With the arrival of Mozart, opera at last came fully alive. Discarding the masks of Greek drama, as it were, for individuals with recognizable personalities, he saw the vast possibilities of the operatic form as a means of creating characters, great and small, who moved, thought, and breathed musically like real people. He spoke our language, treating stage life as an everyday arena and looking, commenting, and feeling with emotions we understand. In the end, it is his wondrous music that in its depth and variety, its color and wit, gives the composer a universality that is unique in the long history of music.

Dover's compilation of 36 arias from Mozart's seven theatrical masterpieces moves from the youthful exuberance of The Abduction from the Seraglio to the complex, enchanting moral allegory of The Magic Flute, completed shortly before the composer's death in 1791. Together with all of the great soprano arias from these works are classic pieces from Idomeneo, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and La Clemenza di Tito.

Reproduced from authoritative early editions, the vocal scores of these world-famous arias will be a welcome addition to the libraries of all singers, musicians, and opera lovers.