Unsung Voices Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century

"Abbate establishes a critical dialogue between music's desire to convey narrative information and its sensual resistance to such signification... Abbate is the most original writer on Wagner to appear since Dahlhaus... Her essay 'Br?nnhilde Walks by Night' is a tour de force of imaginative interpretation."--David Schiff, The New Republic "This important book concerns not only particular operas but certain general aspects of the way in which we hear music... We will ... want to reflect further on a good many of its arguments ... because what Abbate offers in Unsung Voices is not only ... a set of conclusions but a powerful machine to think with."--Lawrence Rosenwald, Opera Quarterly