The Standard Operas: Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers (12th edition)

"The Standard Operas: Their Plots, Their Music, and Their Composers" by George P. Upton is a guidebook from the 1800s that gives readers quick explanations of popular operas; it presents information about the lives of composers, discusses the stories told in their operas, describes important parts of the music, and explains the historical background of each piece. At the beginning, the book states its goal of giving opera fans easy-to-understand details, no matter their musical knowledge, and the preface explains the book’s arrangement, which includes significant scenes, well-known songs, and the performers who first played the roles. The book then lists composers like Auber and Donizetti and their famous operas, showing that the following chapters will explore the operas' plots, scores, and impact on opera history.