Talk:William Lewis (tenor)

Note to administrators

The article has been completely re-written with independent references here:

Talk:William_Lewis_(tenor)/Temp Voceditenore (talk) 10:00, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

November 15, 2008 edits

This entire article had been pasted in from http://fava.metadot.net/summer-academy/william-lewis. It was not only a copyright violation but contained inappropriate hyperbole. I've edited it to remove the copyright violation and the peacock terms. I have also removed one reference which did not support the claim and modified another reference to the exact page where his biography is found. The article still needs extensive copy-editing and proper sourcing. Note that the subject is a notable singer. Voceditenore (talk) 09:57, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

November 18, 2008 edits

Note to adminsistrators: I did not create this article, but I spent considerable time editing it to remove the basic copyright infringement [1] It should not have had this notice slapped on it without reading the history. The review excerpts are clearly marked as quotes and simply require sourcing. Voceditenore (talk) 21:29, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

I usually agree with Voceditenore but not in this case. The words are still substantially identical to the copyrighted source(s). I really don't see how that gets around copyright problems just by slapping on some references. The very first senetence is identical to this source: [2]. Nrswanson (talk) 02:10, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

This paragraph is identical as well to a paragraph in that source: "He made his San Francisco Opera debut in 1975 as Steuermann/Erik and appeared there in subsequent seasons as: Stewa in Jenufa, Albert Gregor in the Makropoulos Affair, Boris in Katya Kabanova, Frank Sargent in the World Premier of Angle of Repose, Le Cid, Sergei in Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk, Golitsin in Khovantschina, Eumete in Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria and Loge in Das Rheingold."

as is this paragraph: "His performed Richard Strauss repertoire includes: Matteo in Arabella, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos, Der Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten, Midas and King Pollux in Die Liebe der Danae, Apollo in Daphne, Der Baron in Intermezzo, the title role of Guntram; reviews as King Herodes in Salome at the Teatro Carlo Felice (Genoa), Teatro Nuovo (Spoleto), Baltimore Opera, Denver Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Nashville Opera."

There are a few other individual identical sentences. Very little of the article is different. Further, the structure/ organizational method of the two articles is identical. It's also my suspicion that the article was created by a COI account, possibly the artist's management. This is a clear case of plagiarism. Nrswanson (talk) 02:17, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Obviously the two sentences (not paragraphs) you quote above are going to be virtually identical to the staff bio. They were simple lists of operas in which he has appeared, opera houses, concert halls, etc. Even after I emergency edited it, the article was still quite poor in quality and judging by the user name was probably created by someone at the Franco-American Vocal Academy. I strongly doubt it was the article's subject or his management. In any case, he is a notable singer who deserves an article, regardless of who created it and how. Consequently, I have now completely re-written it. (See above) Voceditenore (talk) 07:48, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

I think what bothered me more was that the structure of the articles was the same. I mean you can reorganize lists and how and where they fall so that the information is organized in a different way. Regardless, you are right that the person is notable and have done a nice job with the re-written article. FYI, I've never done a copyright nom before. I thought it was just a tag at first and then found it was something bigger. I probably would choose a different less drastic route next time a similar situation comes up now that I'm more familiar with the process.Nrswanson (talk) 07:59, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Date of birth

Acually William Lewis was born in 1931 --FAVAopera (talk) 17:31, 2 December 2008 (UTC)favaopera

• Note: I have transferred the above comment to this page. It had been erroneously added to Talk:William Lewis (tenor)/Temp. Please do not use that page for comments anymore. It was temporarily hosting the re-written article which is now in place. All discussion about the article should be on this page. Voceditenore (talk) 18:59, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Comment The 1935 birthdate has a published reference (see article). To change it, you need a published reference that shows a 1931 birth date. Voceditenore (talk) 19:27, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Mr. Lewis states personally that he was born in 1931; I have seen the 1935 date in several published sources but I think he knows when he was born! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.61.138.34 (talk) 01:29, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Reply The requirement that information in an article, and especially in an article about a living person, be from a verifiable source is a protection for the article's subject. Otherwise, anyone can put what they like in an article and claim "I heard the subject say this". For example, you just made this comment from an anonymous IP address and didn't even sign it. I could just as easily say "Mr. Lewis personally told me that he was born in 1942 and I think he knows when he was born!"

If you have any questions about this policy or how it applies in this particular case, you can post them on Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Noticeboard. If you are actually Mr. Lewis or his official agent, you might consider adding his date of birth to one of his published official biographies, which would solve the problem. Or you can send an email to: info-en-q@wikimedia.org for advice on how to procede. It must be clear who the sender is from their email address. Voceditenore (talk) 06:56, 10 December 2008 (UTC)