From its origins in the 1670s through the French Revolution, serious opera in France was associated with the power of the absolute monarchy, and its ties to the

How did composers and performers use the lost art of pantomime to explore and promote the Enlightenment ideals of free expression?

A bold application of the concept of canonical works to the development of French operatic and concert life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The name Giuseppe Verdi conjures images of Italians singing opera in the streets and bursting into song at political protests or when facing the firing squad. W

Since the nineteenth century, some of the most influential historians have portrayed opera and tragedy as wholly distinct cultural phenomena. These historians h