Mrs Billington, 'A bravura Air'
Favourite songs in Zamira e Azore
About the project
This is intended to be the digital edition of the Italian Opera Aria on the London Stage 1705-1801. The project is based on the surviving libretti, both printed and manuscript, for operas in Italian performed in London. It provides a mechanism by aria texts can be traced through different libretti, as they were moved from one opera to another by impresarios, conductors, and singers. The hard copy version of the project is currently planned to appear in three volumes:
- Volume I: The catalogue of libretti
- Volume II: The list of arias
- Volume III: Supplementary tables - Opera criticism - Bibliography - Indices.
This is a project about the libretti, not about what arias texts, or which settings of those texts, may have been used in performance. Phase 1 of the database, released here, is to make available the aria incipits as listed in the librettos, so that the movement of the aria texts can be traced from libretto to libretto.
We encourage you to use the .oops. button to let us know of any errors, or extra information, or, most particularly, extra sources which you may locate. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions on the resource feel free to send them to us at michael.burden@new.ox.ac.uk