History Through the Opera Glass
From the Rise of Caesar to the Fall of Napoleon

This work reveals how nearly 200 operas by leading composers and librettists have portrayed the major events and personalities of more than 2000 years of history. In a continuous narrative the book begins with Roman times and moves through to 1820.

This work reveals how nearly 200 operas by leading composers and librettists have portrayed the major events and personalities of more than 2000 years of history. In a continuous narrative the book begins with Roman times and moves through to 1820, with a cast of characters that includes Julius Caear, Anthony and Cleopatra, Attila, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Napoleon - and hundreds more. All are seen as the figures historians generally perceive them to have been and as their on-stage counterparts, created and re-imagined by some of opera's greatest artists. Among the operas are Andrea Chenier, Boris Godunov, Fidelio, Gloriana, Les Huguenots, Mary Queen of Scots, Norma, Simon Bocanegra, Il travatore, War and Peace and more. The book is comprehensive and it has an exhaustive chronology that provides further information on historical dates and more than 1200 operas dealing with historical subjects,