some opinions to alert the reader to certain aspects of the content. It should be
clear from the presentation when my views are added to the basic descriptions.
Where there might be doubts over whose thought is expressed, I have put my
glosses in square brackets. I frequently allude to the author’s inclusion of foot-
notes and bibliography (estimating the number of entries), both to give a sense of
the research level of the piece and to indicate whether it is useful to someone seek-
ing additional references on its topic. My comments on the indexing in a mono-
graph are intended to suggest how accessible the contents are. An “expansive”
index is the preferred model, one in which index entries are expanded with subdi-
visions to avoid long lists of undifferentiated page citations. Within chapter sub-
divisions I have endeavored to group entries according to affinity, instead of
arranging them alphabetically by authors’ names. The reader will therefore often
find several works that take up the same topic near one another.
Titles of operas are in their original languages, for works in English, German,
French, Italian, and Spanish. Titles from other languages are in English transla-
tion, with the original titles given. I have left out of this revision the checklist of
composers and their major works, which required about 50 pages of the first edi-
tion. Such a list is no longer necessary, since there is now a strong title list in The
Viking Opera Guide(#57), available in most libraries, and a composer/works list
in the Mellen Opera Reference Index(#24), to be seen in larger libraries. Kurt
Pahlen’s books (#48, #49) give composer and title approaches to thousands of
operas. Nevertheless, operas specifically cited in the writings included in the pre-
sent edition are in a separate index, which may also serve as a title guide to most
of the historical repertoire.
I gathered material for the book during 1998 and 1999, with a cutoff date for
inclusion in December 1999. I respectfully invite users of the volume to advise me
of omissions, errors, or other infelicities they may notice. If there is a further revi-
sion, it will benefit—as this one has—from comments received.
I wish to thank librarians Janice Deal, Judith K. Meyers, and Diane Petit, who
located elusive materials or data for me; M. R. Roberts and Paul Opel of Broude
Brothers, who provided current data on their important series; and several schol-
ars who sent me facts about their works: Elliott Antokoletz, Susan Borwick, Mau-
reen Carr, and Patricia Lewy Gidwitz. I am grateful to Siegmund Levarie for
guidance and encouragement, and to MaryFrances Watson for her technical sup-
port and critical reading. Ed and Ernie Maier helped solve computer problems
and gave assistance in many ways. I also wish to express my appreciation to Carol
Hartland, the ideal copyeditor.
xviii Introduction