Daniel Snowman: social and cultural historian

Daniel Snowman lecturing Daniel Snowman is a social and cultural historian. He was born in London, educated at Cambridge and Cornell, and at 24 was a Lecturer at the University of Sussex. For many years, he worked at the BBC where he was responsible for a wide variety of radio series on cultural and historical topics, and is now a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (University of London). A long-time member of the London Philharmonic Choir, he has always had a strong and informed interest in music and musicians, his books on the Amadeus Quartet and Plácido Domingo combining close-up portraiture of the artists concerned with the broader brush of the social historian.

Recent books include a study of the cultural impact of the ‘Hitler Emigrés’ and a collection of critical essays on the life and work of today's leading historians. His latest book is The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera. Daniel Snowman is a frequent speaker for a variety of academic groups, arts festivals, cultural organisations, luncheon clubs etc, and each year leads music tours to several of the world’s great cultural capitals. He has also written a Short History of Opera (and pages about voice types, libretti etc) for the official website of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

This autumn, he embarks on a six-part series of public lectures at the Royal Academy of Music (monthly, from Sept 28) on the Social History of Opera.

What the critics say about The Gilded Stage

‘Surely the most comprehensive history of opera ever written... This wonderful book will become the standard history of opera’
Sir Charles Mackerras

‘Companionable, crisp, witty, its broad research lightly dispensed, The Gilded Stage embodies Daniel Snowman's challenge to meld social and artistic history’
Warren Keith Wright, OPERA

‘A box of delights for operamanes and the cloth-eared curious alike’
Patrick Gale The Independent

‘A mighty achievement, by far and away the best history of opera available’
Tim Blanning, Literary Review

‘A tremendous achievement... A wonderful book for any music lover’
Roger Parker, Professor of Music, King's College, London

‘...witty, erudite, but effortlessly readable’
Aveek Sen, The Telegraph (Calcutta)

‘A treat to read’
The Scotsman

‘...told with fantastic adecdotal brio’
The Daily Express

‘This glorious book’
Saga Magazine