Last fall I wrote a blog, The Operatic Republican Characters, in which I compared the Republicans seeking their party’s nomination for the Presidency. In it I compared Donald Trump to Dr. Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. Several correspondents criticized this choice, saying that Dulcamara was an amiable quack, not at all like Mr. Trump. I certainly agree and am sorry that I ever likened … [Read more...]
Archives for 2016
DEBASING CULTURE
In the last decade on several occasions subscribers to Seattle Opera, of which I was the General Director, commented to me that they enjoyed opera, wanted others to experience it, but that it would be so much more popular if I would make it considerably shorter. The suggested time was somewhere less than two hours, including a generous intermission. And the operas that were mentioned to be trimmed … [Read more...]
The Operatic Republican Candidates
Anyone who has watched any of the Republican candidates' debates, particularly the recent ones, has to have been amazed at the extreme statements, the antipathy, the crassness, and the violence of the tone, not to mention what the four remaining candidates want to do as President. American politics has always been rough, but even in the late nineteenth century, when strong words were the norm, … [Read more...]