Satoshi Akima writes concerning Wagner's operas:

>Again I feel Berg's 'Wozzeck' and Schoenberg's 'Moses und Aaron'
>similarly deserve to be called music-dramas.  They are way too serious,
>way too profound to be mere operas.

Satoshi seems to want to redefine Opera, but I can't agree.  Whether we
are talking about opera, chamber music, symphonies, whatever, there is no
indication of the "quality" or "intellectual" properties of the music.
Opera can be intellectually stimulating or not; the same applies to other
musical categories.

My trusty dictionary relates than an opera is a drama set to music for
vocal and orchestral purposes - nothing in the definition relates to the
level of inspiration or intellectualism involved.

Personally, I'm always surprised at the lack of respect some list members
have concerning opera as if it's beneath them.  I can only wish that I was
a writer of librettos or a composer of music set to words.  Also, the world
of classical music would be much damaged if not for the operas of composers
such as Handel, Verdi, Rossini, etc.  Wagner and others are much more
intellectual and pure? Fine, there's room for all types of opera.

Concerning provincialism in Boston, this quality exists all over the world.
I can't see any reason to single out Boston on this factor.  Locate any
city and the people in it who never have left, and you'll find plenty of
provincial thinking.

Don Satz
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