This book examines the crucial role of the Habsburg dynasty in European affairs over 700 years, from the election of Rudolph as emperor (1273)  through the great Empress Maria Theresa (1740-1780) to the long-lived Emperor Franz Joseph (1848-1916). The Danube Monarchy brought together nine different nations in an irenic  unity in diversity. The book  also examines in detail  the flowering of culture under the Habsburg  rule: the extraordinary artists from the  Carolingian Era to Expressionism; some of the greatest composers of all time who made Vienna the world capital of music; and some...

This book aims to present an appreciation of the historical evolution of ballet in the 17th and 18th centuries, and how this gave birth to the flourishing of a very distinctive art form in the 19th century. The narrative illustrates the efflorescence of ballet during the Romantic period in the great centres of Italy, France, England, Denmark and Russia. Tracing the movement from the work of the great Italian choreographers Salvatore Vigano and Gaetano Gioia in Milan and Vienna in the early nineteenth century (with works like Ludwig van Beethovenâs The Creatures of Prometheus), attention then...