Searching for an opera

I’d like to listen to a particular opera. I want to know what versions I have (including what’s on Tidal, but that’s not directly relevant).

Seems sensible to use the composition browser, the select the composer, then the form (‘Opera’). Find the opera on a modest-sized list–done!

Except MOST of the results–the vast majority–are not the opera but albums that happen to include an aria or two from the opera, or a collection of overtures, etc. This, for me, is litter. I just want to display the work itself–the composition.

Can I do it? It seems pretty basic to have a “complete composition” tag.

One way of doing this would be to use the “Compilation” tag, and make sure it’s set on those albums that are not complete operas. I’ve just checked my own collection, and Roon made a mistake and set a complete recording of Gotterdammerung as a Compilation, and missed a couple of albums that were in fact compilations, but a few minutes in the Album Editor fixed that for me.

So, complete Operas:

Snippets and highlights:

I should probably add that this isn’t always perfect; the Delius, for example, is an 18-CD box set (i.e. clearly a compilation), but which contains recordings of two complete operas, A Village Romeo and Juliet, and Koanga. Then it’s down to your individual call as to how you want to classify such things in your own collection, and tell Roon appropriately…

2 Likes

Very cool. :+1:

Thanks–clever and effective. Some further thought.

An opera is a composition, so it makes sense to search for operas in the Composition browser. But the “compilation” tag is, logically, connected with albums, not compositions. I haven’t yet quite wrapped my brain around this problem of incomplete compositions (opera arias; symphony movements, and so on). Probably there needs to be a “complete” tag associated with compositions, and a switch to allow viewing of ‘complete compositions only’. It’s complicated in principle by the fact that an opera aria, or a particular song from a song cycle, could be viewed both as a stand-alone composition or as part of a larger work, but anyone, surely, would expect NOT to see stand-alone arias with the “complete” tag selected. Anyway, clearly there needs to be a way of viewing complete operas as compositions.

Another problem I just discovered: I go to the Composition browser, then choose a composer (say, Wagner), then choose a “form” (‘Opera’). When I see only six entries: 6 operas, presumably because I have only 6 operas in my library.


But Wagner wrote at least 10 major operas, a couple of obscure ones (Das Liebesverbot, anyone?), and a few that were unfinished; several of these are on Tidal. Probably Roon is showing only operas that are in my collection–which would make sense if I were not a Tidal subscriber. But I am, and when I click on a particular work, I can choose to view not only those in my collection but also those on Tidal. Except that now, via Composition view, I can only find those six operas. If the search results include Tidal, the search needs to encompass what’s actually on Tidal. Just isn’t logical otherwise.

I understand these are complicated issues and perfection is not to be expected. Just pointing this out to eventually facilitate a solution.

Thanks.

Jim

Yes, Search, in this instance, is only looking at your local collection (which will include any TIDAL albums that you may have added to the collection). The only time Search will go out and search in the full online TIDAL library is if you do a search in the TIDAL browser in Roon, AFAIK. This may change in the future, but for the present, that’s what it is.