Winton Dean is regarded as the foremost British Handel and Bizet scholar and as an outstanding writer on opera in general. This volume comprises a selection of thirty essays written over the past thirty-five years, from a variety of sources. They encompass a diversity of opera-related subjects, ranging from shorter pieces for the Listener to substantial surveys such as `Shakespeare in the Opera House'. There are important articles on the performance of recitative in late Baroque opera and on the controversial German edition of Carmen . Scholarly essays containing the results of original research appear alongside articles intended for the non-specialist reader with an interest in opera. The articles have been updated and annotated, and some have been extensively revised in the light of more recent information. This book is intended for music students, singers, specialist and general opera lovers.