Christopher Webber <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>Where I take issue with Denis is his implicit suggestion that theatrical
>types and composers should be false to their own lights, should pander
>to accepted taste rather than seek to extend it. Cheek and Provocation
>are very potent weapons in this eternal holding war of Art v. Talking
>Money, and we'd all - on both sides of the divide - be very poorly off
>without them.

I think Christopher's manifesto  in support  wingding Regieoper would
be entertainable if the Opernregisseure shifted their actiivities from
the grand opera houses to more specialized ones --something on the order
of the places  that cater to opera buffa, or komische Oper. There they
could perform their hootennannies to audiences looking for that sort
thing. The grand opera houses could then get on with their business
of providing their sort of attender the sort of art s/he prefers. This
preference most distinctly might  include stagings that make use of new
technologgy, a tastefully updated costuming and decor, as well as a style
of acting that brings a more modern touch to the exercise. What should
go off to the new venues is the directing habit of turning a musical
diversion into a piece of sozio-.historikal Kritik.

Denis Fodor