Nicholas Till (Editor): The Cambridge Companion to Opera Studies

Very much an academic text that covers a wide range of views about the state of opera studies today. Divided into four sections with several essays in each they are a mixed bag..some more interesting than others, some better written than others.

In Section 1 the essays on opera and society and, particularly opera audiences are particularly good with the historical background being very illuminating.

Section2 is much less involving and I did not read all of it's I found it difficult to get a handle on exactly what the writers were trying to say.

The last section issues was promising but the one on Gender Studies and opera, for which I had high expectations was very disappointing as it seemed to be almost a textbook example of clotted and woolly academic writing.

The overview given in the final section essentially on what opera is was excellent though.

Have ordered another book in this series so will be interested to see what that is like.