Philip Kraus was a Music good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake. | |||||||||||||
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Current status: Former good article nominee |
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The [first draft] of this article [was] adapted from Philip Kraus's biography on www.philipkraus.com with the full permission of the author and webmaster of the site.[1]
This article cites only references to websites prepared by the subject of the article. All of these opera companies and venues must have websites, and citations to them would be more appropriate. Are there no newspaper articles about this person? No reviews of his performances or the performances of the opera companies that he produced describing his role in the productions? In the absence of some independendent sources, it could be concluded that the assertions made in the article are not correct. -- Ssilvers 18:00, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
I have added independant webpage citations to all the places that were originally labeled.
I have also added a list of links to reviews of Mr. Kraus's work.
His complete professional career can be corroborated by his management:
Chicago Concert Artists, 431 South Dearborn Street, Suite 1503, Chicago, IL 60605
Phone: 312.663.6434
Fax: 312.663.9416
Email: ccamgmt@chicagoconcertartists.com
I feel the article is quite neutral.
Paxart
I checked the references you gave but I admit that I am extremely disappointed:
1. It is clear that the University hosted this performance, but not that you sang in it. Also, when did you study with these teachers/coaches who you listed? I deleted some of the obviously non-notable childhood teacher names. More dates would be helpful.
2. You are not listed as a principal on the recording at the site you give. This is worse than no cite at all. Also, what about evidence of the other performances in the paragraph? Is there none? Again, newspaper reviews would be good. Even if you could only find references for half of these performances, that would at least be some support for the paragraph.
3. The Chicago Concert Artists site is just your management's site. It is not independent, and it merely repeats the information that you give it. You must give independent references showing that you did all this. Or, just cull it down to the ones that you can find references for.
4. I cannot find your name anywhere on the Lyric Opera of Chicago website, except here: http://www.lyricopera.org/about/starsOfTheSeason.asp But this does not tell us what roles you are singing this season. Please give specific sites and tell us where to find the relevant information. Also, please give the date of each role you played.
5. OK, finally, a review of a performance. Why do we need to cite both Variety and the less-known "lasplash.com"? It does not review your performance, anyway, but either one would verify that you appeared in the cast. I put the first reference first, because it is the most prestigious.
6. The lightoperaworks.info site is obviously not independent; it is your own attempt to reconstruct history, because the company's official site has apparently deleted all mention of your name, even in their history sections. You will only convince Wikipedians that this article is largely a sham if you cite this website.
7. (Sigh) Again, this reference: http://www.portalwisconsin.org/dauphin.cfm just shows that the production and broadcast took place, not that you had any connection with it, whatsoever.
8. ? There's no Roosevelt reference here.
9. The faculty profile at Northwestern reference is helpful to show that you are (were?) a Lecturer there, but not for supporting the information about your career which, again, just copies the information that you gave them. Also, how does it indicate what dates you lectured there?
The other citations:
1. Doesn't mention you.
2. Yay! The Street scene review mentions you. I moved the reference up into the article.
3. Candide, 1994: Here is another verifiable reference, and you did not mention the role in the article. I added it.
4. I moved the Traviata review up into the article.
5. This was an empty page at the NY Times. What is the link supposed to be?
Summary: Most of these references were not verifiable and independent. This article is still largely unreferenced and your conflict of interest is obviously hampering you in deciding what to cite and what information in the article is notable. But, I appreciate your efforts. I think you could be a very useful contributor to Wikipedia, and I hope that this experience does not discourage you. When people start out on wikipedia writing about themselves, it is a difficult situation.
Best regards, -- Ssilvers 18:58, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
Everything in this article is fact.
I have programs and paper reviews for most everything. So does the management company. There is no way to post all this on the internet.
I'm not willing to expend further time and frustration on the article.
I have decided to delete the article entirely and most of the editings of other Wikipedia articles made by me.
The fact that this person is found no where in the history section of the Light Opera Works official website is an attempt by that company to "cleanse" his founding and 18 years of artistic service from the history the company and of operetta in Chicago. I ask, what makes their website any more of an independant source, than Kraus's own website.
Paper documents, programs, photos, cast notes, etc. in the possession of said person fully prove all this.
The burdens of proof requested by Mr. Silver seem unreasonable when having consulted similar biographies of singers in the encyclopedia. If this is indeed the case,I don't see why every sentence in the encyclopedia doesn't have a citation request!!
I'd rather not burden the encyclopedia with contributions if they are held up to insurmountable standards.
In essence, you have succeeded in chasing away a small resource for this encyclopedia.
An entry for Mr. Kraus appears to be included in International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory Twelth Edition 1990/1991 edited by David M. Cummings; p. 475.
Tim Fuller
The singer seems to have more than a few internet references....
http://jaylusteck.com/_wsn/page3.html Stage Director Iolanthe, Babes in Toyland
http://www.handelweek.com/performers.html Bio
http://www.performink.com/archives/curtain/2001/1026Curtain.html Lyric Opera
http://listserv.cuny.edu/Scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind9808e&L=opera-l&T=0&P=13002 Duchess of Chicago reference
http://www.lyricopera.org/img/news/2007_08_Season.pdf Lyric Opera
http://www.buddybuddy.com/pc-s-05.html Chocolate Soldier
http://earlymusichicago.org/events_february_2004.htm Handel Concert
http://www.rader-shieber.com/press.htm Cumming Little Vixen Review
http://www.dmlsoftware.com/loperapiccola/prog-9.htm De Paul Teaching reference
I put this in because a citation had been requested for his De Paul treaching???
http://www.concentric.net/~Onk145/Lelio.htm Grant Park Conceert Review
http://www.mahlerfest.org/mfXIV/welcome.htm MahlerFest
http://www.concertoperetta.com/pastprod.html Duchess of Chicago
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/6-9-17/45983.html LA Opera Traviata
http://www.wfmt.com/main.taf?p=1,1,41,44 LA Opera Traviata
http://www.ffaire.com/musicplanner/midwest/lyric.html Lyric Opera Figaro
http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2004/07/mikado1.htm Cleveland Mikado
http://www.kwf.org/pages/works/l2main.html#prod Lady in the Dark
I only put this down to indicate the LOW company had presented a production worthy of inclusion in the Kurt Weill Foundation website. To the best of my recollection, these projects were initiated by Kraus during his tenure at LOW.
http://www.kwf.org/pages/works/k7main.html#prod Knickerbocker Holiday
Tim Fuller
Kraus' appearances at Lyric from 1991 through 1994 are documented in the book:
Bravi: Lyric Opera of Chicago author- Victor Skrebneski Abbeville Publishing Group, NY ISBN 1-55859-711-9 Parameter error in ((ISBN)): checksum
He is listed in the casts lists at the back of the book for the following:
Fanciulla del West Jose Castro 1991 Nozze di Figaro Antonio 1992 Bartered Bride Micah 1993 La Boheme Alcindoro 1993 Sussanah Elder McClean 1994 Tosca Sacristan 1994
I would give page numbers, but unbelievably, the book does not use page numbers being primarily a photo book.
All his appearances with company through 2004 are documented on the Lyric Opera of Chicago website:
http://www.lyricopera.org/about/performanceArchive.asp
He is listed on next season's roster at:
http://www.lyricopera.org/about/starsOfTheSeason.asp
-- Ssilvers 02:58, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
T Fuller
I added the reference for Babes in Toyland and removed the G&S cite needed tag. Did Krause direct both The Grand Duke and Utopia, Limited? Thespis?\
What does it add to say that someone was "invited" to perform somewhere? You can't perform anywhere unless you are invited. If the words are trying to indicate something else, we should explain what we are getting at.
Is the DePaul teaching all one-on-one voice lessons? The article says he's director of the opera theatre there. Should it just say that he "teaches voice" there? Best regards, -- Ssilvers 06:32, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. I added [numbers] above that I refer to below. BTW, please sign your name to your talk page comments by using four tildes: ~ ~ ~ ~ but without the spaces:
1. OK, that's what I thought. Do you know if he was the stage director for all of them? Right now, the article just says that they were produced while he was artistic director. We know he stage directed Iolanthe. I wish there was an independent reference (or just a couple) that would show what he did for all of them. I am amazed that there are so few reviews of productions at LOW. NYGASP gets multiple reviews for every production they do.
2. I see. OK, the Kranik reference is an irrelevancy, unless Kraus has some kind of documented special relationship with her. If people want to know more about the Lyric Opera in general, they can click on the link. I'll fix it.
3. Thanks. Well, the statement is not supported by an independent reference. I'll leave the tag on it for now, but if we can't find a reference within a couple of months, we'll have to decide what to do with the statement then. If we get some more references for other assertions in the article, we can probably leave in some stuff like this that is referenced only by Kraus's auto-bios. Does Kraus continue to teach voice? If he spends a significant amount of his professional time teaching voice, I think it would be useful to say somewhere that he "also teaches voice" or something like that, and then we could cite a couple of students' websites if there is nothing else available. I don't think its of notable interest to specify exactly where he taught voice in the past, although if his current students are all in Chicago, or LA or somewhere, we could say "in Chicago".
We've made a good start on referencing the article, but there are still a lot of important and unreferenced statements. Most Wikipedia articles can slide by being under-referenced, at least for some time. In this case, however (just a little history here), Kraus wrote the article himself and used as a reference (i) a commercial website that attempts to sell his translations and (ii) the website that he is creating about LOW "history" that is obviously polemical (he clearly has a bone to pick with the LOW folks, who have expunged all mention of his name from their website). Therefore, it drew my attention and that of a few others. Then, when I raised my concerns, Kraus started using an anonymous account to vandalize my user page and several articles. I have spent many hours trying to improve this article, and I thank you for your assistance. But the article is still, I'd estimate, 50% unreferenced, and in order for us to remove the reference tag, we need to find at least a few more good WP:RS references. We also can remove the "conflict of interest tag" once it is clear that the WP:POV assertions are all removed. Unless we can get references, one way to do this is to remove the list of famous conductors/orchestras with whom Kraus has worked and just leave in the referenced ones and note "and other orchestras throughout the United States" or something like that. Best regards, -- Ssilvers 17:29, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
I wish the official LOW website would list the productions Kraus directed. They seem to only have a list of repertory from their first season.
Kraus' exclusion from this website is scandalous considering his long term contribution to that company; it is explained by the rather contentious way in which the company dismissed him which was covered in the Chicago arts press in 1999.
I'm aware of all this, because I was a long time LOW subscriber and saw nearly all their shows until recently. After Kraus' departure, the quality of the productions declined in my opinion and I became less interested in the gradual switch away from the light opera/operetta repertoire in favor of standard musicals.
During Kraus' tenure at LOW, it rivaled the Ohio Light Opera as one of the more devoted companies to the operetta genre. That cannot, unfortunately, be said anymore. -- Tim Fuller
-- Ssilvers 17:29, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
I can email you the Who's Who Ref and some other articles I saved while following Kraus' career; however when I click on the email link on your user page it says you have elected not to receive mail?? TF
Impresario at Chicago Cultural Cultural Center
http://www.napervillechorus.org/bios/areyzaga.html
Die Fledermaus at LOW
http://www.elizabethlucas.com/PDFs/LUCAS_RESUME.pdf
Gianni Schicchi/Buoso's Ghost at Chicago Opera Theater
http://www.memphisflyer.com/backissues/issue582/mfea582.asp
Conductor Edvard Tchivzhel
http://www.fortwaynephilharmonic.com/results.asp?searchtype=date&datefrom=10/1/2006
Conductor Andreas Delfts
http://www2.jsonline.com/letsgo/daily/0907delfs.stm
Lyric Opera Cleveland Patience
http://www.clevescene.com/2002-07-17/culture/victorian-virtue/
Biography at iClassics
http://www.iclassics.com/artistBio?contentId=1793
Amistad at Lyric
http://www.lyricopera.org/img/about/pdf/castLists_1990s.pdf
(The cast list says Southern Senator; Kraus is obviously using the Christian name of the character.)
Recording of Fidelio with Solti
http://k.1asphost.com/clor/ALCUSOLT.HTM
Tosca Cleveland Opera
http://www.ffaire.com/musicplanner/midwest/cleveopera.html
Conductor Daniel Barenboim
http://www.soundgenerator.com/news/showarticle.cfm?articleid=3287&page=2
Yes, I can add those. In regards to the Who's Who article, I have scanned it, but there doesn't seem to be a way to send this to you via the Wikipedia mail. I'm happy to type out the article here verbatim, but I'm not sure that's what you want. I also have a few of his Pamiro Opera review's, mention of Kraus in the Kurt Weill Foundationm newsletter and a picture of him at the Lady in the Dark opening night from stagebill... TimFuller 17:43, 2 June 2007 (UTC)TFuller
Great work, Tim. Do you have any sources for the last few uncited assertions? Best regards, -- Ssilvers 02:38, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
Congratulations on a fine job gathering references for this article. Maybe each university's library has something showing that he directed their opera program (or maybe just some articles from the school newspaper about student operas during the period mentioning his title), and they can provide us with a reference to their library designation or the dates of the school newspaper articles? Maybe the university's reference librarian would respond to an e-mail? Best regards, -- Ssilvers 01:18, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
That does it! Well, what's you next project? Happy editing! -- Ssilvers 05:50, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
If you click on the links in Krauss's article, they will take you to articles on operettas. Almost all of the articles on operettas in Wikipedia need to be expanded with more information about history/backround/genesis of their creation, information about their original production and subsequent productions, etc. You may be interested in expanding some of them? If you prefer G&S, there is a G&S project at WP:G&S. If you like opera, there is an opera project. See: Talk:Opera. Best regards, -- Ssilvers 04:51, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. I'm going away for a short vacation tomorrow. When I return, I'll give some thought to further contributions. TimFuller 05:42, 10 June 2007 (UTC)TFuller
This article failed good article nomination. This is how the article, as of August 27, 2007, compares against the six good article criteria:
When these issues are addressed, the article can be resubmitted for consideration. If you feel that this review is in error, feel free to take it to a GA review. Thank you for your work so far. — Esprit15d 18:48, 27 August 2007 (UTC)