Advanced Search
Enter as many or as few terms in the search form as you wish and click on "Search the Database!" to bring back the entries matching your search terms. See search instructions below for help.Step-by-step instructions for searching :
- Decide what you wish to search for - Look at the different fields for which you can search for. On the Aria Database, you can search by aria name, opera name, composer, operatic role, language of aria, voice part of aria, range of aria, and what accompanies the aria (translations, texts, and/or MIDIs). In addition, there is a search blank that allows you to search all of the different fields. If you have a complicated search, it may help to write down on paper exactly what you want.
- Enter your search terms on the form - Fill the search blanks with the terms you wish to search for and leave the rest of the form blank. For instance, if you want to find the aria "Una furtiva lagrima", enter it in the Aria blank. If you wish to find all the soprano arias from "La Traviata", enter "La Traviata" in the Opera blank and check the box next to "Soprano" under Voice Type. If you wish to find all French arias with translations, change the Language box to "French" and check the box next to "Translations". Make sure to enter each term with the correct spelling or else you may not get the correct answer. If you don't know how to spell something completely, enter as much as you know definitely how to spell. For instance, if you are looking for arias from "The Marriage of Figaro" but don't know how to spell it in Italian, enter "Figaro" in the Opera blank. Note for Advanced Searchers : Searching is case-insensitive, substrings are allowed, and the Boolean expressions AND and OR are allowed but only when capitalized. See below these instructions if you want to have these terms explained.
- Choose database in which to search - There are three different databases in which you can search. For most of your searches, you will use the Aria Database which contains all aria information and links to translations, aria texts, and MIDIs. If you are looking for non-solo operatic pieces such as duets, trios, and choruses, try looking in the Ensemble Database. If you wish to find out the creator of a role or the list of roles in a specific opera, change the Choose Database selecter to "Operatic Roles" to access the Opera Role Database. For example, to find all the roles in "Rigoletto", enter "Rigoletto" in the Opera blank, switch the Database to "Operatic Roles", and click on the submit button. Your results will give you a list of all the characters in Rigoletto with detailed information on each.
- Submit the Form - Just click on "Search the Database!" to submit your search. Your results will be returned in a few seconds. Since there are over 1000 arias in the Aria Database, a search that isn't very specific could bring back hundreds of arias. To narrow your search, you can use the "Back" button on your browser to return to the search form and enter more terms. You can also narrow your search within the Results page by using the "Search only these results" option.
- Explore the Database - Once you have found what you want, you can return to the search form at any time by clicking on the button next to each entry. You can also wind your way through the Database by clicking on links in the database. For instance, clicking on a composer's name will bring up all arias by that composer.
Explanation of searching terms -
- Case sensitivity - refers to whether capitalized letters affect what the search results are. A case-insensitive search would see all upper-case and lower-case letters as the same. For instance, a case-insensitive search for "la traviata" would still return all arias from "La Traviata" even though "La Traviata" is capitalized.
- Substrings - refers to parts of words. When a search allows substrings, you can return results by just searching for part of a word. For instance, if you put "boh" in the Opera blank, your search would come up with "La Bohème" because "boh" is in "La Bohème".
- Boolean Expressions - useful words connecting search terms that can narrow down your searches. The two used on the Aria Database are AND and OR. A search using AND to connect terms will return only records with both of those terms. Likewise, a search using OR will return records containing one or the other or both terms. For example, a search in the All Fields blank for "Traviata AND act II" would return only arias from Act II of La Traviata . A search in the All Fields blank for "Traviata OR Rigoletto" would return all arias that were either in La Traviata or Rigoletto. The Boolean expression NOT is not used in searching on the Aria Database.
