Paperback review: Great Operas: A Guide To 25 Of The World’s Finest Musical Experiences, by Michael Steen

Michael Steen’s book offers a guide to 25 operas including Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Verdi’s Rigoletto. Each entry features a precis of the plot, biographical information on the composers and librettists, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes.

The usefulness of this sort of primer is probably waning. And this is certainly not a book to actually take with you to the opera – at 500 pages it’s as plump as Pavarotti. But Steen’s writing can be authoritative and winningly gossipy: this is the place to come if you’re wondering about castrati (the “celebrity footballers” of their day) or the precise number of women Don Giovanni slept with (2,065, if you’re asking).