Opera traditionally abounds in legends, dramatic happenings offstage, anecdotes and scandal; it has always fed the town gossips and the newspaper columnists. Singers, composers, conductors, librettists (a vain lot), music critics - all must have their antics- and their say, even if it is at the one time. This book is made up of snippets and is for dippping into, but it is rich both in farce and in history. A visiting Italian singer in Dublin in 1861 found audiences there "a strange lot", particularly when they insisted on singing themselves during the entractes. And there is the reaction of the industrious Donizetti when told that Rossini had written The Barber of Seville in a fortnight: "That does not surprise me; he is so lazy".