Foreword Craig Calhoun; Introduction: opera and the academic turns Victoria Johnson; Part I. The Representation of Social and Political Relations in Operatic Works: Introduction to Part I Jane F. Fulcher; 1. Venice's mythic empires: truth and verisimilitude in Venetian opera Wendy Heller; 2. Lully's on-stage societies Rebecca Harris-Warwick; 3. Representations of le peuple in French opera, 1673-1764 Catherine Kintzler; 4. Women's roles in Meyerbeer's operas: how Italian heroines are reflected in French grand opera Naomi André; 5. The effect of a bomb in the hall: the French 'opera of ideas' and its cultural role in the 1920s Jane F. Fulcher; Part II. The Institutional Bases for the Production and Reception of Opera: Introduction to Part II Thomas Ertman; 6. State and market, production and style: an interdisciplinary approach to eighteenth-century Italian opera history Franco Piperno; 7. Opera and the cultural authority of the capital city William Weber; 8. 'Edizione distrutte' and the significance of operatic choruses during the Risorgimento Philip Gossett; 9. Opera in France, 1870-1900: between nationalism and foreign imports Christophe Charle; 10. Fascism and the operatic unconscious Michael P. Steinberg and Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg; Part III. Theorizing Opera and the Social: Introduction to Part III Victoria Johnson; 11. Opera and society (assuming a relationship) Herbert Lindenberger; 12. Symbolic domination and contention in French music: shifting the paradigm from Adorno to Bourdieu Jane F. Fulcher; 13. Rewriting history from the losers' point of view: French grand opera and modernity Antoine Hennion; Conclusion: towards a new understanding of the history of opera? Thomas Ertman; Bibliography.