The History of Opera

Fast-paced but with lots of facts, I'll definitely listen to it more than once! Thumbs up for Robert Powell's reading, I didn't know he could pronounce foreign names so well :D......more

I don’t know nothing about opera and this book is perfect for people like me. Brief introduction from beginning to today, short audio passages from operas and presentation of some the best-known composers. Short, informative and interesting.......more

Enthusiastic, occasionally humorous, and enticing. This audiobook made me want to listen to more opera, and left me with the feeling that I know something about opera and its history. Although five hours (the duration of this History) seem long, in fact there's so much ground to cover that most of t......more

Perfect use of audiobook format - you get recording snippets, especially some key historical recordings. You will notice that the singers are identified only in what must be public domain recordings in the 1920s and earlier. This is fairly straightforward, with chronological development, primarily.......more

This is pretty great for an introduction to opera. A very quick overview with great examples. I’m pretty familiar with the styles and composers, but I was missing a bit on how they linked together through history. It’s not meant to be a graduate voice and opera studies course, and the length alone s......more