 files, and 1,027 opera texts. Included in this list are all the arias from operas by Mozart, Verdi, Berlioz, Wagner, and Puccini along with partial coverage of more than fifty other composers.

The front introductory page provides a quick search box with some search limiters provided, a brief description of the database, a statement of responsibility, and a point of entry to the database. The main page of the database leads the user in a variety of directions including separate links for searching the database, browsing, a short list of operas in translation, a bibliography of books on opera, rules for contributing to the database, information about the creator, how to make donations, and a link to "Help" that is very well organized. Careful documentation and giving credit to others where it is due is apparent throughout the database.

It must first be acknowledged that there is a lot of useful information in this database for the singer as well as for the opera lover. The search screen provides a sufficient variety of choices for searching: all fields (or keyword), aria, composer, opera, role, range (the user can set specific high and low notes for the range), language, and voice part. There is a check box to tell the system to ignore the range if it is not relevant to the search. The user can also specify finding arias with sound files, translations or texts of the arias attached. The user should remember that the appropriate database must be selected in order to get satisfactory results. Step by step instructions are included on the search page, along with a box that keeps the search strategy right in front of the user by reminding "your search criteria were ..."

A sample search for Mozart, specifying Italian and mezzo-soprano as additional qualifiers, yielded ten arias from the database. The first one at the top of the list, "Smanie implacabili" is a typical example of the rich information offered to the user. The entry includes the number of the aria from the opera itself (no. 11 from Cosi fan tutte), where it occurs in the opera, along with the title, the composer, and the librettist. Clicking on the hyperlinked title, composer, or librettist will display other relevant lists. The title link will lead to a listing of all the arias from the opera, the composer link to all the operas by that composer that are included in the database; likewise for the librettist. Clicking on the character's name leads to a description that includes voice part, fach, opera title, language, composer, description of the character, the first singer to create the role, and the list of arias sung by the character. There is such a wealth of hyperlinks in each record and throughout the database, that the user can hop from one useful list to another. The user can access the MIDI file, if available, or the translation or text. Credit is given to the creator of the sound files and translations, along with links to the creator's e-mail address. The sound files are not lovely but the listener will get a sense of melody and tempo, which is the main idea. The records also link out to retail sites, leading the user to opportunities to purchase recordings or printed music. The record also includes the setting of the aria, its range, and...