Wikipedia:WikiProject Opera/Category guidelines
Categories are implemented on Wikipedia in an ad hoc fashion, hence tend to be erratic. Here are the currently used categories for opera topics:
Operas
Basic categories
All opera title articles belong in:
Operas are further categorized minimally by:
- Composer
- Genre
- Category:Operas by genre (which should be plural and in the original language used in standard reference books to avoid confusion). For the purposes of Wikipedia (and indeed other encyclopedias such as Grove), operettas are considered a subcategory of operas, so, for example, The Merry Widow is in Category:Operas as well as Category:Operettas.
- Language
- Year of premiere
Further categories
Other categories include Operas by setting; Operas by world premiere location; One-act operas; Unfinished operas ; Lost operas; Operas by source (for operas whose libretti are based on plays, novels, films, etc.)
Category order
In practice a single opera title article will have many category tags at the foot of the page. The order in which these appear generally starts with the most specific and ends with the most general. For example, Tosca belongs to the following categories:
Category:Operas by Giacomo Puccini|Category:Verismo operas|Category:Italian-language operas|Category:1900 operas|Category:Operas
For typographical reasons stub tags go two line spaces after category tags
Opera singers
In addition to general biographical categories, opera singers are categorized by:
- Nationality
Category:Opera singers by nationality
- Voice
- Category:Operatic sopranos • Category:Operatic mezzo-sopranos • Category:Operatic contraltos • Category:Operatic countertenors • Category:Operatic tenors • Category:Operatic baritones • Category:Operatic bass-baritones • Category:Operatic basses
Other opera people
- All opera composers belong in Category:Opera composers, although they may also appear in other other composer categories as well.
- The main categories for other opera-related biographies are: Category:Opera critics • Category:Opera directors • Category:Opera librettists • Category:Opera managers
Other opera-related articles
Articles which don't fall under any of the below topics can always be included (temporarily) in Category:Opera.
Organizations and venues (When adding these, please check each category for the appropriate sub-category, if any)
- Category:Opera houses
- Category:Opera companies
- Category:Opera festivals.
- Category:Opera organizations for associations such as Opera Europa.
- Opera terms
- Category:Opera terminology (note that forms of Chinese opera are listed under Category:Performing arts not opera.)
Audio and video recordings (on 78, LP, CD, DVD etc.)
- Publishers
- Publications
- Lists
Category sorting
Alphabetical order in the listing of operas/people
The titles of articles are sorted omitting the definite or indefinite article such as "A", "The", "Le", "La", "Les", "Der", "Die", "Das", etc. This is done using a "Default sort" tag, which is placed before the categories. For example La naissance d'Osiris requires {{DEFAULTSORT:Naissance d'Osiris}}. That means that the opera will file under N and not under L, although the actual article title ("La naissance d'Osiris") will appear in the Category listing under N.
Two other points here: first, the default sort title should always start with a capital letter, as lower-case initial letters are filed after upper-case Z; second, if there's a special character or accent early in the title, the default sort title should not contain the special character/accent, for a similar reason. So, in the same category, if "Zéphire" isn't changed to "Zefire", it would file after "Zwerg".
People have to be sorted in the same way, e.g. {{DEFAULTSORT:Verdi, Giuseppe}}, otherwise Verdi will appear under 'G' rather than 'V'.