"The many and varied domestic musical arrangements of opera that circulated in Vienna provide a unique window on the world of nineteenth-century amateur music-making. This study takes a novel stance for musicology, prioritising musical arrangements over original compositions, and female amateurs' perspectives over those of composers"--

A unique window on the world of nineteenth-century amateur music-making provided by the study of domestic musical arrangements of opera.

London operatic adaptations have been maligned, but this comprehensive study demonstrates their importance to theatre, opera and canon formation.

Vienna was the glory of the music world for 350 years, as this affectionate portrayal of that city's opera attests. Neither a documentary history nor a strict chronology, it offers chapters on Vienna opera prior to 1869, the architecture of the Vienna Opera House, the directors and their ensembles, set design and costumes, the opera ballet, and the orchestra. A list of major premieres and a bibliography are included.

Warren Roberts has discovered a Rossini that others have not seen, a composer who commented ironically and satirically on religion and politics in Post-Napoleonic Europe.