Gathers selections from letters, essays, criticism, and autobiographies by Telemann, Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schuman, Liszt, Wagner, Brahms, and Mahler.

The question whether the text, music, singers, or setting is the most important feature of an opera has long been debated. At one time, the courts of Vienna and Munich imported Italian opera before the German language gained acceptance. Once established, German opera, from Mozart to Schoenberg, reached the highest peak--as seen in the libretti of this volume.