None of these sites Dicho mentioned have any CD available that I could find. The St. Louis site is just an advertisement for a live performance. That's never been under dispute. I never said it can never be performed ever.

The midi and piano scores are not subject to the ban since they are not the opera. I have Richard Zimmerman's piano version on CD. I've had it for a couple of years at least. But I have never seen another full opera recording on the market.

Finally, remember that Alexander's Ragtime Band is not syncopated and A Real Slow Drag is. It makes a difference. BUT there ARE marked differences between the 2 songs. I don't believe Berlin ripped off the whole song. I think he had a skeleton written but didn't feel it was ready and used a bit from Joplin's piece to flesh it out. People borrow from one another all the time. I think Berlin figured it would not be a big deal since he only took pieces of the Joplin's tune and modified them to disguise them a bit. I don't think he realized that Joplin would still instantly recognize his own bits in someone's song and would flip his lid.

Normally, I wouldn't even blame Berlin for anything. BUT he took Joplin's piece and then just set it aside hoping Joplin would forget about it and then when Joplin showed up, gave it back and said no dice even though it was good enough for him to steal from it. THAT is callous!

I don't buy the defense that Berlin was too talented to need to borrow from another's music. Garbage! It happens all the time! Even great classical composers have done it. I just read something the other day that proved that Mozart's "Magic Flute" was not written straight out of Mozart's head; he borrowed the basic idea from someone else's opera--although Mozart's is much better.