Essays on Opera

Winton Dean has long been regarded as the foremost British expert on Handel and Bizet, as well as an outstanding writer on opera in general. In this wide-ranging volume, Dean brings together his best writing over the past thirty-five years, each essay a small masterpiece of opera connoisseurship. The thirty pieces included here cover a diversity of opera-related subjects, ranging from shorter articles from The Listener to substantial surveys such as "Shakespeare in the Opera House." There are also important writings on the performance of recitative in late Baroque opera and on the controversial German edition of Carmen. Throughout, the more scholarly essays--the results of original and extensive research--appear alongside articles intended for non-specialist readers, making Essays on Opera essential reading for musicologist and opera buff alike. In addition, the new paperback edition offers a number of essays substantially revised in the light of Dean's latest research.