Abstract
The book is dedicated to the peak years of Italian opera in Prague (1781-1785), which significantly influenced the world-famous creation and reception of W. A.
Mozart's works. The topic is approached from two main complementary perspectives: as a history of Prague opera and as a probe into the Italian repertoire of the time.
In four chapters, there are examined the conditions of the foundation and operation of the Italian company at the Thun Theatre and subsequently the Nostitz Theatre, and the course of the four seasons in detail, the main features and important themes of the repertoire are analysed in selected seven operas, which are finally evaluated in an international context. Mozartian contexts form a further interpretative framework.The book is based on a thorough reassessment of the existing literature, new source discoveries and analyses of operas that, for the most part, have not been treated in the literature.
It includes extensive appendices - an inventory of repertoire, transcriptions of documents, as well as dictionary-organized biographies of Italian singers, most of them previously untapped.