The Oxford illustrated history of opera / edited by Roger Parker.

The seventeenth century / Tim Carter
The eighteenth century : serious opera ; The eighteenth century : comic opera / Thomas Bauman
The nineteenth century : France / David Charlton
The nineteenth century : Italy / William Ashbrook
The nineteenth century : Germany / Barry Millington
Russian, Czech, Polish, and Hungarian opera to 1900 / John Tyrrell
The twentieth century : to 1945 ; The twentieth century : 1945 to the present day / Paul Griffiths
The staging of opera / Roger Savage
Opera singers / William Ashbrook
Opera as a social occasion / John Rosselli.