Opera and British Print Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century

Opera and British Print Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century explores the multiple points of interaction between British opera, print culture, and music in the long nineteenth century. Past scholarship has often used print as a simple conduit for information about opera in Britain, but this book embeds opera within the culture of Britain in the long nineteenth century, a culture inundated by print. The essays analyze how print culture both disseminated and shaped operatic culture; how the businesses of opera production and publishing intertwined; how performers and impresarios used print culture to cultivate their public persona; how issues of nationalism, class, and gender impacted reception in the periodical press; and how opera intertwined with literature, not only drawing source material from novels and plays, but also as a plot element in literary works or as a point of friction in literary circles. As the growth of digital humanities increases access to print sources, and as opera scholars move away from a focus on operas as isolated works, this study points the way forward to a richer understanding of the intersections between opera and print culture.