Who sang the title role in San Francisco Opera’s 1973 production of Carmen? When was Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens first performed at the War Memorial Opera House? Which SF Opera productions were created by director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle? (Expect a long list for that last one.)
The answers to these and to thousands of other trivia questions — not at all trivial for opera fans — are at your fingertips again.
When SF Opera announced its 103rd season last week, the company also mentioned news long awaited by opera lovers not just in the city but around the world: the full San Francisco Opera Archives are back online, including the public search function. (A similar public database has been promised by the San Francisco Symphony but is still not on the horizon.)
Besides the search function, other components of the SF Opera Archives include Streaming the First Century (which features select historic recordings), the Memories Project (which collects interviews conducted over the past 15 years), and a pair of Archives Exhibitions at the Wilsey Center for Opera in the War Memorial Veterans Building.
The Archives’ online performance database, created by the late Kori Lockhart more than two decades ago, has been further developed by current SF Opera Director of Archives Barbara Rominski, who has spent the past couple of years fixing and expanding the technologically outdated search function.
Rominski told SF Classical Voice:
“I’m delighted we are able to provide access to the company’s rich performance history once again. Working with Kanopi Studios, our newly built Drupal-based platform provides users with a powerful research tool.
“With the ability to dive into the fully indexed and linked cast pages and fine-tune search results through a variety of filters, [users] can navigate through the seasons by opera titles and/or to an artist’s complete list of performances. There is a real feeling of discovery when using the database, and I hope researchers and fans will make serendipitous connections as they navigate San Francisco Opera’s 102 seasons.”
Appended to these performance records are such archival resources as PDFs of printed program books (covering 1923 through 1990; 1991 through 2012 is still in progress, though 2013 is available). There are also many photos that offer glimpses of past productions and stage artists in full costume.
“Databases are works in progress,” said Rominski, “always evolving and growing, which means that users can look forward to more programs, more photos, and more information being added to the database along with new types of performances not already included, such as Western Opera Theater and the Opera Guild’s Fol de Rol concerts.”
The difficult project of updating the Archives — requiring rebuilding, migrating, and maintaining data — was made possible by a major contribution from an anonymous donor.
For tips and tricks on how best to use the search function, SF Opera has provided a frequently asked questions page.
Rominski’s explanation of how the search function has been improved:
“The old data has been migrated to a totally new platform. While we’ve kept some of the visual aspects similar to the old to help folks quickly recognize the data, the search tool itself is quite different.
“Keyword Search will give you your broadest option. It searches every field in the opera and people records. If you want to be more specific, double quote marks (“”) around your search terms will do just that. Notice too that there are now filtering options. These will let you zero right in on the specifics.
“Want to see just the Rigoletto records or just the touring records or the 1945 season? Use the filters, but remember to reset them too if you click on several and have narrowed [the search] down too far.
“Note that every underlined term/title/name result is a link to go deeper into the information, so go ahead and click on that opera title from your search results to get the full record along with photos and programs as available.
“Speaking of the full record, these [pages] should look familiar. We’ve modeled them on the cast pages from old programs [but] with some significant differences. Where those old PDFs were static and generated upward of 20 years ago, everything in the new system is dynamic, up-to-date info.”
Rominski continued: “If you want to know every diva who sang Aida, skip the name search box and click on the Role Filter instead, start typing and her name will appear. You will be rewarded with a list of Aidas through the ages. Curious to see the Rigolettos? Reset your search and start fresh.
“One thing you will notice when filtering by roles is that we have given the same role name many, many variations over the years. So when you see a name with a dash next to it, you will see that it is a variation of the parent role above it. Click the parent role name for all of the Rigolettos. Or if you just want to see who got saddled with that weirdly long and ridiculously descriptive role name ‘Rigoletto, a hunchback, jester to the Duke,’ click and you will be rewarded.
“Any related images for the production are now incorporated into the cast page, and where programs are available, there is a link to a full scan. There is still some data cleanup going on behind the scenes. That notes field is the kitchen junk drawer of the old system. So be assured that we are working through it and will have the chorus, dancers, and supers sorted out shortly.”
