texts

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition
This 29 volume dictionary is the definitive reference source for all things musical. Just over a century old, and newly updated, this on-line version contains everything that the printed version does. Note: This site is password protected. Use restricted to Oberlin campus computer terminals.

The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
The full on-line version of Grove's multi-volume opera dictionary. Browse articles on and images of singers, composers, directors, conductors, and designers. Note: This site is password protected. Use restricted to Oberlin campus computer terminals.

Naxos' Synopses of Operas
Part of Naxos' education page at their commercial site. Synopses not only include plot, but character break-down and a short history. Contains many hard-to-find operas.

New York City Opera - Synopses
NYCO's small listing of synopses. The site contains stories from the standard rep as well as some lesser-known pieces.

Bohemian Opera Circle
Detailed analysis of La Bohème as well as composer bios, opera in movies, links, and more.

Obscure Opera Synopses
Eine florentinische Tragödie. Der Trömpeter von Säkkingen. Don't worry, I haven't heard of them either. What if, though, you had to sing a scene from these or other obscure operas? Discover what many have chosen to forget.

Opera Glass' Performance Histories
Listings of many standard operas with information regarding first performances and other early productions.

Operas, Musicals, and Their Sources
Found within a mezzo-soprano's personal homepage, this resource explores the literary roots of operas. Thorough bibliographies of certain stories can also be found (i.e. Faust and Don Juan). To find this resource click the link above and scroll down the page a bit.

Don Giovanni in Literature
A collection of eleven complete e-texts of the Don Juan story found in classical literature.

Le Nozze di Figaro - A Detailed Analysis
Quite a nice site containing a detailed tonal analysis, character breakdown, and historical information regarding the opera (i.e. droit du seigneur and restoration).

Libretto Homepage
The most complete site for opera libretti available. Navigation leaves much to be desired, but the site's content more than compensates. Most libretti can be found with an accompanying English translation, only a few texts are left solely in the original language.

The Aria Database
The Aria Database is a diverse collection of information on over 1000 operatic arias. Designed for singers and non-singers alike, the Database includes translations and aria texts of most arias as well as a collection of MIDI files of operatic arias and ensembles.

Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
Find complete G & S libretti, as well as sounds files and histories of your favorite operettas.

Translate-Free
A free translation site that features translation services for just about any language imaginable. Whether you need a translation of Hawaiian, Polish, Esperanto, or Estonian, you will find what you need at this site.

Altavista's Babelfish
Translate pasted/typed text directly on this web page or enter another site's URL and have Babelfish translate it for you. This site offers translation from English to the major "singing" languages; also translate text from Russian or an Asian language to English.

FreeTranslation.com
A free translation site that allows the user to type directly or paste text into translation box. This site offers translation from English to German, French, Italian, Spanish, Norwegian, Portuguese; as well as German, French, and Spanish to English.

Worldlingo.com
This gratis translation machine is found within a web site offering more complex translation services for hire. The free module, however, offers translation to and from ten major languages.

IPA, International Phonetic Association
The official site of the International Phonetic Association, the creators of the IPA. The site offers an in-depth review of IPA, with detailed explanations following every character. View IPA charts, download IPA fonts, and listen to audio examples.

The International Phonetic Alphabet

An IPA chart that gives information regarding the specific sounds of each character.

SIL Encore IPA Fonts

This site contains three versions of IPA fonts available for downloading. Mac and Windows versions available.

The Newbury House Online Dictionary

A guide to IPA pronunciation for English.

The International Phonetic Alphabet Project

An on-line project devoted to greater understanding of phonetic usage. The site contains character charts along with audio samples of specific sounds and these sounds as found in complete words. This site also contains detailed IPA for GERMAN, FRENCH, and SPANISH.

The International Phonetic Alphabet - Braille

A guide to IPA characters in the Braille alphabet.

Diction Domain

The Diction Domain is dedicated to providing information about languages and diction for singing. It includes links to on-line sites and lists of books and other resources. This site is primarily intended as a reference for singers and teachers of singing diction, but welcomes browsers of all backgrounds.

Travlang's Online Foreign Language Dictionaries
Italian, French, German, Czech, Finnish, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Latin, Afrikaans, Frisian, and Esperanto Dictionaries. Good resource; beware of site's pop-up ads.

Languages Made Clear
A site devoted to free on-line language study. The site offers grammar reviews, sample language lessons, vocabulary lists, and audio samples of various texts.

A French Language Site for Beginners
Un, deux, trois...Bonjour...Paris. Is this where your French knowledge ends? Forgot everything from French 101? Not to worry, because this Canadian has gathered all of your basic French vocabulary and grammar along with audio samples of pronunciation.

Oggi e domani -- An interactive Italian lesson
Twenty complete Italian lessons beginning with the basics of self-introduction leading up to the conditional tense. Most of the site is in Italian, aiding in absorption. A great reinforcement for the beginning Italian student, or a good review for those more advanced.

Internet Handbook of German Grammar
This site is intended to provide students, readers, and translators of German with a concise and comprehensive grammatical reference.

An On-line Russian Reference Grammar
A wonderfully clear and well-organized guide to Russian parts of speech. If you just need help with text pronunciation, visit the "Rules of Pronunciation" link for a great character chart. The site also links to a few Russian-English dictionaries.

Oberlin College's Cooper International Learning Center (Language Lab)
This is the website of Oberlin's language lab located on the third floor of Peters Hall. While the site currently contains no web-based applications, the lab's computers contain many useful programs (i.e. dictionaries, pronunciation guides, etc.) for all the languages taught at Oberlin.