The Gilded Stage

This is the only global social history the world's most romantic, glamorous and politically influential Opera.

Opera, the most complex of all the performance arts, Its inspires great passions. From its beginnings in the Renaissance cities of northern Italy it has spread across Europe, America and beyond.

Opera is  becoming a global business in the digital age. This book tells the story of opera in the social contexts in which it developed – through history and around the world.