Emanuele Senici is University Lecturer in Music at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of St Hugh's College. He has published in a number of journals and contributed to the Cambridge Companion to Verdi (2003). He is also co-editor of the Cambridge Opera Journal, 2003.

• List of illustrations; Notes on contributors; Preface and abbreviations; 1. Introduction: Rossini's operatic operas Emanuele Senici; Part I. Biography and Reception: 2. Rossini's life Richard Osborne; 3. Rossini and France Benjamin Walton; 4. The Rossini Renaissance Charles S. Brauner; Part II. Words and Music: 5. Librettos and librettists Paulo Fabbri; 6. Compositional methods Philip Gossett; 7. The dramaturgy of the operas Marco Beghelli; 8. Melody and ornamentation Damien Colas; 9. Off the stage Richard Osborne; Part III. Representative Operas: 10. Tancredi and Semiramide Heather Hadlock; 11. Il barbiere di Siviglia Janet Johnson; 12. Guillaume Tell Cormac Newark; Part IV. Performance: 13. Singing Rossini Leonella Grasso Caprioli; 14. Staging Rossini Mercedes Viale Ferrero; 15. Editing Rossini Patricia B. Brauner; List of works; Bibliography; Index.

'This scholarly, extensive overview of Rossini's operas, liturgical works and piano and vocal works reflects the dramatic turnaround in appreciation that has occurred in the last fifty years or so.' Music Web International