1996 0-7734-8816-2 No recent composer of art music has so successfully articulated a visionary concern with the human condition and the discovery self than Michael Tippett, and nowhere is this more potently expressed than in his five operas, the first three of which form the subject of this study. This study first deals with the fasinating range of verbal and dramatic symbolism of three operas (The Midsummer Marriage, King Priam, and The Knot Garden) in chapters which do not require from the reader a technical knowledge of music. The other chapters, with their extensive musical analyses, will be of more particular interest to musical scholars and students.