Explores the profession of singing, operatic culture, and the representation of female performers on the nineteenth century French stage.

Castelvecchi presents a critical re-evaluation of the operatic genre system and the cult of sensibility in the age of Mozart.

Focusing on opera and modernism in post-war Venice, Boyd-Bennett challenges assumptions about music in the twentieth century.

Bryan Gilliam explores the composer's response to Wagner in his discussion of Strauss' stage works and their historical contexts.

This new approach to the operas of Handel examines the vital and intertwined roles of singers, audiences and local cultural context in creating eighteenth-century opera. It emphasises cultural context and aspects of performance, offering a range of interpretative tools not previously exploited in studies of the century's opera before Mozart.