Opera and Society in Italy and France from Monteverdi to Bourdieu

Victoria Johnson is Assistant Professor of Organizational Studies at the University of Michigan. Jane F. Fulcher is Professor of Music, Indiana University. Thomas Ertman is Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University.

• Foreword Craig Calhoun; Introduction: opera and the academic turns Victoria Johnson; Part I. The Representation of Social and Political Relations in Operatic Works: Introduction to Part I Jane F. Fulcher; 1. Venice's mythic empires: truth and verisimilitude in Venetian opera Wendy Heller; 2. Lully's on-stage societies Rebecca Harris-Warwick; 3. Representations of le peuple in French opera, 1673–1764 Catherine Kintzler; 4. Women's roles in Meyerbeer's operas: how Italian heroines are reflected in French grand opera Naomi André; 5. The effect of a bomb in the hall: the French 'opera of ideas' and its cultural role in the 1920s Jane F. Fulcher; Part II. The Institutional Bases for the Production and Reception of Opera: Introduction to Part II Thomas Ertman; 6. State and market, production and style: an interdisciplinary approach to eighteenth-century Italian opera history Franco Piperno; 7. Opera and the cultural authority of the capital city William Weber; 8. 'Edizione distrutte' and the significance of operatic choruses during the Risorgimento Philip Gossett; 9. Opera in France, 1870–1900: between nationalism and foreign imports Christophe Charle; 10. Fascism and the operatic unconscious Michael P. Steinberg and Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg; Part III. Theorizing Opera and the Social: Introduction to Part III Victoria Johnson; 11. Opera and society (assuming a relationship) Herbert Lindenberger; 12. Symbolic domination and contention in French music: shifting the paradigm from Adorno to Bourdieu Jane F. Fulcher; 13. Rewriting history from the losers' point of view: French grand opera and modernity Antoine Hennion; Conclusion: towards a new understanding of the history of opera? Thomas Ertman; Bibliography.

"Diversity unifies these essays to provide their greatest strength and also the greatest challenge to the reader." --The Opera Journal