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Vocal Performance : References: Databases, Websites, and Books

Research Guide for Opera and Vocal Performance Students at Oklahoma City University

Intro

Browse the content below for a sample of library resources & external websites about opera, and use the discovery box to search for even more!

Discovery

ebook intro

Ebooks are accessible through their catalog record at any time when on campus and connected to OCU wifi. When off-campus, you will be required to sign in using your OCU credentials. Download permissions vary from title to title.

eBooks

Several helpful websites for young artists exist, provided that you know where to find them. See below for a list of sites that are great resources for emerging opera singers.

Websites for the Emerging Artist

Databases

physical books intro

Books about vocal performance and opera are available both in the LLL's Music Education room and on the 3rd floor of the Dulaney-Browne library. Take note on the call number and location of each title.

Print Books

Guide to Operatic Roles and Arias

DBL Call Number:
782.1 B637g 1994

A truly comprehensive list of over 1,600 arias and 3,500 operatic roles in sixteen languages spanning musical history from the Florentine Camerata to contemporary opera and operetta.

Guide to the Aria Repertoire

LLL Call Number:
ML128.O4 C53 2007

A long-awaited resource for the young operatic singer, this annotated guide brings together many sources to start the journey toward powerful, informed performance. An extensive discussion of fach and audition repertoire is followed by over 400 arias organized by voice type, including canonical, contemporary, and obscure works from different languages. Each entry includes level of difficulty, voice/character type, special techniques, tessitura, and accompaniment

Song

LLL Call Number:
MT120 .K56 2005;
DBL Call Number: 
782.42168 K561s2 2006

Carol Kimball's comprehensive survey of art song literature has been the principal one-volume American source on the topic. Now back in print after an absence of several years, this newly revised edition includes biographies and discussions of the work of 150 composers of various nationalities, as well as articles on styles of various schools of composition.

Master Singers

LLL Call Number:
ML3795 .G45 2015

Through interviews with some of today's most accomplished and renowned concert and operatic singers, including Stephanie Blythe, David Daniels, Joyce DiDonato, Denyce Graves, Thomas Hampson, Jonas Kaufmann, Simon Keenlyside, and Ewa Podleâs, Master Singers provides vocalists making the transition from student to professional with indispensable advice. It addresses matters ranging from technique and its practical application for effective stage projection to the practicalities of the business of professional singing and maintaining a career to recommendations for vocal hygiene and longevity in singing.

What the FACH?! ~ Second Edition

DBL Call Number:
780 Sh47w2 2010

This book gives you a detailed, first-hand look into life as an English-speaking opera singer in the German theater system. Written by a full-time opera singer working in Europe, this invaluable resource is a 'must have' for every singer wanting to break into the German-speaking opera world.The bestselling guide is back for its Second Edition with detailed information covering virtually everything you can think of, including everything you never thought to think of but still need to know!There are countless English-speaking singers already working in the German-speaking world, and with What The FACH?!, you can have the knowledge they already possess in hand.

Singing opera in Germany : a practical guide

DBL Call Number:
782.10234 K75s 2005

Guides foreign students and young professionals on their career path from their choice of vocation to their first engagement in a German theatre. Among the topics it discusses are the demands of training and everyday professional life, including auditions, caring for the voice, opera choruses, and acting on the opera stage. It also has useful tips on such mundane matters as visas, work permits, contracts, money, taxes, insurance, and writing applications.

Artist Management for the Music Business

DBL Call Number:
780.2373 AL531a5 2022

Artist Management for the Music Business gives a comprehensive view of how to generate income through music and how to strategically plan for future growth. The book is full of valuable practical insights. It includes interviews and case studies with examples of real-world management issues and outcomes.

Singing in Style

DBL Call Number:
783.043 EL581s 2006

Covering the Baroque period to the present, Elliott casts a wide net, bringing together information from historical treatises, personal accounts from composers, performers, historians, critics, and current scholarly commentary into one convenient handbook for the student and the amateur and professional performer who want to learn more about how vocal works were sung in their day.

Voice Secrets

LLL Call Number:
MT820 .H63 2016

Matthew Hoch and Linda Lister create order out of the chaotic world of singing. They examine all aspects of singing, including nontechnical matters, such as auditioning, performance anxiety, score preparation, practice performance tips, business etiquette, and many other important topics for the advanced singer. Voice Secrets provides singers with a quick and efficient path to significant improvement, both technically and musically. It is the perfect resource for advanced students of singing, professional performers, music educators, and avid amateur musicians.

Art Song

LLL Call Number:
MT120.K56 A78 2013
Rather than a general survey of art song literature, the new book clearly and insightfully defines the fundamental characteristics of art song, and the integral relationship between lyric poetry and its musical settings. Topics covered include poetry basics for singers, exercises for singers in working with poetry, insights into composers'' musical settings of poetry, building recital programs, performance suggestions, and recommended literature for college and university classical voice majors. 

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