Hilary Poriss’s book-length project, which she intends to complete in Rome, is the first full-length study of how nineteenth-century productions of Italian operas were shaped by the use of aria insertions. The book asks how they were woven into the authorial fabric of individual operas and how their performance helped consolidate the image of the prima donna. Her research will be conducted in part at the Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia, where many librettos from these original productions are kept. These documents may reveal the alterations to the text that a prima donna might have made to the arias.