The Ashgate Library of Essays in Opera Studies: 6-Volume set

New perspectives on opera scholarship have emerged in recent years and have changed the course of the genre's study in significant ways.

This series brings together selected articles and essays which reflect the new scholarship: the papers address sources, works, audiences, performers, creators, culture, and theory and deal with operatic works as historical and contemporary entities with aesthetic, theoretical, and ideological complexities.

The articles display a rich variety of approaches and styles and come from a range of disciplines, both musical and non-musical. Each volume in the series is edited by a recognized authority in the area, and features a detailed introduction which surveys the current state of the field, gives an overview of important issues and new discoveries, and explains the significance of the texts in the collection.

There is also a select bibliography of the sources cited in each introduction. Because of the nature of the scholarship and the operatic repertory for different times and places, volumes are organized in differing ways designed to serve readers' needs and to embrace various topics and approaches as appropriate to the repertory of diverse eras. This authoritative series of six volumes offers a selection of the most important and influential English-language scholarship in opera studies and is a valuable resource for scholars new to the area as well as for experienced scholars who may have overlooked an important essay published in a journal with limited circulation.