L' opera completa di Sebastiano Ricci

You are getting ready for a performance of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and you have a few questions. How many clarinets are in the orchestra? How many orchestra members appear ons...

When the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci arrived in China in the 1580s, he had to invent an identity for himself: he and his doctrine were unknowns. That would soon change as Ricci bec...

In Opera as Art: Philosophical Sketches, Paul Thom argues for opera as an art, standing alongside other artforms that employ visual and sonic media to embody the great themes of hu...

The focus of this chapter is the most successful grand opera company of the decade, the troupe of Emma Abbott. This prima donna was thoroughly trained in the Italian school and per...

In this chapter, the author reflects on the issue of race in opera and its impact on black singers. He first recounts his European operatic debut in Milan in 1960, singing the role...