Three Tenors in April

[josé echenique]

An article from the New York times by Zachary Woolfe.

The Three Tenors are back.

While their names — Brownlee, Camarena and Flórez — may be unfamiliar outside the opera world, they represent a new golden age in high male voices and in the singular thrill of their top notes.

All three happen to be specialists in bel canto (“beautiful singing”), a subgenre of opera that emerged in Italy early in the 19th century, marked by extraordinarily difficult music — some of it slow and melting, some of it fast and dazzling — and perfected by Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini.

No tenors today sing this music better than Lawrence Brownlee, Javier Camarena and Juan Diego Flórez. And it has been possible, in the past week, to hear all three at the Metropolitan Opera, a prime example of the efforts of Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager since 2006, to attract star singers in high concentrations.

The three are part of a general burst of tenorial quality that also includes heavier-voiced Met regulars like Jonas Kaufmann, Joseph Calleja and Piotr Beczala. But since Mr. Brownlee, Mr. Camarena and Mr. Flórez’s parts overlap so closely, watching them trade off evenings and high C’s has been an operagoers dream, akin to being able to watch the classic center fielders Duke Snider, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle play on consecutive nights.

In the past, discussion of bel canto focused on dazzling sopranos like Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland, and mezzos like Marilyn Horne. Today’s women are not failures, by any means. But part of the surprise at the Met recently has been that, compared to these tenors, even redoubtable divas have seemed rather beside the point, from Joyce DiDonato (opposite first Mr. Camarena, then Mr. Flórez in Rossini’s Cinderella opera, “La Cenerentola”) to Diana Damrau (with Mr. Camarena in Bellini’s “La Sonnambula”) to a talented newcomer like Olga Peretyatko, appearing with Mr. Brownlee in Bellini’s “I Puritani.”

“I’m delighted because we need good singing,” said Ms. Horne, turning down the volume of the Met radio broadcast of “I Puritani” as she answered the phone. “There’s all this talk that the Met is not selling enough tickets, but apparently when the review of ‘Cenerentola’ came out, about Camarena, the next performance was packed. What is that saying? We want voices. That’s why people want to go to the opera.”

The response of the New York audience has been boisterous. Never before in modern Met history have two different singers in the course of a few days earned applause so long and tumultuous that they had to repeat arias. But Mr. Camarena, singing on April 25 and last Monday, and Mr. Flórez, on Friday, both earned encores for “Si, ritrovarla io giuro, ” Prince Ramiro’s glittering second-act aria in “La Cenerentola.” (Mr. Camarena’s high D on Monday was even more clarion the second time around.)


They and Mr. Brownlee are unlikely candidates for stardom in this most refined of operatic styles. Mr. Camarena, the son of a nuclear plant technician and a cooking teacher, was a wedding singer in his native Mexico, making a specialty of Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are.” As a teenager, Mr. Flórez sang Elvis classics at a pub in Lima, Peru, that was managed by his mother. One of Mr. Brownlee’s first gigs was singing show tunes and pop songs at an amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio.


Once they discovered they had classical chops, there was a genre waiting for them. The rise of the bel canto tenor over the past few decades is one happy result of the resuscitation of bel canto in general, thanks to the advocacy of musicologists, opera company administrators and passionate performers. Works that were once rarities, like Rossini’s “Armida,” Bellini’s “Il Pirata” and Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda” have been introduced at the Met in recent years; Rossini’s “La Donna del Lago,” starring Ms. DiDonato and Mr. Flórez, arrives next season.

“The Met couldn’t stage these bel canto pieces before, because they didn’t have the voices that would carry them,” Philip Gossett, an emeritus professor of music at the University of Chicago and the author of “Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera,” said in a phone interview. “Now they have them.”

Even as bel canto’s slice of the opera landscape has expanded, it remains a hothouse. Its singers tend to be specialists; bel canto tenors, whose voices benefit from being light enough for quick coloratura, can’t usually sing weightier roles in operas like Verdi’s “Aida,” Puccini’s “La Bohème” or Wagner’s “Lohengrin.” As Mr. Gelb said of Mr. Camarena in a recent interview, “As great as he is, there’s limited repertoire for him to sing.” It is telling that he, Mr. Brownlee and Mr. Flórez all made their Met debuts as Count Almaviva in Rossini’s “Barber of Seville.”

That they are scrambling over a tiny group of major parts makes the friendly competition among the men even more tense and thrilling. Slender, handsome and a vibrant stage animal with an easy, brilliant sound, Mr. Flórez, 41, emerged on the international scene first, drawing attention for his Rossini performances in the late 1990s. A few years later, Mr. Brownlee, also 41, entered the game, his presence cooler but his voice even more refined.

The boyish Mr. Camarena, 38, has now risen to join them. In March, he had his Met breakthrough in “La Sonnambula,” singing with a rich joyfulness that breathed fresh air into the tired opera-within-an-opera concept of Mary Zimmerman’s 2009 production. It was a no-brainer for the Met to turn to him when Mr. Flórez dropped out of the first three “La Cenerentola” performances, citing illness, and Mr. Camarena went on to create a sensation, encores and all.

This replacement-makes-good story would have been exciting enough, but as the run of “La Cenerentola” was unfolding, Mr. Brownlee was singing with elegance and ardor as Arturo in “I Puritani.” While he may not have gotten an encore at Tuesday’s performance of the opera, that wasn’t unexpected: Arturo is a slower-burning role than Ramiro, and Bellini’s style depends more on long, calm breathing and a steady sound than on the Rossinian pyrotechnics that earn instant cheers.

Heard in close succession, the tenors’ individual qualities were clear: Mr. Camarena’s voice golden and warm; Mr. Brownlee’s silvery in its sheen; Mr. Flórez’s diamond bright. For those in search of vocal riches, here was a full treasury.

[josé echenique]

I hope Peter Gelb was misquoted, but saying:

"As Mr. Gelb said of Mr. Camarena in a recent interview, “As great as he is, there’s limited repertoire for him to sing.”

Does he know how many operas Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini wrote? And then add Mozart, because Camarena is already a well established Mozart tenor in Salzburg and Zürich.
I know, he obviously meant "at the Met", but then he should consider that after the grotesquely sung Ring and the not too exciting Andrea Chenier, programming more Belcanto operas makes sense, since it is Joyce DiDonato, Olga Peretyatko and the already mentioned tenors who bring vocal glamour to the MET...until the next Astrid Varnay and Leonie Rysanek appear.

[SONNET CLV]

An article from the New York times by Zachary Woolfe.

The Three Tenors are back.

Three tenors in April? I'm sure the tenors are consonant singers, all. But the real fact is that there are three consonants in April.

[jbuck919]

I hope Peter Gelb was misquoted, but saying:

"As Mr. Gelb said of Mr. Camarena in a recent interview, “As great as he is, there’s limited repertoire for him to sing.”

Does he know how many operas Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini wrote? And then add Mozart, because Camarena is already a well established Mozart tenor in Salzburg and Zürich.
I know, he obviously meant "at the Met", but then he should consider that after the grotesquely sung Ring and the not too exciting Andrea Chenier, programming more Belcanto operas makes sense, since it is Joyce DiDonato, Olga Peretyatko and the already mentioned tenors who bring vocal glamour to the MET...until the next Astrid Varnay and Leonie Rysanek appear.

The performance of Die Walküre that I attended was not "grotesquely sung." John F's report of Deborah Voigt's vocal deterioration came after that, albeit while she was still singing it at the Met. I apologize for having no experience of gods and goddesses performing this work.

I'm sure that Gelb meant repertoire that it is practical for any modern opera house to put on. Bellini only wrote a few operas, and we're lucky (or some listeners are, anyway) that they are well represented in the current repertory. In spite of Lenny Goran's wishes, nobody is going to revive all of Donizetti (or Rossini), nor should they. I can barely tolerate Lucia and Barber of Seville, one- or two-number operas if ever there was such, and I'm hardly alone in that opinion. Mozart only wrote six operas in the current repertory, of which only four are performed frequently, and those six are the only ones that deserve to be there. Opera repertory is a great deal like the culling and triage of composers over the ages in general. With rare exceptions, the sophisticated listening public made the right decisions for us long ago.

[John F]

I hope Peter Gelb was misquoted, but saying:

"As Mr. Gelb said of Mr. Camarena in a recent interview, “As great as he is, there’s limited repertoire for him to sing.”

Does he know how many operas Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini wrote? And then add Mozart, because Camarena is already a well established Mozart tenor in Salzburg and Zürich.
I know, he obviously meant "at the Met", but then he should consider that after the grotesquely sung Ring and the not too exciting Andrea Chenier, programming more Belcanto operas makes sense, since it is Joyce DiDonato, Olga Peretyatko and the already mentioned tenors who bring vocal glamour to the MET...until the next Astrid Varnay and Leonie Rysanek appear.

What Gelb obviously meant is that Camarena's voice - its range, size, and weight - limit him to a certain operatic repertoire. Surely nobody would disagree with that! And since Gelb didn't define the limits of that repertoire, it doesn't seem to me that he misspoke. And pleasing as some of the bel canto operas are, and giving Gelb credit for greatly enlarging the Met's bel canto repertoire, notable because music director James Levine seldom conducts those operas himself, let's not pretend that they are somehow a substitute for "Der Ring des Nibelungen."

I agree with jbuck919 that last season's Ring cycle was not "grotesquely" sung. It wasn't magnificently sung either, especially by Deborah Voigt, and a series of withdrawals and illnesses left the Met scrambling for a Siegfried at the last minute, but the work is too important to shelve for long because the available singers for major roles are less than ideal at the time they actually take the stage. For one thing, the top singers had to be signed 4-5 years in advance, and bad things can and do happen to a singer's voice in such a long period. As it happens, the Met's next Ring cycles are five seasons away, which in my view is too long.

[josé echenique]

Sorry guys, but if you don´t have a decent Brünnhilde and Wotan you just can´t have the Ring, and Debbie Voigt much as I have loved her over the years was in terrible voice for the run, and I can´t say that Bryn Terfel really met the challenges of Wotan. There are better Brünnhildes around, Nina Stemme though no Birgit Nilsson, is at least competent in the role, but where is a true Heldenbariton today? Though Pape has sung the Walküre Wotan, I still think he is more a basso than a bass-bariton.
And it´s not only the MET who is in trouble, the recently released DG Wiener Staatsoper Ring under Thielemann shows that things are not one bit better across the ocean.

<What Gelb obviously meant is that Camarena's voice - its range, size, and weight - limit him to a certain operatic repertoire. Surely nobody would disagree with that! And since Gelb didn't define the limits of that repertoire, it doesn't seem to me that he misspoke.>

Gelb said according to the article that there´s a "limited repertoire for him to sing" and I don´t think he meant the limits of his tessitura, because then every voice in the world is limited by his or her tessitura, I think he meant the repertoire, the number of operas he can sing, and if it is so, I think he is missing a lot. I wonder if he has ever heard Rossini´s La Pietra del Paragone, a delicious comedy that would be a hit at the MET. Certainly better that than another routine Bohéme or poorly sung Turandot.

[josé echenique]

<With rare exceptions, the sophisticated listening public made the right decisions for us long ago.<

If we were to believe that, we would´t be listening to Monteverdi, Handel and Rameau today.


"It's beautiful and boring. Too many pieces finish too long after the end." Stravinsky on Handel's Theodora.

"A composer for one right hand." Wagner on Chopin.

"All Bach's last movements are like the running of a sewing machine." Bax on Bach.

"What a giftless bastard!" Tchaikovsky on Brahms.

"Handel is only fourth rate. He is not even interesting." Tchaikovsky on Handel.

If you can´t trust great composers on other great composers much less your so called "sophisticated listening public" who surely, were much less sophisticated than yourself.

[jbuck919]

<With rare exceptions, the sophisticated listening public made the right decisions for us long ago.<

If we were to believe that, we would´t be listening to Monteverdi, Handel and Rameau today.

No, my friend, you know me better, if only from my posts, than to think that I meant that. In the first place, I gave myself an out by saying "with rare exceptions." That opens the door for the revival of interest in Handel's operas, to give one example. And I am aware that what is now often performed from the bel canto repertory is itself a sort of revival, and that this was in part to accommodate singers such as Joan Sutherland. But nothing can change the fact that a huge amount of traditional opera repertory is on the fence between musical significance and only-an-opera-buff-could-stand-this fun. We'll never get only the former and none of the latter, to which I do not object, but I stand by my opinion that connoisseurship has filtered things out as well as could be expected, and that we are unlikely to have great revivals of secondary repertory just because there are no more Heldentenors.

[lennygoran]

I hope Peter Gelb was misquoted, but saying:

No he probably said it--he never should have been hired! Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

Bellini only wrote a few operas, and we're lucky (or some listeners are, anyway) that they are well represented in the current repertory. In spite of Lenny Goran's wishes, nobody is going to revive all of Donizetti (or Rossini), nor should they. I can barely tolerate Lucia and Barber of Seville, one- or two-number operas if ever there was such, and I'm hardly alone in that opinion.

Come on, you're crazy! Regards, Len

[josé echenique]

<With rare exceptions, the sophisticated listening public made the right decisions for us long ago.<

If we were to believe that, we would´t be listening to Monteverdi, Handel and Rameau today.

No, my friend, you know me better, if only from my posts, than to think that I meant that. In the first place, I gave myself an out by saying "with rare exceptions." That opens the door for the revival of interest in Handel's operas, to give one example. And I am aware that what is now often performed from the bel canto repertory is itself a sort of revival, and that this was in part to accommodate singers such as Joan Sutherland. But nothing can change the fact that a huge amount of traditional opera repertory is on the fence between musical significance and only-an-opera-buff-could-stand-this fun. We'll never get only the former and none of the latter, to which I do not object, but I stand by my opinion that connoisseurship has filtered things out as well as could be expected, and that we are unlikely to have great revivals of secondary repertory just because there are no more Heldentenors.

But we are enjoying a great Bel Canto revival for over 60 or 70 years now. Is it secondary repertoire? Well, there will be many opinions about that, personally I like it, nay, I love it since I grew with it. I belong to the generation that saw the golden years of Sutherland, Scotto, Caballé, Kraus, etc, and I learned to respect and admire these operas. Are they masterworks? I think many of them are. Rossini' s Semiramide, Guillaume Tell, Ermione, Otello, just to mention a few of his serious operas are masterpieces. Some of them are available to us in critical editions for the first time only recently. If you only know Semiramide from Sutherland's recording I'm afraid you have only heard it in an unacceptable corrupt edition, Philipp Gossett who prepared the critical edition has written a fascinating report on it on Divas and Scholars, much recommended reading. And well, Barbiere has been with us for almost 200 years now, performed all over the World thousands of times, it surely can't be a second rate opera.

[lennygoran]

And well, Barbiere has been with us for almost 200 years now, performed all over the World thousands of times, it surely can't be a second rate opera.

Jose the Barber is on his way up to upstate NY and he has a sharp razor in his hand! Regards, Len

[jbuck919]

And well, Barbiere has been with us for almost 200 years now, performed all over the World thousands of times, it surely can't be a second rate opera.

Jose the Barber is on his way up to upstate NY and he has a sharp razor in his hand! Regards, Len

I can't take seriously someone who confuses Figaro with Sweeney Todd.

I'm not proposing to eliminate bel canto from the repertory. You two are not the first people I've known who love it. That would be my college roommate and best friend, still a great opera buff, who introduced me to this stuff, and even then I knew that it was a specialized taste over and above interest in classical music, which is probably a good thing because along with Puccini (whom I like) it keeps opera companies going. No Bellini, no Berg.

Nevertheless, I find that repertory boring, and stand by my opinion that the operas of that sort which actually get performed anymore require great patience to get to the few numbers that are actually fun, as opposed to being the same number written for the 500th time, to take a page from Vivaldi.

You two, I do not begrudge you your happy listening. Do carry on.

[barney]

we've just had Turco in Italia in Melbourne. I thought it quite second rate Rossini. I adore the Barber - one of the first operas I learnt to love, but let's be honest, a lot of Rossini is highly formulaic and was just dashed off.

[jbuck919]

we've just had Turco in Italia in Melbourne. I thought it quite second rate Rossini. I adore the Barber - one of the first operas I learnt to love, but let's be honest, a lot of Rossini is highly formulaic and was just dashed off.

Due voci fanno poco.

Switching composers, for the sake of commiserative conversation with Len (and I really mean that), a couple of years ago I suffered through, excuse me listened to, the first act of Lucia for the first time on the Met Saturday broadcast, hoping against hope that my youthful memory of bel canto opera was just ill informed. Alas, no, nothing can rescue that music if the criterion is its inherent quality and not how pleasant people sound when singing it.

[John F]

For me, the bel canto style is best suited to comedy, as by Rossini and Donizetti. The serious operas by them and Bellini that I can take seriously are pretty few - "Norma" of course (Wagner took it seriously too), "Guillaume Tell" which will finally get a Met revival in a couple of seasons, and late Donizetti such as "Caterina Cornaro" and "Dom Sebastien." I don't understand jbuck919's problem with "Il barbiere di Siviglia," with its two brilliant and hilarious act finales - Toscanini actually preferred it to "Le nozze di Figaro" - but there it is. Perhaps he might appreciate "Le comte Ory," one of Rossini's last comedies, but I have a feeling he won't bother.

[jbuck919]

For me, the bel canto style is best suited to comedy, as by Rossini and Donizetti. The serious operas by them and Bellini that I can take seriously are pretty few - "Norma" of course (Wagner took it seriously too), "Guillaume Tell" which will finally get a Met revival in a couple of seasons, and late Donizetti such as "Caterina Cornaro" and "Dom Sebastien." I don't understand jbuck919's problem with "Il barbiere di Siviglia," with its two brilliant and hilarious act finales - Toscanini actually preferred it to "Le nozze di Figaro" - but there it is. Perhaps he might appreciate "Le comte Ory," one of Rossini's last comedies, but I have a feeling he won't bother.

Beethoven also appreciated Rossini, though he famously told him that he should never write anything but comic opera. I've actually seen two Rossini operas at Lincoln Center (Barber and Italiana), which is twice the number I have seen by any other composer, so I didn't come by my opinion of him casually or cheaply.

Speaking of William Tell, the last time the Met put this on I caught the first part of the radio broadcast. You know something is wrong when the overture (which for all its over-familiarity is a pretty decent piece of music) promises to be the highlight.

Another famous example of a much greater composer being influenced by bel canto is Chopin, who in his own mind anyway owed a great deal to Bellini. Of the three composers who are usually meant when one says "bel canto opera," I can dig Bellini much more than the others. This is not the greatest performance of A te o cara from I Puritani (there is an excellent one by Pavarotti on YouTube) but it is the notable ending of a great movie:



OK, so I came back to add the Pavarott/Sutherland performance. You've got to hear this if you don't already know it. This is why teenage boys like my college roommate fall in love with bel canto and never fall out love with it.

[josé echenique]

we've just had Turco in Italia in Melbourne. I thought it quite second rate Rossini. I adore the Barber - one of the first operas I learnt to love, but let's be honest, a lot of Rossini is highly formulaic and was just dashed off.

Emma Matthews adores Turco, and so did Maria Callas. I don't know how good was your Aussie performance, but from the pictures I saw it seemed great fun. Kind of 1950's, wasn't it?

[josé echenique]

Lenny will be as happy as I to know that this is coming out soon:






Vasco de Gama is the first version of L´ Africaine, none of the singers is well known, but better that than nothing.

[John F]

Speaking of William Tell, the last time the Met put this on I caught the first part of the radio broadcast. You know something is wrong when the overture (which for all its over-familiarity is a pretty decent piece of music) promises to be the highlight.

The radio broadcast you heard can't have been from the Met, as the last time they performed the opera was in December 1931. But you're commenting on the opera, not the performance, so that doesn't really matter.

[lennygoran]

You two are not the first people I've known who love it. That would be my college roommate and best friend, still a great opera buff, who introduced me to this stuff, and even then I knew that it was a specialized taste over and above interest in classical music, which is probably a good thing because along with Puccini (whom I like) it keeps opera companies going. No Bellini, no Berg.

Nevertheless, I find that repertory boring, and stand by my opinion that the operas of that sort which actually get performed anymore require great patience to get to the few numbers that are actually fun,

On the best friend business he can't still be a best friend--not with that attitude of yours! On the boring how many of donizetti's operas have you seen or even heard the music to? And while Donizetti's comedy Elixiris a superb masterpiece most of Donizetti is not fun but tragedy! No we're coming up north of Albany with the sharp razors! Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

Switching composers, for the sake of commiserative conversation with Len (and I really mean that), a couple of years ago I suffered through, excuse me listened to, the first act of Lucia for the first time on the Met Saturday broadcast, hoping against hope that my youthful memory of bel canto opera was just ill informed. Alas, no, nothing can rescue that music if the criterion is its inherent quality and not how pleasant people sound when singing it.

Forget our conversations-they're finished-that first act of Lucia from the Met is probably the only part of any opera that lunatic Zimmerman ever directed that she ever got right--it was absolutely superb and I was in tears for most of it as the lovers expressed their emotions. Admit it-you're joking around! Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

Lenny will be as happy as I to know that this is coming out soon:

Jose you got that right--I'd be there in a second if I had the chance! Regards, Len

[jbuck919]

Switching composers, for the sake of commiserative conversation with Len (and I really mean that), a couple of years ago I suffered through, excuse me listened to, the first act of Lucia for the first time on the Met Saturday broadcast, hoping against hope that my youthful memory of bel canto opera was just ill informed. Alas, no, nothing can rescue that music if the criterion is its inherent quality and not how pleasant people sound when singing it.

Forget our conversations-they're finished-that first act of Lucia from the Met is probably the only part of any opera that lunatic Zimmerman ever directed that she ever got right--it was absolutely superb and I was in tears for most of it as the lovers expressed their emotions. Admit it-you're joking around! Regards, Len

I was hoping you would forgive me after I sincerely posted an appreciation of Bellini. I mean, there are people from my formal educational background who would never forgive me for liking Puccini. You've got to cut me some slack here.

I know that there can be more to opera than meets the ear. Before you joined the board, I engaged in a vigorous debate about whether an opera can ever be greater than its music, and obviously opinions differ on this. Believe me, Len, I want to like this stuff--it just doesn't happen. You're the lucky one, because you don't have any limitations on the high end, i.e., you're always opening a new CD with a completely open mind and enjoying the same music I do. In contrast, many opera buffs, including aforesaid college classmate, don't have much use for Beethoven.

[lennygoran]

Len

>I was hoping you would forgive me after I sincerely posted an appreciation of Bellini. I mean, there are people from my formal educational background who would never forgive me for liking Puccini. You've got to cut me some slack here. <

Okay I reached Gesler and his soldiers--they were on there way up there-the Barber said he couldn't take you on alone-I told Gesler to temporarily pause in Albany so we'll see what happens over the next several months--it's sort of a situation like Putin's troops at the Ukraine border! Regards, Len

[Tarantella]

Switching composers, for the sake of commiserative conversation with Len (and I really mean that), a couple of years ago I suffered through, excuse me listened to, the first act of Lucia for the first time on the Met Saturday broadcast, hoping against hope that my youthful memory of bel canto opera was just ill informed. Alas, no, nothing can rescue that music if the criterion is its inherent quality and not how pleasant people sound when singing it.

Forget our conversations-they're finished-that first act of Lucia from the Met is probably the only part of any opera that lunatic Zimmerman ever directed that she ever got right--it was absolutely superb and I was in tears for most of it as the lovers expressed their emotions. Admit it-you're joking around! Regards, Len

What an incurable romantic you are, Lenny!! When I was in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien people were crying through Handel's "Rodelinda" and the woman next to me held up a huge box of tissues which her husband was pulling out feverishly. I was very touched by this, especially when the young woman sitting on the other side of me said, "here, you'll be needing this" - she offered me her little packet of tissues. In Australia such public demonstrations of emotion are not generally encouraged and are rare!!

[josé echenique]

Switching composers, for the sake of commiserative conversation with Len (and I really mean that), a couple of years ago I suffered through, excuse me listened to, the first act of Lucia for the first time on the Met Saturday broadcast, hoping against hope that my youthful memory of bel canto opera was just ill informed. Alas, no, nothing can rescue that music if the criterion is its inherent quality and not how pleasant people sound when singing it.

Forget our conversations-they're finished-that first act of Lucia from the Met is probably the only part of any opera that lunatic Zimmerman ever directed that she ever got right--it was absolutely superb and I was in tears for most of it as the lovers expressed their emotions. Admit it-you're joking around! Regards, Len

What an incurable romantic you are, Lenny!! When I was in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien people were crying through Handel's "Rodelinda" and the woman next to me held up a huge box of tissues which her husband was pulling out feverishly. I was very touched by this, especially when the young woman sitting on the other side of me said, "here, you'll be needing this" - she offered me her little packet of tissues. In Australia such public demonstrations of emotion are not generally encouraged and are rare!!

Some people have a very emotional response to music, I have also seen people crying like babies at the end of La Bohéme. Puccini was good at that.

[lennygoran]

I have also seen people crying like babies at the end of La Bohéme. Puccini was good at that.

Jose it's a lot better than some of our politicians have done when giving political speeches-for example it helped cost Ed Muskie an election win! Regards Len

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiLL8ZAXGys

[jbuck919]

I have also seen people crying like babies at the end of La Bohéme. Puccini was good at that.

Jose it's a lot better than some of our politicians have done when giving political speeches-for example it helped cost Ed Muskie an election win! Regards Len

But John Boehner is a known public crier and it hasn't hurt him. Times have changed, or perhaps, as with being "soft on Communism," Republicans can get away with it when Democrats can't.

I am frequently moved to tears over music, though perhaps not the end of La Boheme, even though I like the opera. I haven't seen enough operas live to have had that experience.

An extreme example of being moved to tears doesn't involve classical music at all. For years, my school in Maryland put on mediocre spring musical productions. Then they hired someone who knew what she was doing and gave her a big budget. To cut to the end, we got a West Side Story to knock your socks off, given the limits of high school talent. Since I knew all the students in the performance, I found myself bawling like a baby and had to remove myself to the side of the audience, because I couldn't let the other kids see me like that. It wasn't a question of being ashamed as a grown man crying--I have never had that problem. It was a question of upsetting others and disrupting the proper student-teacher relationship.