Jeff Dunn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Most art song/opera gives me headaches.  I've tried to come to some
>accommodation with them with no results.  I had one of the LA Phil's
>Tristan evenings with my subscription last year and attended just to see
>if I could handle it.  I couldn't.  From the moment the singers began,
>I wished the whole misbegotten thing were over.  I sprang for a ticket
>to La Fenice in December 2004 to see if a historical venue and the warm
>squishies of being in Venice would change anything.  I left after the
>first act.

Perhaps you are younger...  If so, that is good, as you have music to
understand in different, perhaps more important ways as you age.

My viewpoints and my understandings of music have changed considerably
since I turned 50, then 60...

This is a good area toward which you can look forward, if that is the
case.

I once thought I knew it all...  it is only now that I know even more,
and appreciate so many things in music that are different than what I
knew then.  <heh, heh.>

I expect my knowledge, understandings, and appreciation will continue
to change.  I wonder if it is knowledge or just old age...  but it is
definitely worth the wait.

Ray Bayles