Description: 'This book is about much more than the birth of opera: it is about why opera has the ingredients it does--its arias, laments, happy endings, and its struggles between men, and women, and gods. Moreover, the book is not simply a description of when these things first appear in operatic plots it is a deep attempt to explain what they bring to opera from the background culture... Where others see a pleasing effect, Sternfeld sees a problem solved; where others see simple facts, he sees a web of culture which persuades us to enjoy and understand. This is a sub-plot no one should miss.

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