"Shrieking?" I don't quite get this "shrieking" business. Granted, opera singers tend to sing pretty loudly. But as EBarnacle pointed out above, the art developed before amplification, and opera singers have to make themselves heard over what amounts to a full symphony orchestra—and do it without cramming a hand mike down their throats like rock and pop singers do.

I don't understand how someone can hear, say, the first act duet in Lucia di Lammermoor or the aria Caro Nome from Rigoletto and call it "shrieking."

I once attended a preview of an upcoming Seattle Opera production of Madame Butterfly. In a church basement usually used for meetings and after-service coffee, two singers, the leading tenor, Dennis Bailey, and the leading soprano, whose name I can't recall, along with a piano accompanist, explained some of the background and details of the opera. Then they sang the quite lengthy love duet from the opera. I was absolutely amazed at the amount of sound that they were able to produce. It was almost superhuman! These were two people who were used to singing in a 3,100 seat opera house accompanied by a full orchestra and making themselves heard. Heard, not just when they were singing at top volume, but heard when they were singing softly. The love duet in Madame Butterfly is full of dynamic changes. I was about twenty feet away, and I didn't hear any "shrieking." I heard two people who had taken the voices they were born with and had trained them and honed them into magnificent musical instruments. Neither of them were especially well-know, although both of them toured and sang in various opera productions around the country, which means they had to be good. Last I heard, Dennis Bailey had been hired away from Seattle Opera by Beverly Sills to sing for the New York City Opera Company.

My opera recordings take up a couple of feet of shelf space, and I've seen plenty of operas live. Seeing an opera live and knowing something about it before you go is the way to do it. For someone unfamiliar with opera, I would recommend La Bohème as a start. I think everybody can relate to that one. A bunch of hippies in nineteenth century Paris, trying to make it as poets, artists, and musicians while living on a tattered shoe-string. And the music is positively lush. Or possibly I Pagliacci or Cavalleria Rusticana. They're both short, and the stories are simple and easy to understand. PBS occasionally broadcasts live (taped) operas: "Live from the Met" or "Live from Lincoln Center." That way you can watch it without shuckin' out a wad of money and you can follow the story with sub-titles. But that works only if your TV has a decent sound system. The "shrieking" probably has more to do with a tinny speaker than it does with the singers.

Renée Fleming is a soprano with a very rich voice. Her recording of "Song to the Moon" from Dvorák's Rusalka is gorgeous! Contrive to give it a listen sometime.

Don Firth