The evolution of comic opera. Mozart the serious comic : Don Giovanni ; Rossini's La Cenerentola : the renewal of comic opera ; Verdi's Falstaff : the final frontier
Bel canto and beyond. Rossini's Semiramide : the rebirth of Italian opera seria ; Bellini's I puritani : hybrid opera ; Verdi's Nabucco : the beginning of the end
Italian opera in revolution. Verdi's Rigoletto : new directions in Italian opera
Opera as autobiography. Beethoven's Fidelio : a case of self-salvation ; Berlioz's La damnation de Faust : when is opera not opera?
Shakespearean opera. Gounod's Roméo et Juliette : rewriting Shakespeare ; Verdi's Otello : adaptation and form in late-nineteenth-century opera
From literature to opera. Gounod's Faust : a hero's transformation ; Massenet vs. Puccini : two (of the three) Manons
Symphonic opera. Wagner, Strauss, and the question of operatic form
French grand opera. Verdi's Don Carlos : a foreigner's view ; Berlioz's Les Troyens : a misjudged masterpiece
Verismo opera. Bizet's Carmen : a sociological interpretation ; Puccini's Tosca : the not-so-"shabby little shocker"
Fairy-tale opera. Puccini's Turandot : the (un)solved riddle
The influence of Wagner. Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande : the exorcism of Wagner
Approaches to twentieth-century opera. Looking ahead while looking back : Bartók, Berg, and Britten.
