From Library Journal

As Tomlinson (humanities, Univ. of Pennsylvania) states in his preface, This is not a history of opera. Although the seven chapters are organized roughly along historical lines from late Renaissance to modern, Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowship recipient Tomlinson feels no obligation to present anything resembling the usual kind of survey. Instead, he picks and chooses his examples on a quite different level in order to discuss broad issues of representation, comprehension, social context, and their changes over the centuries. Integrating history, drama, and philosophy, Tomlinsons discussion centers around the way music and text represent emotion; how the composer uses voice, characterizations, and plot; and how he communicates the real and unreal to his audience. Not since Joseph Kermans Opera as Drama (1952; Univ. of California, 1988. reprint) has there been such a well-written, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking look at opera. Highly recommended.Timothy J. McGee, Univ. of Toronto