Lecture: A Social History of Opera

Most opera histories concentrate on composers and works. In this ground-breaking lecture series, Daniel Snowman invites us to look at opera from the perspective of the 'demand' rather than the 'supply', the consumption rather than the production. This magnificent Grand Tour of the mind explores the world of opera houses, impresarios, monarchs, money makers, artists and the changing nature of audiences, and includes stopovers in Renaissance Italy, Louis XIV's Versailles, Handel's London, Mozart's Vienna, Verdi's Italy and Wagner's Germany and Gilded Age America. Tonight: 'Opera Resurgens (c.1870–1900)'.