This study tells the story of the great opera houses of the world, from the princes who commissioned them and the architects who designed them, to the singers who sang in them. Pride of place goes to the great national opera houses of Europe - from the Palais Garnier in Paris and Covent Garden in London to La Scala in Italy and the Bolshoi in Russia. Also featured are the innovatory theatres built by men dedicated to their own artistic ends. Focus of art and music, tradition and experiment, glamour and ideology, the opera house is a potent symbol of cultural identity.