Daniel Soren Presgrave wrote:

>Let me just sugest something: If you listen to Tosca as you would listen
>to The Magic Flute, you will really not like it very much.  However, if you
>forget for a while the rationalism whe live in and just allow yourself to
>share Tosca's suffering, and instead of trying to make complex analysis of
>the plot and of the characters, think of Scarpia as plain bad, perfido,
>celerado, then GP's music will suddenly make much more sense, and you will
>anderstand what is so great about this piece of music.

Now wait a minute!  It's Magic Flute that has a preposterous "plot" which
I think is best ignored while taking in the music.  The plot of Tosca isn't
far fetched and actually quite plausible.  (Indeed, doesn't it have some
historical basis?)

I enjoy the Magic Flute for its sublime music and, except for the
recognition scene between Papageno and Papagena, I couldn't care less
about the story line and wish in retrospect I'd never learned it.

I also enjoy Tosca, but there I enjoy the music as advancing and enhancing
the plot.

Magic Flute w/out the story line is wonderful music that I can recall
even when it isn't played.  Except for "Vissi d'arte" I can only recall
any passage from Tosca, when I recognize it upon actual hearing and then I
need to be either attending the opera or following the libretto to really
appreciate what's being sung.

And when my wife (who's not Japanese, but ethnically Chinese) hears it,
she'll wonder what part of Madam Buterfly "E lucevan le stelle" or
whatever, is from!

Walter Meyer