Robert Cannon is an independent music critic and writer and runs dedicated courses on opera and theatre. He designed and created the first Degree in Opera Studies, which is offered as Distance Learning by Rose Bruford College and is validated by the University of Manchester.

• Introduction; Part I: 1. Pre-operatic forms; 2. First operatic forms: Peri, Caccini, Monteverdi, Cavalli, Keiser; 3. Formalization; 4. Reform - the reintegration of elements; 5. Comedy and the 'real world'; 6. 'Authentic' performance; Part II: 7. Romanticism and romantic opera in Germany; 8. Opera in nineteenth-century Italy; 9. Grand Opéra and the visual language of opera; 10. The Wagnerian revolution; 11. Nationalists: vernacular language and music; 12. The role of the singer; Part III: 13. The turn of the century and the crisis in opera; 14. First modernism: symbolist and expressionist opera; 15. The dramaturgy of opera: libretto - words and structure; 16. Narrative opera: realistic and non-realistic; 17. Radical narratives; 18. Directors and the direction of opera; Appendices: 1. Motifs from Der Ring; 2. The development of singing voices; 3. The development of lyric theatre alternatives to 'opera'; 4. Some major operas, artistic and political events of the twentieth century; Glossary of terms; Bibliography.

'Cannon's passion for the topic shines through - each chapter is peppered with little details that a more detached author may have thought unnecessary. Even a novice who has never seen a particular production will suddenly feel oddly familiar with it. Students of music and opera will find the uncluttered and jargon-less yet still erudite tone of this book invigorating, and are sure to be reaching for it as a first port of call. And there's certainly no room to doubt Cannon's authority - he created the first ever degree in opera studies. One for your reading lists, class.' Laura Sylvester, Muso