| Contents |
Introduction -- Music and drama to the end of the sixteenth century. The lyric theatre of the Greeks ; Medieval dramatic music ; The immediate forerunners of opera -- The seventeenth century. The beginnings ; Monteverdi's "Orfeo" ; Other Italian court operas of the early seventeenth century ; Italian opera in the later seventeenth century. I, In Italy ; Italian opera in the later seventeenth century. II, In Germany ; Early German opera ; Lully and the opera in France ; English opera -- The eighteenth century. Masters of the early eighteenth century ; The opera seria ; The operas of Gluck ; Eighteenth-century comic opera ; Mozart -- The nineteenth century. The turn of the century ; Grand opera ; Opéra comique, operetta, and lyric opera ; Italian opera : Verdi ; The romantic opera in Germany ; Wagner ; The later nineteenth century ; Nationalism and opera -- The twentieth century. Old bottles and new wine ; Tradition and renewal : the recent past. |
