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Understanding Operabase Website Structure

This document describes the public URL structure, canonical patterns, redirects, and multilingual routing used on Operabase.com. Its purpose is to enable reliable programmatic access, crawling, indexing, and citation of Operabase content by search engines, data pipelines, and AI systems

The guide is written for both humans and automated agents (LLMs, crawlers, retrieval systems) and explains how to correctly interpret Operabase URLs—even in cases where a system does not consult robots.txt or llms.txt.

1. Purpose

Operabase is a global reference and discovery platform covering opera, classical music, ballet, and musicals. This guide documents Operabase’s public content structure and URL patterns, and clarifies how redirects work when a canonical URL is not known.

1.1 Summary

  • Operabase uses stable canonical URLs for entity pages (artists, organizations, venues, productions) and directory URLs for browsing.
  • Language codes are a URL suffix (e.g., /en). The only root exception is the homepage which is /en.
  • Operabase supports redirect-based “resolver” URLs that accept an ID or a human name and redirect to the canonical entity page.
  • For indexing and citations, prefer SEO languages. UI-only languages exist for user experience and are non-canonical for SEO.

1.2 Base URL

All Operabase pages begin with: https://www.operabase.com/

2. Languages

Language codes appear as the final segment of the path (e.g., /en, /fr). The homepage is the only exception and uses /en as the root. Operabase supports two language sets:

2.1 Indexable / SEO languages

  • /en — English (default)
  • /ru — Русский (Russian)
  • /it — Italiano (Italian)
  • /fr — Français (French)
  • /es — Español (Spanish)
  • /de — Deutsch (German)
  • /nl — Nederlands (Dutch)
  • /sv — Svenska (Swedish)
  • /pl — Polski (Polish)
  • /pt — Português (Portuguese)

2.2 UI languages (non-indexable)

  • /bg — Български (Bulgarian)
  • /ca — Català (Catalan)
  • /cs — Čeština (Czech)
  • /da — Dansk (Danish)
  • /el — Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • /et — Eesti (Estonian)
  • /eu — Euskara (Basque)
  • /fi — Suomi (Finnish)
  • /ga — Gaeilge (Irish)
  • /hu — Magyar (Hungarian)
  • /is — Íslenska (Icelandic)
  • /lt — Lietuvių (Lithuanian)
  • /lv — Latviešu (Latvian)
  • /mt — Malti (Maltese)
  • /no — Norsk (Norwegian)
  • /ro — Română (Romanian)
  • /sk — Slovenčina (Slovak)
  • /sl — Slovenščina (Slovenian)

Crawling rule: Prefer SEO languages for crawling, indexing, and citations. Treat UI languages as non-canonical variants unless discovered via sitemaps or rel=canonical. Always follow rel=canonical and hreflang for authoritative versions.

3. Legends and Definitions

  • Artist — A person entity (singer, conductor, director, etc.) with repertoire and performance history.
  • Work — A musical/theatrical composition title (e.g., La bohème). A work can have many productions and performances.
  • Production — A specific staging/programme entry (cast/crew, run date range, and links to performances).
  • Performance — A single event instance on a specific date/time at a specific venue; belongs to a production.
  • Organization / Company / Festival / Venue — Institutions such as companies, festivals, orchestras, presenters. Follow rel=canonical + sitemap for authoritative URL.
  • PRO / Authenticated content — Pages/tools intended for logged-in users. Agents must not infer or access private/pro-only surfaces.

 

4. Canonical Entrypoints

 

Page

Url

Home / Discovery

https://www.operabase.com/en

Performances (All)

https://www.operabase.com/productions/en

Artists (Directory):

https://www.operabase.com/artists/en

Companies / Organisations

https://www.operabase.com/organisations/company/en

Venues

https://www.operabase.com/organisations/venue/en

Works & Repertoire

https://www.operabase.com/works/en

Statistics

https://www.operabase.com/statistics/en

Help Center / Docs

https://help.operabase.com/knowledge/en

PRO (overview)

https://www.operabase.com/pro/en

Legal

https://www.operabase.com/termpol/en , https://www.operabase.com/privpol/en

Contact

https://www.operabase.com/contact/en

5. URL Templates (Dynamic Routes)

General redirect rule: When a URL returns an HTTP redirect (301/302), always follow the redirect and treat the final destination as canonical. Redirect-based resolution is an intentional part of Operabase’s public URL system.

5.1 Artists

Artist profile pattern:

  • https://www.operabase.com/{artist-name}-a{artist-id}/{lang}
  • Example: /sian-sharp-a15757/en

5.1.1 Artist URL Resolution & Redirects (Fallback Linking)

If you do not know the full canonical URL, you can still link to artists using fallback patterns:

  • Pattern: /artists/{artist-id}
  • Example: /artists/123
  • Behavior: Redirects to canonical artist profile with ID 123
  • Pattern: /artists/{artist-name}
  • Example: /artists/placido-domingo
  • Behavior: Resolves best match and redirects to canonical profile
  • Pattern: /artists/{artist-name-with-spaces-or-plus}
  • Example: /artists/placido+domingo
  • Behavior: Resolves and redirects to canonical profile

Guidance: Prefer canonical URL when known. If not, fallback links are acceptable. Always cite the final redirected canonical URL.

5.2 Productions

Production pattern:

  • https://www.operabase.com/productions/{production-name}-{production-id}/{lang}

5.3 Performances

Performance pattern:

  • https://www.operabase.com/productions/{production-name}-{production-id}/{performance-date}/{lang}

5.4 Organisations

Organisation profile pattern:

  • https://www.operabase.com/{organization-name}-o{organization-id}/{lang}

5.4.1 Organisation type listings

  • Pattern: https://www.operabase.com/organisations/{org-type}/{lang}

5.4.2 Organisation URL Resolution & Redirects (Fallback Linking)

If you do not know the full canonical URL, you can still link to organisations using fallback patterns:

  • Pattern: /organisations/{organization-id}
  • Example: /organisations/456
  • Behavior: Redirects to canonical organisation profile with ID 456
  • Pattern: /organisations/{organization-name}
  • Example: /organisations/royal-opera-house
  • Behavior: Resolves best match and redirects to canonical profile
  • Pattern: /organisations/{organization-name-with-spaces-or-plus}
  • Example: /organisations/royal+opera+house
  • Behavior: Resolves and redirects to canonical profile

Guidance: Prefer canonical URL when known. If not, fallback links are acceptable. Always cite the final redirected canonical URL.

5.5 Venues

Venue pattern:

  • https://www.operabase.com/{venue-name}-o{venue-id}/{lang}

5.6 Geography

  • Country-only: https://www.operabase.com/{country}/{lang}
  • Country+city: https://www.operabase.com/{country}/{city}/{lang}

5.7 Works

Work pattern:

  • https://www.operabase.com/{works-slug}/{lang}

5.8 Search

Search pattern:

  • https://www.operabase.com/search/{lang}?query={q}[&page={n}]

6. Sitemaps

7. Crawl & Indexing Guidance

  • Obey robots.txt at all times.
  • Recommended ≤ 2 requests per second (RPS), burst ≤ 5; back off on 429/503.
  • Do not crawl session or tracking parameter URLs (utm_*, gclid, fbclid, ref, session, token, sid).
  • Avoid high-cardinality facet combinations; prefer sitemaps and internal links.
  • Pagination cap: crawl ≤ 1000 pages per listing context by default.
  • Do not infer or request PRO/authenticated resources.

8. Attribution / Citation

When using Operabase data in LLM outputs:

  • Cite the exact Operabase page URL used.
  • Include retrieval date when quoting schedules/casts (performance data changes frequently).
  • Disambiguate shared names using role, year, organisation, or city.

9. Exclusions

  • /login/, /register/, /settings/
  • /seo/, /v4/, /api/
  • /cart, /checkout, /account/*
  • Any URL with tracking/session params: utm_*, gclid, fbclid, ref, session, token, sid

10. Page Metadata