DIVA & VINYL LINKS COVER ART The Durbeck Archives www.durbeckarchive.com/gallery.htm Amazing online database where Ed Durbeck strives (quite successfully) to document every complete opera recording ever published on vinyl. Special album cover galleries showcase Black American classical singer recitals, opera crossover discs, and the records of Pierrette Alarie and Leopold Simoneau. Alex Steinweiss Article and Gallery www.soundfountain.org Mr. Steinweiss is the legendary graphic designer and marketing visionary who, while working at Columbia Records in 1939, invented album cover art at the age of 23. That was for 78 rpm albums. In 1949 he engineered the standard cardboard long play album jacket. He also designed for the short-lived Everest and Remington labels. His design aesthetic and typography is unmistakable and was incredibly influential. Project Thirty-Three www.projectthirtythree.com The owner of Jive Time Records in my hometown of Seattle has created a series of cover galleries that highlight vintage mid-century graphic trends. This one has about 100 covers of jazz, classical, pop, and lounge LPs that use cool geometric shapes -- circles, dots, lines, arrows -- and killer typography. Also check out the blog links to his Symphonie Fantastique and Deface Value galleries -- the later showcases covers that have been intentionally altered into something approaching art. Jamaican Label Art http://www.iancauser.plus.com/jamaicanlabelart/contents.html It isn't just covers, oh no, for some madmen it doesn't stop there. Here is an incredible site devoted to showing almost 2000 designs of Caribbean record labels, with some covers thrown in for good measure. Dana Countryman's Virtual Museum of Unusual LP Cover Art www.danacountryman.com A whole bunch of funny, odd, brilliant covers. VINYL World Record Stores (online) www.moremusic.co.uk Listing of online record shops by nationality. Mikrokosmos www.mikrokosmos.com The largest online used classical record dealer with monthly lists of items. Collectors Weekly www.collectorsweekly.com/records You could lose yourself for hours in the vinyl section of this massive website for collectors of all sorts of cultural memorabilia, not to mention the dozens of other collectables categories. Vinyl Divas was honored to be included in the site's Hall of Fame. Record Collectors Guild www.recordcollectorsguild.org Great central site and forum on collecting records. Extensive information and articles on all aspects of record collecting, care, and enjoyment. Registration required. Opera and Singer Discographies www.operadis-opera-discography.org.uk A Catalogue of all recordings that are or have been commercially available of "complete" operas or of extended excerpts of operas longer than about 20 minutes. RCA Shaded Dogs http://www.shadeddog.com A comprehensive discography and labelography of RCA’s famed “shaded dog” records, many highly coveted by audiophile collectors. It is a really well designed site, with discussion boards, great images of the covers, front and back, and links for more info and to purchase the music. Turntables and Equipment http://Thebestturntable.com Looking for an upgrade? This site rates turntables and other vinyl playback equipment. Jackets and Sleeves http://www.sleevecityusa.com This where I buy all my cover protectors and inner sleeves. Good pricing, great products. They have regular 15% off sales, so stock up when those come around. DIVAS Beverly Sills Online www.beverlysills.com Comprehensive resource site on the greatest American coloratura soprano -- includes complete discography, biography, memorabilia, performance archives, and sound clips of rare live performances. Elizabeth Parcells www.elizabethparcells.com Fantastic Web site devoted to this exquisite American coloratura soprano who passed away in 2005. Many rare live sound recordings for downloading and some fascinating discussions of technique. The site is meticulously maintained by her brother, Charlie Parcells. Opera Stuff: Sopranos www.operastuff.com Endless listing of soprano Web sites. Saengerliste www.esdf-opera.de Enormous alphabetical listing of opera singers past and present throughout the world. Interesting to just browse through all the names, all the thousands and thousands of names. OPERA Coloratura Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coloratura Large online forum for discussion of coloratura sopranos. Yahoo registration required. The Legacy of the Diva www.divalegacy.com Excellent site created and written by opera expert Nick Limansky with many recording reviews, essays, career retrospectives, and surveys of recordings of major soprano arias. Special topics include Yma Sumac and Maria Remola, among many others. Bach Cantatas Web Site www.bach-cantatas.com Exhaustive reference and database of all known recordings of Bach Cantatas, includes biographies and photos of hundreds of singers. GF Handel Web Site www.gfhandel.org Excellent source of information on the composer, his works, old and new recordings, with an extensive discography. Unfortunately, not updated recently. Mozarteum Library Collections http://www.mozarteum.at Search this huge database of recordings of Mozart’s music across all media types (film, vinyl, CD, radio broadcasts). They currently list 58 versions of my favorite concert aria K.418, yet I have 62 in my own database. I win! Metropolitan Opera Archives click here Touchstone online reference for who sang what, when, and how often, at the Met in its 125+ years. Opera Cast www.operacast.com Indispensable listing of current and upcoming opera and recital broadcasts on the Web across the globe with cast listings and links to audio streams.