Single-volume operatic histories

Mr. Gareth Williams, of the Glamorgan University at Pontypridd, has written in to the Literary Supplement regarding Histories of Opera. In acclaiming A History of Opera by Miss Abbate and Mr. Parker as "the best single volume ever written on the subject," a Mr. Downes (Mr. Williams tells us) "quotes with apparent approval its dust jacket's assertion that it is 'the first full-length single-volume history of opera for more than a generation.'" Mr. Williams begs to differ: "If it is better than Mr. Snowman's superb single-volume Gilded Stage: A social history of opera (2009), it must be very good indeed" he advises us.

Do members have any views about or experience with these volumes?