List of plates; Library abbreviations; Introduction Thomas Bauman; Part I. Prologue: 1. Pastoral and musical magic in the birth of opera Gary Tomlinson; Part II. Opera and the Visual Arts: 2. Moralizing at the tomb: Poussin's Arcadian shepherds in eighteenth-century England and Germany Thomas Bauman; 3. Dr Burney, the bear, and the knight: E. F. Burney's Amateurs of Tye-Wig Music Kerry S. Grant; 4. New light(s) on Weber's Wolf's Glen scene Anthony Newcomb; Part III. Serious Opera: 5. Sinfonia and drama in early eighteenth-century opera seria Reinhard Strohm; 6. The dramatic role of the chorus in French opera: evidence for the use of gesture, 1670-1770 Mary Cyr; 7. Transforming opera seria: Verazi's innovations and their impact on opera in Italy Marita Petzoldt McClymonds; Part IV. Handel and Gluck: 8. Handel's Serse Winton Dean; 9. The 'sweet song' in Demofoonte: a Gluck borrowing from Handel John H. Roberts; 10. Zéphire et Flore: a 'galant' early ballet by Angiolini and Gluck Bruce Alan Brown; 11. Gluck's Iphigenia operas: sources and strategies Julie E. Cumming; Part V. Concerning Mozart: 12. The 'storm' music of Beaumarchais' Barbier de Séville Walter E. Rex; 13. On Don Giovanni, No. 2 Joseph Kerman; 14. Leopold II, Mozart, and the return to a Golden Age John A. Rice; Part VI. Epilogue: 15. From fairy tale to opera in four moves (not so simple) Richard Taruskin; Index.