What is the C-Opera listserv?

The C-Opera listserv is an e-mail mailing list. It is a public but moderated discussion group for those involved in the creation, production and presentation of contemporary music theatre and opera. The list was founded by Lukas Pairon and Kent Devereaux, and has been moderated by Glenn Erik Haugland and Barry Drogin. The current list moderator is Yoav Gal (New York City, U.S.A.), composer and multi-disciplined artist (visit his website, yoavgal.com). The listserv is archived and operated out of a Unix e-mail server named "Hermes" out of the Computing Services Department of the University of New Brunswick in Canada (thus the "hermes.csd.unb.ca" in the list address) with the help of Education Professor Don Soucy. The list allows for discussions about all kinds of topics related to the creation of contemporary music theatre and opera, but is especially worthwhile as a bulletin board for announcements of new productions, questions amongst practitioners, and specific requests for information or advice for solving certain problems. The official "objective" is the same as that of the NewOp/NonOp meetings, as summarized by its founders:

"The objective is to see a more cooperative communication and relationship develop between members who have common artistic objectives in advancing and advocating a contemporary appreciation of the evolving music-theater and opera form in all its aspects."

Some major points to remember about the list are:

How do I join C-Opera?

It's simple but tricky to join --- you have to get it just right. First, you send an e-mail containing the single line:

SUBSCRIBE C-OPERA your-name

substituting, of course, your real name (not your e-mail address) instead of "your-name" above. You don't need anything in the subject line, and make sure to turn your signatures off! You send this one line message to "listserv@listserv.unb.ca"

Within about an hour (maybe less), you'll receive a confirmation e-mail, with the words "OK XXXXX" somewhere in the text, where XXXXX is some weird code. You have only 48 hours to respond, or else they kill you and you have to try again (I've been through all this). You then send another e-mail with the single line (turn off the signatures!)

OK XXXX

to the same (listserv@listserv.unb.ca) e-mail address. Alternatively, you can point your browser to

http://listserv.unb.ca/bin/wa?OK=XXXX

where XXXX is the code. You will then hopefully get a confirmation e-mail and you're on the list. The moderator suggests you save this e-mail, as it contains useful info about the list. To quote: "Six months from now you will be glad you saved this information when you realize you cannot remember which lists you are subscribed to, nor what command to use to "unsubscribe" from a list."

Who is on C-Opera?

Once you have been confirmed, you can send the single line request

REVIEW C-OPERA

to the "listserv address", and you'll get a list of the network e-mail addresses and names of all the current subscribers.

There are more instructions for fancier stuff, which you can find out about with some of the following:
HELP
INFO
INFO REF
INFO PR
INFO GEN (and KEY and FILE and LP and JOB and OWN... you get the idea)
etc.

How do I use the C-Opera listserv?

Sending e-mail to the "listserv address" is not the point of the listserv! What you will want to do is post a message to all the people currently subscribed to the list. You do this by writing to the so-called "list address":

C-OPERA@hermes.csd.unb.ca

This is called "sending mail [or posting] to the list", because you send mail to a single address and the "listserv program" makes copies for all the people who have subscribed. An introductory letter, describing yourself and your work, is most appropriate from new subscribers.

This can be a little confusing; there is the "listserv address," the "list address," and then, when you receive e-mail from the list, the actual address of each participant on the list. All commands must be sent to the "listserv address" (listserv@listserv.unb.ca). Never try to send any command to the "list address"; it would be distributed to all the people who have subscribed. Sometimes you will receive an "off-list" reply from a subscriber, or you will want to respond privately to a poster. Although it does not happen very often, the list sometimes sees public responses to private e-mails, as well as e-mails that were intended to be private but were posted publicly.

All e-mail programs have, in their setup/options/preferences, the ability to display the full routing information at the top of the message. For letters sent to the C-Opera list, this includes not only the listserv address, C-OPERA@hermes.csd.unb.ca, but also the originator's e-mail address, too. This information, however, is lost when the reply button is pushed.

Listserv subscribers who never post to the list are referred to as "lurkers." The 2004 survey revealed that 38% of the listserv subscribers are lurkers.

Listserv subscribers wishing to go "off-list" to respond to a writer who has not included his/her e-mail address in the signature file (and this is a reminder to all to update their signature file accordingly), should do the following:
1. Go to setup/options/preferences and enable the full address display
2. For a particular letter, find the e-mail address and, using the cursor, copy it into the paste buffer
3. Hit reply
4. Highlight the TO address, and then click on paste, which will replace the address (C-OPERA...) with the personal address.

It is important to remember to copy the address BEFORE hitting reply.

A more laborious option, but guaranteed to work, is to send a one line e-mail to the listserv computer, at listserv@listserv.unb.ca that says

REVIEW C-OPERA

as a one-line text (the subject doesn't matter). You'll receive back, usually within a couple of minutes if not seconds, a two-column list consisting of everyone's name and e-mail address. You can then look up the writer in question and respond accordingly.

How do I search the C-Opera archive?

Most subscribers are not aware that the contents of the C-Opera listserv are archived and available on the web. Only subscribers with an e-mail address current on the listserv can access the archives. Go to

https://listserv.unb.ca/archives/c-opera.html

Follow the directions from there.

(Note: This changed from http to https - update your links accordingly.)

What other options do I have?

The default Internet archive view places the newest posting at the top. This means that if you check C-Opera regularly from the Internet, it is easy to see what new postings you haven't read yet are present. You can also post or reply from the Internet, which opens up another option for C-Opera participants - they can decide to not receive listserv mail, or receive a daily digest or index.

There are just a few minor caveats to using the web to access C-Opera