# My new opera cataloguing system



## Helgi (Dec 27, 2019)

Now that I've begun collecting opera recordings I decided to start a catalogue before things get out of hand, and wanted to share my system as I think it's quite good (so far!) - and very easy to set up as well.

It's a web application called Notion (also available as a desktop or mobile app) which can be used to organise all sorts of information, manage projects and so on. You basically create blank pages and insert whatever components you need, including text, images, image galleries, kanban-boards (think Trello), tables, to-do lists, etc.

It's easy to arrange things as you wish, and there are so many things it can do that describing the use-cases is almost impossible. But it strikes me as ideal for keeping a record of music related stuff.

So here's how I've set up my opera catalogue:









I created a page and inserted a table with rows for composer, name of work, conductor, year, artists and format. The entries are ordered by composer first and then name of work alphabetically.

You could add fields for album artwork, orchestra, recording venue, a link to a libretto, an old magazine review, whatever you can think of including or linking to.

I decided to base the system around tags, which makes it easy to create new entries and filter the view to quickly show everything tagged with "Karajan" or "Scotto" for example. It's also possible to do more complicated filtering, say if I want to see all operas featuring Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi:









You can create several of these tables and I imagine it would be good to split them up for more than a few hundred recordings or so. Tables for each period, country of origin or groups of composers, for example. It's easy to move entries from one table to the other, so for example I've created a table for my wish list, and when I buy one of the items I simply drag it over from the wish list to the main collection.

So there you have it - I hope some of you can make use of it. I've been using Notion at work and I know of companies that use it for large-scale organisation and project management, and it's pretty impressive. Especially because it's so user friendly for small-scale stuff as well.

Anyone have a system they care to share? There are threads on here that cover this topic for classical music in general, but I'd be interested to know how you organise your operas in particular.


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## zxxyxxz (Apr 14, 2020)

That actual looks quite interesting I might have to give it a go. Especially as I need to trim down my everyday selection on my ipod as its becoming a bit unmanagable at about 350 recordings. I also make digital purchases through several different sites so it would be worth noting what came from where. 

My next project ( after Italian Opera - Last Chance Saloon) is to rank operas and their best recordings based on my scoring system to remember what is worth listening to.

Currently though when I have time my system in Itunes is as follows:

Album name: Composer: Opera Name (Conductor Year)

Album Artist: Composer and Orchestra

Track Name: Act Numeral: Name per Liner Note or Download (Each Character Singing) eg Act II: Insert text here 

Artist: Each Individual Singer on the track including the chorus if involved.

Year: Year of oldest recording copy write, or year of live broadcast.

Genre: Opera

Not complex and probably not a great system but it works for me and any curiosity I get when listening.


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## Helgi (Dec 27, 2019)

I try to keep things well tagged and tidy in iTunes as well, but it doesn't give me a sense of having a good overview of my collection. I have a mix of CDs, ALAC and MP3 files, and I haven't ripped all my CDs yet so not everything is in iTunes. Also, dealing with multiple artists is a bit of a nightmare.

For me the Notion system gives me a quick overview of what I have, and it's a great way of maintaining a wish list.

Next part of the project is setting up similar pages and tables for the rest of my CM collection.


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