Even the most avid opera fan often has only the haziest notion of the true stories behind the tunes, it being difficult enough to figure out who's who on the stage without trying to figure out who was who, in the real world as well. But many of the great romantic operas are based - however loosely - on historical characters, and Christopher Morgan has done a marvellous job of tracking down eight of the most interesting and setting them in a wider context. Thus his chapter on Simon Boccanegra is an illuminating essay on 14th century Genoa, Lucia di Lammermoor turns into a detective story, and the womanising Duke in Rigoletto turns out to be Francois I of France. Each chapter is preceded by a summary of the operatic plot; and in each case Morgan pulls off the admirable feat of making truth seem stranger - and infinitely more fascinating - than opera.
