The main incidents of the most celebrated Lyric Dramas are embodied in this work; the periods of history to which they refer are illustrated; the principal characters delineated; the plots unraveled; and the genius and spirit of each Opera carefully and lucidly brought out.
–The Literary and Educational Year Book for 1859
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From the PREFACE.
A
The want of a book, which, while preserving all the force and spirit of the original Operas, attempts the relation of the several narratives in a graphic and pleasing style, has often, probably, been felt by the patrons of the lyric drama. To supply such a want, and to provide all classes of readers with an accurate and succinct knowledge of the incidents on which are founded our most celebrated Operas, is the object of the following pages. Whether the experiment has been . successful carried out, the public, and the critics, must decide. Few who have listened to the tragic story of Lucrezia; few who have wept with Norma or laughed with Figaro, but will, it is believed, welcome their old favorites of the theater in their new literary costume. As it was manifestly impossible to unravel the plots of all the famous Operas in one little book, only such of them have been detailed as are intimately known to American audiences.

It is but right to add that these tales have had their origin, mainly in the published Books of the Operas, aided always by a familiar acquaintance with the Operas themselves, as they have been placed on the boards of European and American theaters.