John G. Deacon told us, through the writer Clarles Osborne, that the
Royal Opera cancelled a school matinee performance of Birtwistle's
Gawain.  Osborne thought that the child-Birtwistle combination was horrible
and would ruin opera for children.

John adds:

>I must confess to agreeing with him totally.  How can one possibly
>start children off in life at quite the wrong end of the spectrum?

Who determines which end of the spectrum is right or wrong?  Sorry, but I
can't agree with John.  I think that he and Osborne are just taking their
personal preferences and biases and projecting them on to children; that's
not reasonable.

I have first-hand experience with this mind-set.  When I was a child, my
dad took his preferences and biases and decided which pieces of classical
music I would concentrate on.  The only problem was that I disliked most
of what he kept throwing at me.  Although my dad meant well, he clearly
left his common-sense and insight at the front door.

If adults are going to expose children to classical music, there's only one
reasonable way to do it - expose them to as great a variety as possible and
let nature take its course.

By the way, and I don't deny that this had something to do with my opinion
of Vivaldi's music, my dad had me transcribe for piano a few Vivaldi pieces
and play them day after day after day.  He thought this was a great idea;
I thought it sucked, and I still do.

Don Satz
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