First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book is designed to introduce the non-specialist music lover to Britten's opera, The Turn of the Screw.

This book explains how and why Gluck's historically important and best-loved opera Orfeo came into existence, and shows why it has retained its popularity. The work is placed in its context of Gluck's 'reform of opera', an artistic movement involving actors, dancers, designers, writers and philosophers, as well as musicians and librettists. Patricia Howard and her fellow contributors describe how the opera has been reinterpreted throughout the past two hundred years from its first performance. Differing twentieth-century views based on practical experience of the work are put forward by the...