Wikipedia:WikiProject Gilbert and Sullivan/Opera articles

Introduction
This page describes the style guideline for articles on operas, plays and any other substantial works, such as oratorios, relating to WikiProject Gilbert and Sullivan. A common style provides coherency to a set of related articles. It also provides a working guideline to assist editors who are adding new articles or updating existing ones. This guideline has borrowed heavily from similar Wikipedia projects that have developed such guidelines, particularly the Musical Theatre and Opera projects.

The table below summarizes:
 * The preferred section headings for articles on these works, in their preferred order.
 * In what circumstances the section is required for a "good article".
 * A brief description of what the section should contain.

The intention is to describe a consistent way to allocate the information in an article in order to craft a good article on an opera, play or other substantial work for the Gilbert and Sullivan project. This may seem daunting. Editors should not feel obligated to satisfy all of these requirements for an article immediately. Indeed, the usual trend at Wikipedia is that articles start out as stubs and become progressively more complete and better as other editors add to them. It is easier to contribute to an existing article than to create a new one, so making a start, even with a "stub", is welcome.

For the purposes of the table below, a major work is any one of the eleven frequently performed Gilbert and Sullivan operas (those from Trial by Jury through The Gondoliers), plus Cox and Box. Of course, it is possible to treat a less important work as thoroughly as a major work&mdash;the sections listed below are never inapplicable, as long as verifiable information exists. However, for the major works, the Project editors will especially strive, over time, to fill in every applicable section.

Current assessment
This table describes the status of the opera articles' current level of compliance with the above guidelines.