Paul Atkinson explores the remarkable world of opera through his fieldwork with the internationally known Welsh National Opera company. In order to show us how cultural phenomena are produced and enacted, he takes us on stage and behind the scenes into the collective social action that goes into the realization of an opera. The author demonstrates how artistic interpretation is translated into the routine work of the rehearsal studio and the theatre, and how producers negotiate a practical reality with her or his performers to ultimately create extraordinary performances through the mundane, everyday work that makes them possible. The author calls for a sustained investigation of cultural phenomena, not based solely on textual analysis but on the importance of collective work and social organization. Atkinson's work will appeal to anthropologists and sociologists who study the performance arts, as well as to those engaged in theatre arts, opera and music.

Paul Atkinson is a social anthropologist and Distinguished Research Professor in Sociology at the Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Wales as well as associate director of the ESRC Research Centre on Social and Economic Aspects of Genomics. He is co-editor of the journal Qualitative Research, and co-author of Key Themes in Qualitative Research, with Amanda Coffey and Sarah Delamont.