'... a highly original study that explores, with extraordinary flair and engaging prose, views of America and Americans in eighteenth-century Italian opera, venturing into repertories unfamiliar to most opera specialists and offering a fresh perspective on European cultural reception of American social and political identity. The author demonstrates an erudite command of musical, literary, political and social texts, revealing, through a broadly contextual approach, not only how Revolutionary America was perceived by European opera audiences, but how a little-studied repertory influenced dramatic innovations in the opera buffa repertory of the era's major composers.' Lewis Lockwood Award committee, American Musicological Society 'Rigor, learnedness, erudition and topicality leap off the page of this richly documented and engagingly written book.' Caryl Clark, University of Toronto 'This fascinating book answers the question posed by the author: 'how did revolutionary America appear to European audiences through their opera glasses?' Polzonetti, writing in a totally engaging style, describes in great detail how eighteenth-century Italian opera portrayed the characters (both real and imagined) and the very character of a new and exotic country in which 'Quakers have guns, slave-holders are remorseful and merciful, businessmen are generous, savages can be more civilized than savage European soldiers, women are strong and men are good-looking'.' Early Music America 'An intriguing theory that sets the seal on a thoughtful, wide-ranging exploration of a largely forgotten repertory the importance of which Polzonetti argues persuasively.' Opera