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