The establishment of coherent texts may be Gossett’s main theme, but a great joy of the book is the wealth of incidental information that emerges en route. For instance, it elucidates the import of the disposizione sceniche, production handbooks which accompanied operas as they travelled from theatre to theatre. There is a gripping disquisition on the effects of differing dimensions of manuscript paper — oblong folios necessitating additional sheets to accommodate extra orchestral parts and generally adding to the muddle. Nor did I previously know that a composer was contractually expected to be present in the orchestra pit at the first three performances of his opera, giving cues and setting tempi, but that the orchestra’s leader was in all other respects the conductor, working not from a full score but from a violin part with instrumental cues and the vocal lines noted.
Gossett’s insistence that he is a fan as well as a musician and scholar means that he is uninhibited about parading his prejudices, and there are moments when I find his views of singers irritatingly overstated — Marilyn Horne, for instance, can do no wrong, and Beverly Sills no right. But this is a tiny price to pay for such passionate enthusiasm, married to such depth of knowledge and fine judgment.
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