Opera enthusiasts can now search a database of hard-to-find U.S. opera telecasts, including programming of early live presentations on experimental television stations and contemporary productions released on broadcast television, cable, and home video. 

The Televised Opera and Musical Comedy Database, which includes 925 records of opera, operetta, and musical comedy telecasts, is a joint project of the Indiana University Digital Library Program and retired IU faculty member Herbert Seltz. 

Seltz, who taught production at the university’s Department of Telecommunications for more than 30 years, also produced and directed Indiana University School of Music opera telecasts. He began work on the database in 1995. “I changed from practitioner to researcher,” Seltz says.

Seltz recalls broadcasting IU’s acclaimed opera productions even before the university had a television station.  As director of opera telecasts in the mid-1950s, he used borrowed equipment from the local commercial station and operated from a cramped remote van. “Things were simple,” Seltz says of those early productions. “It was small and primitive by current standards—a far cry from Live From the Met.” 

“This is the kind of project we’re here to support,” says Kristine Brancolini, director of IU’s Digital Library Program. “After compiling his extensive research, Herb came to us looking for technical expertise. His needs complemented our mission to provide high-quality networked resources to the IU community and beyond.”

A surprising amount of opera aired on television in the medium’s early years. In 1954, for example, 40 broadcasts on commercial networks and local stations featured opera segments.

Seltz estimates that about two thirds of the recordings described in the database are available commercially as videos or at archives.  “A lot of recordings have been lost,” Seltz says.  “But the good news is, as time goes on, more and more of these programs surface.”  And because new technology makes distribution so much easier, an increasing number of previously unavailable network programs are now finding their way to home video or DVD.  

Researchers can search the opera database by year, composer, soloists, title, and more. The database, which Seltz will update periodically, is freely available via the Internet.

To view the database, go to:  http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/reference/operatv/