Christopher Webber <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>One of the sad things about our current operatic debate is that we are
>forced to expend so much energy raking over the few, venerable 'classics'
>rather than being able to discuss the work of our own time.  The days
>when a new opera could cause a national revolution (Auber's "Masaniello"
>in Belgium!) seem alas to be long gone.

Our age has made available to us new media to further more effectively
than can opera a revolutionary cause.  Bernstein's West Side Story, or
Brecht/Weill's efforts had resonance because their social message was
proportionate to what contemporary musical drama can hope to achieve.
Let the modern regisseur stay within the boudarry of such reality.
gLItzing up Mozart/Da Ponte is deeply offputting to attenders like
myself.  (And I don't think I'm part of a small miniority.)

Denis Fodor