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From:  "Caio Rossi" <caiorossi@t...>
Date:  Wed Jan 30, 2002  9:16 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] WHAT'S NEXT?

Caio<< Also, I notice that people who are muscially more demanding ( mostly
musicians ) don't seem to buy the emotional appeal in opera, and usually
mock at it and wish they could shush the singer. >>

Judy:>Are you implying that music should not be emotional?

Not really. Opera is what it is and expresses what the cultural elite
considered acceptable then ( like the religiousness in Barroque, when the
cultural elite was religious ). What I'm diagnosing ( rather than saying
what music should our shouldn't be ) is that those who are interested in
more elaborated kinds of music nowadays don't seem to appreciate music that
is emotional in the "Romantic" ( the movement ) sense of the word. It seems
to me that the masses are more into that now ( but are not as demanding,
that's why we have "Con Te Partiro" and the like ), while the cultural elite
is always a step ahead ( and that's basically what elites are supposed to
do ) creating and appreciating what will end up being assimilated by the
masses sooner or later. For some unknown reason to me, that elite has failed
to come up with an elaboration of what has been inherited from the previous
centuries, and I believe that might "save" the style ( like the new
Superman, different, but still super ).

Well, looking at the big picture now, that has happened in all areas: Modern
and post-Modern elites have decided to rebuild culture at large from
scratch, tabula rasa, by denying any achievement from the past. That's
probably the key to understand the status opera has now and the fact that it
hasn't developed eversince, but it still doesn't help us say "what's next"
if there's a next whatsoever ).

Best wishes,

Caio





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