Jon Johanning wrote:

>I find myself blowing hot and cold about old GP [Puccini].  If I'm in the
>mood, I can get carried away by poor little Cho-Cho-san or thrill to "Vissi
>d'arte" or "Nessun dorma." But there are also times when I must confess
>that the stuff is ultimately rather silly.  Certainly there are no profound
>truths about life there.

True, we are discussing personal likes and dislikes here, so anything you
say is right, for you.  But I don't understand how a person can find "no
profound truths about life" in Tosca.  Here you have life in its fullest:
blackmail, political repression, power as expressed in sexual harassment
and worse, despair, torture, revenge, suicide.  It may not be profound in
the sense of uplifting, but it does plumb the depths of the human
experience.  There's nothing silly, as in trivial, about it.  Poor Floria!

Mitch Friedfeld