Opera Acts: Singers and Performance in the late 19th century
Karen HENSON

Karen Henson explores a wealth of new historical material about singers and opera performance in the late nineteenth century.

She lovingly summons the voices of four singers of the fin de siècle, chronicling the moment when the opera star was no longer defined by beautiful singing alone. Spiraling out from Paris to aesthetics and performance practice in both Verdi and Wagner, Henson uncovers the roots of our current obsession with dramatic intensity, cinematic realism, and photogenic celebrity on the operatic stage