Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents ix
3. List of Plates x
4. List of Tables xii
5. Preface xiii
6. Acknowledgments xv
7. Note to the Reader xvi
8. Introduction: Opera and Cultural Politics 1
9. 1 Rise of Walpole and the Whig Oligarchy 10
10. 2 The Royal Academy of Music and Its Audience 22
11. 3 Bolingbroke and the Political Opposition 44
12. 4 Opera and the Luxury Debate 75
13. 5 Excise and the Patriot Opposition 99
14. 6 Opera of the Nobility and the Furor Farinellicus 113
15. 7 From Excise to the War of Jenkins’ Ear 131
16. 8 A Patriot Vision for Dramatic Music 141
17. 9 Opera and the Politics of Taste 162
18. 10 Opera in Formal Verse Satire 239
19. 11 War of Jenkins’ Ear and the Fall of Walpole 271
20. 12 The New Dunciad: Opera and the Triumph of Dulness 279
21. Coda: The Cultural Work of Opera 303
22. Bibliography 315
23. Index 343