Do you actually like opera? It’s a question I suspect many who consistently engage with the art form ask themselves from time to time. I’ll go first – I love opera, but I’m not sure it’s always so easy to like.

A similar question is asked of Caitlin Vincent in the comments section of a piece she wrote for The Conversation about the opera industry. This anecdote opens Opera Wars, her engaging new survey of the genre and its most heated debates. As a librettist and academic who used to be a professional singer and opera company director, she’s armed with valuable first-hand experience of what she calls “this hot mess of an art form”, as well as analytical rigour.

Each chapter delves into a specific hot-button topic, described as a “battleground”. She begins by challenging the popular idea of the score being a fixed expression of a composer’s intent, providing an overview of just how many works have survived in multiple versions over time. Carmen is one such example, which famously exists in nine different versions. This cannily paves the way for discussions about staging; whether there’s such...