Books by Hilary (Professor of Music Poriss

This book surveys the myriad and creative changes that have affected The Barber of Seville since its premiere, exploring many of the personalities responsible for those alterations and taking into account the range of reactions that these changes have prompted in spectators and critics from the nineteenth century to the present.

This study is the first to explore the significance of aria insertion, the practice that allowed singers to introduce music of their own choice into productions of Italian opera during the nineteenth century. Each chapter investigates this practice from varying perspectives and through the experiences of some of the century's most famous prima donnas.