... into many aspects of operatic culture, and culture in general, in Verdi's Italy. He wrote with precision on formal aspects, use of melody and orchestration, and other compositional features, which made his study an acknowledged model for the growing field of music criticism....

...This chapter discusses the pursuit of national style in opera as a peculiarly nineteenth-century issue that first emerged among nations at the margins of operatic culture (Germany, Russia) but spread later in the century to the formerly confident operatic cultures of France and even Italy...