Italian Opera in the United States, 1800-1850 explores the events that led Italian opera to cross the ocean and settle in the United States. A raft of neglected documentary artifacts, including hitherto unexamined records from historical newspapers, sheds new light on this phenomenon, which saw Italian artists and intellectuals immigrate to the United States during the century's first decades. Previously known but only partially understood episodes including Lorenzo Da Ponte's personal campaign to promote the Italian language in the US, and New York's Park Theatre controversial opera season of 1825-26, are newly contextualized in light of social, cultural, and political trends of the period.