Best in Opera Named for 2003-04 Season

OperaOnline.us announces its "Best Of" picks for the 2003-04 opera season in the northeast.

(PRWEB) October 25, 2004 -- OperaOnline.us the one year old Internet magazine of the northeast has released its first annual "Best Of" selections for the 2003-04 opera season. "We hope to make this a regular annual feature of our publication," said OperaOnline.us founder Paul Joseph Walkowski. "Our base has been growing fast and the response to this feature has been better than we expected." Opera shouldn't be dry or uninteresting Walkowski says. "We decided to adopt an Academy Awards kind of format and look at all facets of the operas we visited and reviewed. We looked at best performances in all categories, best theater, best chorus, best directing, best costumes -- everything, and then put them all on our web site at OperaOnline.us in an atractive format, and, well, the number of hits to that article have caused us to keep it up for the full year. The readership loves it, the singers appreciate it and the opera companies are delighted to receive the attention." Walkowski, says readership of his site has steadily grown and seems to enjoy a large word of mouth "bump" every time they do a new review or write about someone in opera.

The idea for the Internet publication came about from discussions with friends who enjoyed opera but found the information about it, especially in the northeast, wanting. "Because of my marketing background and experience as a writer, I was prompted to take up the challenge of creating a web site devoted to opera in the northeast, and one year later here we are receiving tens-of-thousands of hits a month from people who want to read what we write." As for the content, Walkowski says, the most important thing is to be viewed as a credible source for opera enthusiasts, to write good reviews and to offer enough to keep the readership coming back. As for last season's "Best Of" selections, Walkowski says, "The views we express are the vews of me and my reviewers and no one else. We are independent and try to be fair and objective in our analysis of what qualifies someone a winner. But when all is said and done, we acknowledge that the veiws expressed are just our views. The object here is to create some excitement and acknowledge what we think is some of the best opera around. On that level, I believe we have succeeded." Walkowski says those who want to see who was named will just have to visit his web site at OperaOnline.us. "It's free and there to enjoy," he added.

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