Preface to the paperback edition
Preface and acknowledgements
List of illustrations
1. Introduction
2. Opera’s first centennial
3. Opera seria
4. Discipline
5. Opera buffa and Mozart’s line of beauty
6. Singing and speaking before 1800
7. The German problem
8. Rossini and transition
9. The tenor comes of age
10. Young Verdi
11. Grand Opera
12. Young Wagner
13. Opéra comique, the crucible
14. Old Wagner
15. Verdi – older still
16. Realism and clamour
17. Turning point
18. Modern
19. Speech
20. Revenants in the museum
21. We are alone in the forest
Illustrations
Bibliography
References
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