# Free Opera Downloads?



## chillowack (Jul 16, 2009)

Can someone kindly recommend good websites for downloading opera music for free? (Legally, of course.)

I have lately renewed my love of opera, and want to expand my library; but I must be frugal in doing so.

Thanks!


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

There's a very big free, and legal, archive at Opera Today.


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## chillowack (Jul 16, 2009)

Thanks Elgarian!


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## chillowack (Jul 16, 2009)

It looks like these are streaming audio, which causes the music to stop every once in awhile to "rebuffer."

Unfortunately, this pretty much ruins the continuity of the music.

Does anyone know a good site to actually _download_ opera MP3s to your computer, so that you can listen to it even if you're not connected to the Internet?


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Free, no. But for a mere $1.98 you can get the complete opera "Fidelio" in two MP3s at Amazon online. The performance is wonderful with good sound quality. There are other budget MPs of operas there as well, but it's the only one that I would personally recommend as sound quality on others is not as good.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

chillowack said:


> It looks like these are streaming audio, which causes the music to stop every once in awhile to "rebuffer."
> 
> Unfortunately, this pretty much ruins the continuity of the music.
> 
> Does anyone know a good site to actually _download_ opera MP3s to your computer, so that you can listen to it even if you're not connected to the Internet?


The problem lies in that even though the music itself for most operas is public domain, the performances are copywrited and there is no financial incentive for a copywritten performance to be released free of charge.

If you don't mind hit-or-miss audio quality and primarily arias as opposed to entire operas, you can download audio and/or video from youtube videos quite easily, either by using a browser such as Chrome or Firefox and getting an addon that allows you to do this (just google "firefox youtube download addon" or something similar for numerous options), or go to a site such as www.keepvid.com which will grab audio or video from a youtube url and allow you to download to your computer.

Aside from that, your options will likely be limited to streaming from such sites as Classical TV, or venturing into legally and morally grey areas such as torrents.


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## JSK (Dec 31, 2008)

This website has free downloads for old recordings of the Mikado and 3 rare Rimsky-Korsakov operas. Not sure about the sound quality though.
http://freealbums.blogsome.com/category/opera/


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Sonata said:


> Free, no. But for a mere $1.98 you can get the complete opera "Fidelio" in two MP3s at Amazon online. The performance is wonderful with good sound quality. There are other budget MPs of operas there as well, but it's the only one that I would personally recommend as sound quality on others is not as good.


And only if you live in the US.


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## Elgarian (Jul 30, 2008)

chillowack said:


> It looks like these are streaming audio, which causes the music to stop every once in awhile to "rebuffer."
> 
> Unfortunately, this pretty much ruins the continuity of the music.


I've downloaded whole operas from Opera Today without difficulty. I just let Media Player begin to play it, then put it on 'pause' while it continues to buffer, then when the whole file has downloaded, use 'Save media as' to save the file.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Elgarian said:


> I've downloaded whole operas from Opera Today without difficulty. I just let Media Player begin to play it, then put it on 'pause' while it continues to buffer, then when the whole file has downloaded, use 'Save media as' to save the file.


Yep, that's it!

And one should also add that pauses to buffer may have to do with the speed of the user's connection. When I upgraded to higher broadband speeds and to N wireless protocol, freezes during streaming got practically eliminated.


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## chillowack (Jul 16, 2009)

Many thanks for all the good suggestions.

I have indeed downloaded a number of YouTube opera videos into my library.


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## rsmithor (Jun 30, 2011)

*The Met Opera Radio Broadcasts & other Opera Broadcasts*


Click on link "uploads"


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

rsmithor, while it's great that you're trying to be helpful, I can't imagine that site is sanctioned by the Met and that linking it might cause problems for the board. Might want to edit it out and message a mod to make sure it's kosher; the Met tends to enforce their rights rather aggressively.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Wow! Amazon.com has started a new rental service called Amazon Instant Video - for $1.99 one can stream instantly a full opera DVD (and re-watch it for up to three days). For $7.99 one can buy a digital copy (much less than the average $25 for an opera DVD). I saw it when I was browsing the DVD options for Roberto Devereux. This is a lot less than other sites charge for opera pay-per-view. Have you guys heard of it? Has anybody tried it? Do they have many opera DVDs?


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

Amazon has a Netflix-like all you can stream service for Amazon Prime members but I was disappointed to see that there are virtually no opera dvds available on that service -- the opera vids all seem to be pay per view, so I haven't tried any of them as yet.

In the past I've purchased a couple videos from Amazon. The price is nice but you're giving up a fair amount by doing it -- specifically format shifting, where you can rip a dvd and encode it -- smaller files for mobile phones, larger files at full quality for home viewing, etc. Vids downloaded from Amazon have their DRM (digital rights management ... i.e., copy protection) so you have to use their player or a couple other alternatives (WMP I think is one) which can be limiting. Some dvd and blu ray players and tvs have Amazon video compatibility so you can stream it to your tv, but otherwise you're stuck watching it on a computer / hooking up your computer to your TV. So it's a good service, but there are tradeoffs.

Just sub'd to Met Player today and it's a pretty nice service but the constant grey bar across the bottom of the screen is annoying.


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

Well, but since MetPlayer and others charge $4.99 to $5.99 for an opera pay-per-view, Amazon is charging $1.99.
Yes, I didn't like that grey bar either.


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