Three cheers for Matthew Gurewitsch's article in today's NYTimes
(http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/artleisure/opera-monsters.html) for its
seldom-voiced focus on the glories of today (vs.  "the censorious, who are
incapable of enjoyment but cannot stay away"), and for evaluating, rather
than automatically slamming any singer active after 1940:

   "...the bewitching Cecilia Bartoli, the Dickensian Bryn Terfel and
   the glamorous Renee Fleming."

I am especially glad for Gurewitsch's brave advocacy of Jose Cura, Karita
Mattila, Olga Borodina and others, while staying on the right side of
boosterism with such considerations as Terfel's "performances...  taking on
a histrionic, highly italicized character some critics suggest he might
tone down."

It's been entirely too long that somebody expressed thoughtful enthusiasm
for today's singers (well, *some* of them), instead of glorifying all of
the past...  which must have had its mediocrity or worse, and its own
backwards prophets of doom and gloom about "what was." Long live the
present, and the best of luck to the future!

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