Book excerpt: If opera had existed in Elizabethan London, the world's Top Bard, as W.H. Auden called him, might have become the world's Top Librettist. In this illuminating study, Gary Schmidgall ranges widely through the Shakespearean canon and the standard operatic repertory and presents a fascinating comparison of the two, focusing on similarities of expressive style, scenic structure, staging, and performance practice. Schmidgall includes both extended discussions of pertinent general issues and concise essays on the most intriguing Shakespeare-based operas. For all who love the stage, Shakespeare and Opera offers endless insight and fascinaton. Schmidgall's extended comparison of the two dramaturgies offers provocative new insights on Shakespeare, musical theater, comparative drama, and theater history.