Books in the Cambridge Studies in Opera series

This book explores the cultural life of Italian opera in late eighteenth-century London. Through primary sources, many analysed for the first time, Ian Woodfield examines such issues as finances, recruitment policy, handling of singers and composers, links with Paris and Italy, and the role of women in opera management.

This new approach to the operas of Handel examines the vital and intertwined roles of singers, audiences and local cultural context in creating eighteenth-century opera. It emphasises cultural context and aspects of performance, offering a range of interpretative tools not previously exploited in studies of the century's opera before Mozart.