Repertoire and Archive of Italian Opera from 1600 to 1900
Corago* is an information system for research on Italian opera from 1600 to 1900. The Corago project develops conceptual models and creates tools for historical research and access to opera documents. The project, launched in 2006, aimed to produce a Repertoire of Italian opera, a Bibliography of libretto sources, and a Chronology of performances derived from librettos. The Repertoire and Bibliography produced can be considered exhaustive and, together with the rich Chronology prepared, constitute a solid information base on Italian opera in the first three centuries.
The wealth of information set up offers a significant overview of Italian opera production from the 17th to the early 20th century. Moreover, it also enables planning in-depth activities on specific research topics, both on the historical-documentary and technological side. Among the research projects undertaken in recent years, some have achieved results of some significance, and an experimental website has been created for each of them. However, these are preliminary and partial results of research activities that are still in progress and involve testing the data collected, refining survey methods and developing effective forms of presenting the results. In spite of the experimental nature of each of the research activities carried out so far, we wanted to share these initial findings with the scientific community in the hope that they will be useful to those who are dealing with such research topics. At the same time, we hope in this way to gather opinions, suggestions, solicitations and concerns on the proposed results in order to verify the effectiveness of the activities undertaken and improve the consultation tools set up.
In recent years, the Corago project has initiated and implemented numerous research activities in cooperation with institutions and research groups. Of particular note is the CoragoNet initiative, which aims to share bibliographic information in order to encourage collaboration in cataloging and reproduction of librettos.
Those interested in carrying out activities of common interest are invited to write to the following email address: dbc.corago@unibo.it.
* Il Corago o vero alcune osservazioni per mettere bene in scena le composizioni drammatiche is the title of a treatise on the staging of opera, compiled around the 1630s by an unidentified author, possibly Pierfrancesco Rinuccini, son of Ottavio, or Ferdinando Saracinelli.