Christopher Webber writes:

>The fact that there are no recent quantitative titans alla Donizetti,
>Handel, Verdi or Wagner (except perhaps Britten) is down to our very
>different - and decadent - director/designer driven theatrical priorities.
>Composers simply aren't given the opportunity to write more than a very
>few operas these days....

I have found the contributions of Julia Werthimer, Steve Schwartz and
Christopher Webber to be enormously enlightening in an area not well known
to me.  I was until now aware of Orff only as the composer of Carmina
Burana - not a big favorite of mine.  However, as far as twentieth century
quantitative titans go, I would think that Janacek and perhaps Puccini
might qualify.

Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University