This book is not for the casual reader of Opera or European History. I found this book to be a little long winded. The book begins with the beginning of opera and ends as the 19th Century begins. If the reader is unfamiliar with opera the author summarizes the opera and then draws conclusions on political meanings. I enjoyed the background of the operas and the composers. There is a lot in the this book and I think too much time was spent on Mozart. Anyone wishing an in depth analysis of European Politics and Opera will enjoy this book.

My rating is based purely on the amount of the book that I read, as I'm afraid I did not finish. While I was intrigued by the promised subject of the book, which I imagined would look deeply at the content of librettos and explore their ideas within the political theory of the time, it didn't quite work as well as I thought. Rather than weaving the two subjects seamlessly together, I felt that Cohen was simply giving a summary of European history on one hand, and discussing the details of operas on the other, and making somewhat sweeping statements about how they are linked. The book (or at least the parts I read) were padded out with self-indulgent deviations into philosophy and excessive use of 'straw men'. arguments

There are also explorations of 'links' that I do not believe are truly linked at all. To my mind, there is no link between the fact that opera represents one voice singing at the time, and the fact that opera developed in Florence where one duke ruled at a time (just as I don't think the development of single-point perspective has anything to do with either). One gets the feeling that Cohen is clutching at straws and is eager to find patterns where there are none. It may be that the book became more incisive later on, but unfortunately I didn't get beyond the first few chapters before deciding that I wasn't getting on with Cohen's view of things.

Ultimately I felt that this was written in too academic a language to be appealing to a general audience, yet not rigorous enough to stand up to the scrutiny of scholars in the field of the history of music. It's a shame, as I had been very much looking forward to this, but I count myself defeated. Apologies for not being able to post a proper review.