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For a huge number of operas - certainly the majority of the thousands composed since Daphne - orchestral scores and orchestral parts were never published. While vocal scores with piano reductions may have been published for many of them, orchestral scores and orchestral parts were often hand-copied by professional copyists employed by opera houses for use in specific operatic productions. A substantial portion of these unpublished, hand-copied materials were not preserved after the productions, and they are lost forever. So, even though vocal scores of these operas may survive in music libraries, these works cannot be revived today for lack of orchestral materials -- that is, unless someone today re-orchestrates these operas from the surviving vocal piano reductions.

However, hand-copied orchestral scores and orchestral parts for many historic operas have survived. Some, but not all, are preserved today in music libraries, great and small. Besides those archived and catalogued in music libraries, a significant number survive elsewhere -- but their existence and location are, for the most part, uncatalogued and unknown. Consequently, they are inaccessible to modern-day opera companies, big and small, for revival productions. I am referring to the archives and music libraries of historic opera houses: such as the Opéra and Opéra Comique in Paris, La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Met, etc. (I believe the fabulous collection of historic materials at La Fenice in Venice were lost when that opera house burned down relatively recently. And, of course, nothing remained of the Berlin Opera after the war)

These opera house archives of hand-copied orchestral scores and orchestral parts represent a priceless heritage. They are indispensible to any modern performances of a substantial portion of the operatic repertory. It seems to me a massive international effort is called for to enlist the opera houses of the world to scan the hand-copied orchestral scores and orchestral parts stored in their archives, and post them on the Internet (specifically on IMSLP.) Once they are posted, some eneterprising members of that legion of computer-music typesetters that now roam the Internet may decide to edit them. Not only will the posting of these orchestral scores and orchestral parts make these long-buried works accessible to modern-day revivals, it may very well save them from oblivion.

MS

I live in London, and thus have easy access to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. However, I looked on their website and did a short google search, which didn't reveal any (public) libraries. Do you know of any way to gain access to such libraries? Would I be able to access the libraries if I said I acted on behalf of my music conservatoire, or on behalf of IMSLP?

I have sent them an e-mail asking them about the library and whether the public would have access to it, and I will post updates.

I did not mean to suggest that music libraries of major opera companies were accesible to the general public. Their private libraries contain materials for the use of their musicians, conductors and singers. The scanning of their historical holdings would involved the active cooperation of these opera companies and the research of scholars. It would be a difficult, problematic and costly project. Nevertheless, it would disinterr from obscurity many operas whose orchestral materials have been lost elsewhere or were never published. The Opera in Paris, in particular, has a stupendous library containing materials that go back centuries.

MS