Description: John Rosselli's wide-ranging study introduces all those singers, members of the chorus as well as stars, who have sung Italian opera from 1600 to the present.Singers are shown slowly emancipating themselves from dependence on great patrons and entering the dangerous freedom of the market.The castrati who dominated eighteenth-century opera turn out to be more conscientious and professional than their previous reputation as extravagant, vain creatures has suggested. The book examines the sexist prejudices against them and against women singers--who in the early days of opera were presumed to be courtesans and sometimes were. But for women, opera provided one of the very few professional and economic opportunities.

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