This article "highlights shifting attitudes towards colonialism as reflected in opera across the centuries".

It is illustrated by some fine pictures provided by Opera with Opera News, including the extraordinary engraving from the first edition of Spontini's 1809 Fernand Cortez, in which Cortez appears to be wearing Napoleon's trademark bicorne hat.  There are also photos of the premieres of Montezuma by John Sessions (1964) and The Voyage by Philip Glass (1992).