On 27 May 2007 at 11:47, Mariposa Symphony Orchestra wrote: > Simply looking at the touring > or location-based companies OR theatres presenting opera in NY, > Boston, Philly, and then-small SF from the 1850's I've noted above, > with ONLY Verdi premieres cited - I would hope - give flight to the > erroneous premise that there were nearly no such productions in the > country during the given years.
That would be disposing of an argument that I don't see that anyone at all has made. You cite the big cities. I already disposed of those (in my discussion of large ethnic subgroups in the big cities), because they were not what we were talking about -- we were talking about the smaller towns and mid-sized cities, which I understand you to be claiming had institutions that regularly performed what we would call "art music." I don't dispute that. What I dispute is the idea that these performances were anything other than popular entertainments, just like the appearances of various opera singers on The Tonight Show or David Letterman. They elevate the tone of the venue but don't change its fundamentally popular nature. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale