Don takes me to task for suggesting that denying kids the chance to
see/hear Birtwistle's opera Gawain was to do with imposing one's views on
the little dears and said that Osborne and I were "taking our personal
preferences and biases and projecting them on to children; that's not
reasonable."

Not at all, and I shouldn't have used the expression "wrong end of the
spectrum" but I was in a hurry!

The question, which is more or less self-evident - for those who know the
years of listening experience that needs to be brought to this (dreadful)
stuff in order to survive it (and I'm not there yet and probably never will
be!) was "that it would put them off opera for life." I don't doubt that
for a minute although there might just possibly be one mini-Boulez in the
making amongst the crowd!

But let me ask, please, in respect of the remark about "personal
preferences" why it is that one must, and indeed does, guide and direct
children in their education with respect to every other area of the arts?

When it comes to music we are oft told that to tell them this is good,
this is bad, try this, don't try that (at least not yet, darling etc..)
is regarded as wrong (to the point of bigotry) and that they should be left
to swim on their own? That must be why 95% of them only succumb blindly to
peer pressure and spend their time listening to ...  <snip - moment of
self-censorship here; Roger H.  will know what I mean!>.  But one thing is
fairly certain.  A child will, just as Don did, dislike most of what is
thrown at him.  It's part of the system called life!  My three kids did it
all that way and drove up to dispair and yet, by their late twenties/ early
thirties, had attended the Ring and the 3 other major operas at Bayreuth,
well read, informed and voluntarily.  Two of them now apply for tickets
every year (fat chance - my own annual "get kn*tt*d letter just arrived).

I agree the range must be wide but one does not, as a rule, project one's
biases but rather one selects those opportunities where a child may be
confronted with the recognised *great* masterpieces whether one likes them
or not (including in my case, and for example, the New World symphony &
Tchaikovsky 1st Piano Conc., both which I happen to hate due to over
exposure).

My father exposed me to a wide range of operas but they were by Puccini,
Verdi, Mozart, Smetana, Offenbach, J.Strauss, Humperdink (of course!) and
Cav & Pag (what's up with the Met's tenor in Cav tonight?).

He was wrong about Mozart - too difficult for most pre-teens.  But these
works were proven successes, accessible and full of good "toons" and
allowed one to develop an interest and an idea of European musical culture.
But Birtwistle? Excuse me.

Don, you're being too "correct"!  Kids need guidance.  Even mis-guided
guidance is better than Gawain.

Incidentally another London critic has written this week to say that after
seeing this work three times he thinks it is appalling.

John G. Deacon
Home page: www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon