Christopher Webber:

>I've always been interested as to why 'melos' or symphonic opera writing
>seems to get a better press, or be considered in some mysterious way more
>progressive than 'numbers' opera.  It's all a bit like saying an orange is
>better than an apple.

I suspect the "symphonic" opera easier to write, in the sense that a lot
of it can be faked.  A really great melody can't be faked.  Wagner, of
course, has all sorts of great melodies, or melodic set-pieces, so he's an
exception.  But think of all the routine and justly-forgotten operas that
follow the Wagnerian model:  Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini, Bretan's Arald
and Golem, the petite-Bayreuth in France, Bolcom's McTeague, Corigliano's
Ghost of Versailles, Aschaffenburg's Bartelby, and so on.

Steve Schwartz, waiting for fire to come down on his head