Corago in LOD. The debut of an Opera repository into the Linked Data arena

Abstract

The paper examines the adoption of the Semantic Web (SW) technologies and Linked Data (LD) principles to manage a knowledge base about opera. The Corago repository collects historical data and documentation about opera works, performances and librettos from the 16th to the 20th century. We experimented the use of semantic technologies to manage the repository’s knowledge catalogued following the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) relational model. Cultural Heritage Knowledge Bases (CHKB) as Corago could leverage SW and LD to overcome proprietary models and to introduce new information to better satisfy user’s requirements. Two well-established reference ontologies as CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM) and FRBR Object Oriented (FRBRoo) are adopted to transpose contents form the legacy conceptual model to RDF. Through the process, we observed that formal semantics allow, not only to adequately represent the opera domain, but also enable to define the way information is being presented to users. This led to the definition of “reception pathways” which become themselves part of the knowledge about opera within the KB. This novel semantic approach is introduced with the Corago Semantic Model (Corago SM), a domain ontology dedicated to functional representation of opera’s historical data. Advancements have been tested with an experimental system and assessed through a questionnaire submitted to a panel of users.