New Zealand Opera is New Zealand's only full-time professional opera company, and as such has a significant archive of information and photos relating to the history of opera in the country. Opera in New Zealand is woefully covered in Wikipedia and Commons! This project is a place to coordinate efforts to improve that.
A Wikipedian in Residence, much like an artist in residence, is an experienced Wikipedia editor who works within an institution. The Wikipedian in Residence can improve the coverage and accuracy of Wikidata and Wikipedia articles related to the institution's area of interest, facilitate the donation of photos and other media to Wikimedia Commons, advocate for the use of open licenses, and organise the volunteer community to help in public events such as edit-a-thons. New Zealand Opera was the first opera company in the world to partner with a Wikipedian in Residence.
Mike Dickison (User:Giantflightlessbirds) was the Wikipedian in Residence for New Zealand Opera from January to August 2021, undertaking a collaborative project to improve the coverage of Māori and Pasifika in opera. This was a paid position, working 1–2 days a month, supported by a grant from the Stout Trust managed by Perpetual Guardian. Some work was done remotely, including during lockdown, and some during visits to Auckland and Wellington to work with physical archives. Also assisting were the four-month WikiProject Performing Arts Aotearoa New Zealand (Q106787482) run by Pakoire, and volunteers DrThneed and Jonathanischoice.
The residency focussed specifically on the role of Māori and Pasifika in opera, using the resources, photo archives, and publications of NZ Opera and its predecessors Auckland Opera, Wellington City Opera, and Southern Opera. During the residency it became clear that the coverage of opera in New Zealand by Wikimedia projects was so poor that a large amount of fundamental work was required, and there was scope for an expanded follow-up project.
Unless noted, these had photos added from the NZ Opera collection.
The Institution:New Zealand Opera page template was created for photos from its collections. The following categories were created; the number of uploaded photos are noted.
The tool GLAMorgan can estimate the reach of photos uploaded to Commons, by totalling the number of unique page views for the articles on which they appear. In August 2021, for example, Category:New Zealand Opera photos were seen by 109,107 people (including 27,390 for photos in the article The Turn of the Screw and 18,723 in The Magic Flute). A total of 76 pages used NZ Opera photos, including Wikipedia articles in English, Russian, Arabic, Hungarian, and French.
Some of these were created or improved during the 2021 Wikipedian in Residence term; there is still plenty to do
Name | Dates | Wikidata | Quality | Commons | Notes |
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Wellington Opera | 2021– | Q107006781 | — | ||
New Zealand Opera | 2000– | Q7752980 | Start | Category:New Zealand Opera | improved |
Opera NZ | 1995–2000 | Q107005513 | |||
Auckland Opera | 1991–1995 | Q107005503 | |||
Auckland Metropolitan Opera | 1990–1991 | Q107005468 | |||
Mercury Opera | 1980s–1991 | — | |||
National Opera of Wellington | 1998–2000 | Q106868423 | Redirect | ||
Wellington City Opera | 1984–1998 | Q106835341 | C | created 17 May 2021 | |
De La Tour Opera | 1975–1984 | Q106868994 | |||
Canterbury Opera | 1985–2006 | Q107005600 | |||
Southern Opera | 2007–2012 | Q107005634 | |||
Toi Toi Opera | 2020– | Q108387097 | |||
National Opera of New Zealand | 1978–1982 | Q107005566 | Stub | — | Created 28 May 2021 |
Opera Otago | 1985– | — | |||
Dunedin Opera Company | 1956–1985 | — | |||
New Zealand Opera Company | 1954–1971 | Q106869205 | Stub | — | Created 28 May 2021 |
Perkel Opera | 1974–1989 | Q107005714 | |||
Class Act Opera | 1991– | — | |||
Academy Opera | 1980s– | — | |||
New Zealand Opera Society | — | ||||
New Zealand Opera Foundation | — | ||||
New Zealand Opera School | — | ||||
The Dame Malvina Major Foundation | 1991– | Q106865811 | Redirect |
Name | Wikidata | Quality | Commons | Notes |
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Phillip Rhodes | Q107134093 | Start | — | Created 21 June 2021 |
Paul Whelan | Q107586138 | – | Paul Whelan | |
Pene Pati | Q107005513 | Redirect | File:Pene Pati cropped.jpg | |
Amitai Pati | Q107585912 | Redirect | Amitai Pati | the Pati brothers are only covered in the Sole Mio article and need their own) |
Thomas Atkins | — | — | — | |
Manase Latu | Q106807792 | — | — | |
Amina Edris | Q92437288 | — | — | |
Samson Setu | — | — | — | |
Filipe Manu | Not Q66135405! | — | — | Not the rugby player! Disentangle. |
Eliza Boom | — | — | — | |
Madison Nonoa | Q106807791 | Stub | Madison Nonoa | Created 21 August 2021 |
Benson Wilson | Q106807790 | Start | — | Created 15 July 2021 |
Natasha Wilson | Q108267551 | Start | Natasha Wilson | created 26 August 2021 |
Other singers that could do with additional photos and information include Īnia Te Wīata, Donald McIntyre, Kiri Te Kanawa, Malvina Major, Simon O'Neill, and Jonathan Lemalu. Some of the singers in Southern Voices like Noel Mangin (Q6152001) and Anson Austin (Q107638410) have no English Wikipedia article at all, and some like Rodney Macann aren't even in Wikidata.
Needed: photos of performers, especially ensemble photos of emerging artists like this one, which are so useful for Wikidata and article infoboxes.
Wikidata items for works and editions, to help with Wikipedia citation, have been created as noted.
January 2021
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February 2021
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June 2021
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