Robert Clements replies (sort of) to me: >... Harrison Birtwhistle is a profoundly unpopular composer who has >remained on the British concert schedule because of a small group of >supporters in the local critical & performance industry. Unlike Wagner, >there's no groundswell of opinion waiting for Der Meister's new utterance: >but plenty of critical hype instead. Granted. But I can't think of a really popular living classical composer. Can you? Even John Adams, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, fellows who actually make a living from their concert work (as opposed to John Williams, who makes his living from his movie work), aren't terrifically popular, even among classical aficionados. >His selection as an ideal subject for student performance has more to >do with funding quotas being tied to specific kinds of projects than >any intelligent assessment of musical needs: you have to run student >performances & Flash Harry is a critical darling deemed worthy of >sponsored performed; so: voila!.... What a cynic. It could very well be that the story and the goings-on on stage might have been enough to carry it through, just as "advanced" music has proven very effective in horror movies. I don't think it's a non-starter of an idea. The kids could very well have a harder time with Cosi or Fidelio. And how many times can you resort to Hansel and Gretel? Steve Schwartz, who has never heard Gawain