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Books

Books that include discussions on Victorian English opera
in Britain and Ireland
later in the century

Caldwell, John. The Oxford History of English Music. Volume II. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

Cecil, George. The History of Opera in England. (Taunton: Barnicott & Pearce, 1930).

Davey, Henry. History of English Music. (London: J. Curwen & Sons, 1895).

Day, James. Englishness in Music. (London: Thames Publishing, 1999).

Eden, David. Sullivan's Ivanhoe. (Saffron Walden, UK: Sir Arthur Sullivan Society, 2007).

Forsyth, Cecil. Music and Nationalism. (London: Macmillan & Company Ltd., 1911).

Fuller Maitland, J.A. English Music in the XIX Century. (London: Grant Richards, 1902).

Goddard, Joseph. The rise and development of opera. (London: W. Reeves, 1911).

Griffel, Margaret Ross. Operas in English: A dictionary. (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999).

Hueffer, Francis. Half a Century of Music in England. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1889).

Ling, John. Debating English Music in the Long Nineteenth Century. (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2021)

Klein, Herman. The Golden Age of Opera. (New York: De Capo, 1979).

Parry, C. Hubert H. Style in Musical Art. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1900).

Rodmell, Paul. Opera in the British Isles, 1875-1918. (Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 2013)

Sadie, Stanley, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed., (London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 2001). It is also available online at http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/

Samson, Jim, ed. The Cambridge History of Nineteenth Century Music, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

Sawyer, F.J.. "English Opera after Purcell" in English Music. ed. Frederick J. Crowest, pp. 264-292. (London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co. Ltd., 1906).

Smith, Arnold Ian. The Essence of Victorian Opera: The Unheroic and the Heroic Middle-Class Tastes and Mores (Edwin Mellen Press, 2014). Smith puts forward the thesis that the lack of impact and persistence of English opera in the Victorian era was essentially due to the influence of middle class morality that shunned the heroic and overtly emotional.

Stradling, Robert and Hughes, Meirion. The English Musical Renaissance, 1860-1940. (London: Routledge, 1993).

Taruskin, Richard. Music in the Nineteenth Century. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). Part of the Oxford History of Western Music.

The British Music Society. British Opera in Retrospect. (Upminster, Essex, UK: The British Music Society, 1985).

Walker, Ernest. History of Music in England. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1907).

White, Eric.W. The History of English Opera. (London: Faber & Faber, 1983).

 

Books by or about those involved in Victorian English opera
in Britain and Ireland
later in the century

Banister, Henry C. George Alexander Macfarren: his life, works and influence.(London: George Bell and Sons, 1891).

Barnett, John F. Musical Reminiscences and Impressions, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1906).

Bledsoe, Robert Terrell. Henry Fothergill Chorley.  (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 1998)

Bunn, Alfred. The Stage: both before and behind the curtain. (London: Richard Bentley, 1840).

Davison, Henry, ed. From Mendelssohn to Wagner: Memoirs of J.W. Davison. (London: W.M.Reeves, 1912).

Gänzl, Kurt. Victorian Vocalists,  (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2017).  A collection of lively biographies of 100 Victorian singers from different countries and backgrounds but all of whom have some connection through singing Italian or English opera in London in the Victorian era. Written in Kurt's inimitable, chatty style it is very readable and a mine of information although without references if you want to follow up on any point and without an index if you want to cross reference. The singers covered are listed here.

Jacobs, Arthur. Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician (Portland: Amadeus Press, 1992).

Pearce, Charles E. Sims Reeves : fifty years of music in England (London: Stanley Paul & Co., 1924).

Reeves, Sims. My Jubilee. (London: The London Music Publishing Co. and Simpkin Marshall & Co., 1888).

Reeves, Sims. Sims Reeves, His Life and Recollections. (London: Simpkin Marshall & Co. and The London Music Publishing Co., 1888).

Rogers, Clara Kathleen. Memories of a Musical Career. (Norwood, Massachusetts: Plimpton Press, 1932).

Rogers, Clara Kathleen. The Story of Two Lives. (Norwood, Massachusetts: Plimpton Press, 1932).

Rosenthal, Harold, ed.. The Mapleson Memoirs. (London: Putnam, 1966). 

Santley, Charles. Student and Singer. (London: Edward Arnold, 1893).

Spark, William. Musical reminiscences : past and present. (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1892).

Spark, William. Musical memories. (London: W.Reeves, 19__).

Sullivan, Herbert and Newman Flower. Sir Arthur Sullivan. (London: Cassell and Company Ltd.,1927).

Taylor, Benedict. Arthur Sullivan: A Musical Reappraisal.  (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2017)

Timms, Susie. Mapleson. (London: Bezazzy Publishing, 2007).

Young, Percy M. Sir Arthur Sullivan. (London: J.M.Dent & Sons Ltd., 1971)