The Faber book of opera

, which seemed to her to have been "poured out in a smooth stream at white heat," this is a collection that covers, in over 75 short, carefully chosen excerpts, just what it is that makes opera so extraordinary. After all, the history of opera is not just the musical masterpieces that have been written during the last 400 years; it is also the record of what people--ranging from Goethe to Rousseau to Verdi and Stravinsky--thought about the process and about what composers through the centuries have tried to do through this unique form.