Singers

Corrado Giaquinto, Portrait of Carlo Broschi called Farinelli, c. 1755, oil on canvas. Bologna, Museo internazionale e Biblioteca della musica

Search page

The name of the singer should be searched in the form Surname First name.
Selecting "include variants" extends the search to all attested forms of the name (always in the Last Name First Name sequence), including pseudonyms.
It is possible to combine the search with certain filters: place and date of performances, opera composer, first performances only (première), and gender of the performer (M and/or F).

In all fields the search is carried out in the 'string' mode, not in the full text search mode, as in all search engines. The search for the name of both fields singer and composer must always be done in the sequence indicated, Last Name First Name: "Broschi Carlo" and not "Carlo Broschi".
In order to overcome certain rigidities of this search mode and to circumvent the pitfalls inherent in the spelling fluctuations of names or set up particular searches, it is possible to insert so-called wildcards characters in the search string: "%" (truncation character) and "_" (underscore, substitute a single character at any position in the word).

Here are some examples of use:

• "A%'' returns all performers whose surname begins with "A";
• "B_ttin%" returns Bottino and Buttinelli, but not Barattini (the underscore "_" replaces only one character);
• "B% Giuseppe" (with the space after %) returns all surnames starting with "B" and whose first name begins with "Giuseppe";
• "B%rt%n%'' returns Bertani, Bertaina, Bertaine, Bertaini;
• "% Elena" returns all singers named Elena.

Search results

In the search results, the singer's name is followed by the chronological details of the performances attested in Corago. This indication has been preferred to personal dates to facilitate the identification of singers through their actual professional activity.
At the top of the page are the search keys set.
The link on the name opens the page containing the Chronological list of singer performances.
The checkboxes in the left margin allow you to select the names of two singers to compare their activity. The button at the top of the list opens the page Comparison of the activity of two singers.

Chronological list of singer performances

The singer's name appears at the top of the page, with the total number of performances attested in Corago; this is followed by any variants of the name and essential biographical notes, useful to identify the performer and to provide some information not in the table. The header is closed by the identifier of the singer in Corago, a permalink to the webpage and a link that activates an e-mail alert on the content of the page.

The chronological list shows the essential data of each performance linked to the performer: date, venue, building, composer, title (with a link to the performance page in the Corago Chronology) and character name. In addition, the icon following the character highlights cross-gender cases (male performer/female character, and vice versa). Finally, the qualifications associated with the performer in the source have been listed only limited to problematic identification cases. If the arias of the libretto have been transcribed, the line closes with the Arias button that opens the page containing the list of arias sung in the opera.

Comparison of the activity of two singers

The recurring problems with the identification of singers due to incomplete, differing or erroneous information in the sources used, primarily the printed libretto, suggested the adoption of a comparative feature of the singers' activity. To access this feature, you need to select two singers from the Search Results page and press the compare button at the top of the list.

The page header shows the two selected singers, the right one on a coloured background.
The table lists the performances of the two selected singers in a single chronological order: on a white background, the performances of the singer on the left; on a coloured background, those of the singer on the right. This feature can be useful for resolving cases of uncertain identifications due to homonyms or erroneous or incomplete information from informative sources and for better investigating the movements of wandering companies or pairs of singers (spouses, brothers/sisters, children/parents etc.). An example: the couple Giuseppe Tibaldi and Rosa Tartaglini.