Palaces of music

This large format book portrays 26 great European opera houses with images by the renowned photographer, Ahmet Ertug. The book includes Classical, Baroque and Rococo theatres -- miraculous early survivors -- from Palladio's exquisite Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza, the forerunner of later theatres, to the charming court theatres at Drottningholm in Stockholm, and the beautiful Margrave's Opera House, Bayreuth and San Carlo in Naples. The grand nineteenth-century opera houses portrayed include the Paris Opera House (Palais Garnier), the rebuilt Teatro La Fenice, Venice, and Prague State Opera. Finally, the book portrays recent architectural masterpieces by some of the world's leading architects including opera houses at Valencia, Lyon and Oslo. Mr. Forsyth describes the architecture of each opera house and its social and musical history.