Essays on Opera

by Winton Dean

Winton Dean has long been regarded as the foremost British expert on Handel and Bizet, as well as an outstanding writer on opera in general. In this wide-ranging volume, Dean brings together his best writing over the past thirty-five years, each essay a small masterpiece of opera
connoisseurship. The thirty pieces included here cover a diversity of opera-related subjects, ranging from shorter articles from The Listener to substantial surveys such as "Shakespeare in the Opera House." There are also important writings on the performance of recitative in late Baroque opera
and on the controversial German edition of Carmen . Throughout, the more scholarly essays--the results of original and extensive research--appear alongside articles intended for non-specialist readers, making Essays on Opera essential reading for musicologist and opera buff alike. In addition, the
new paperback edition offers a number of essays substantially revised in the light of Dean's latest research.

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 1991

About the author

Winton Basil Dean (18 March 1916 – 19 December 2013) was an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research on the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of George Frideric Handel, as detailed in his book Handel's Dramatic Oratorios and Masques.