Opera Outside the Box

Opera Outside the Box: Notions of Opera in Nineteenth-Century Britain addresses operatic ?experiences? outside the opera houses of Britain during the nineteenth century. The essays adopt a variety of perspectives exploring the processes through which opera and ideas about opera were cultivated and disseminated, by examining opera-related matters in publication and performance, in both musical and non-musical genres, outside the traditional approaches to transmission of operatic works and associated concepts. As a group, they exemplify the broad array of questions to be grappled with in seeking to identify commonalities that might shed light in new and imaginative ways on the experiences and manifestations of opera and notions of opera in Victorian Britain. In unpacking the significance, relevance, uses, and impacts of opera within British society, the collection seeks to enhance understanding of a few of the manifold ways in which the population learned about and experienced opera, how audiences and the broader public understood the genre and the aesthetics surrounding it, how familiarity with opera played out in British culture, and how British customs, values, and principles affected the genre of opera and perceptions of it.

This fascinating collection offers a new and unfamiliar view of (mostly) nineteenth-century operas we thought we knew, focusing on their general spread through British culture by means of what the editor calls "operatic experiences outside the opera house," and "operatically flavored activities." Edited flawlessly by pre-eminent Verdi scholar Roberta Marvin, the volume includes contributions by leading scholars of opera and of Georgian and Victorian musical life, as well as by a few new voices of compelling interest.

Ruth Solie, Professor Emerita, Smith College