What is opera and how does it work? How has this dramatic form developed and what is its relevance in the modern world? Perfect for music students and opera-goers, this introductory guide addresses these questions and many more, exploring opera as a complete theatrical experience. Organised chronologically and avoiding technical musical terminology, the book clearly demonstrates how opera reflected and reacted to changes in the world around it. A special feature of the volume is the inclusion of illustrative tables throughout. These provide detailed, easy to follow analysis of arias, scenes and acts; visual guides to historical movements; and chronologies relating to genres and individual composers' works. Overall, the book fosters an understanding of opera as a living form as it encounters and uses material from an ever expanding repertoire in time, place and culture. Presents a dedicated study of opera as a dramatic form, showing how opera works as a complete theatrical experience and how this is achieved Explains in an easy-to-follow way how particular acts, scenes, arias and ensembles work, avoiding technical musical analysis Includes unique tables which clearly illustrate the relationship between key cultural and social ideas and musical development, allowing readers to see how opera has been formed by its wider cultural, social and political context Table of Contents Introduction Part I: 1. Pre-operatic forms 2. First operatic forms: Peri, Caccini, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Keiser 3. Formalization 4. Reform - the reintegration of elements 5. Comedy and the 'real world' 6. 'Authentic' performance Part II: 7. Romanticism and romantic opera in Germany 8. Opera in nineteenth-century Italy 9. Grand Opéra and the visual language of opera 10. The Wagnerian revolution 11. Nationalists: vernacular language and music 12. The role of the singer Part III: 13. The turn of the century and the crisis in opera 14. First modernism: symbolist and expressionist opera 15. The dramaturgy of opera: libretto - words and structure 16. Narrative opera: realistic and non-realistic 17. Radical narratives 18. Directors and the direction of opera Appendices: 1. Motifs from Der Ring 2. The development of singing voices 3. The development of lyric theatre alternatives to 'opera' 4. Some major operas, artistic and political events of the twentieth century Glossary of terms Bibliography.