Exactly so, Rifleman. Especially on stage.

But this doesn't always have to be deadly serious. I know that there are a lot of people around who just want to sing for fun and have no particular wish for any kind of professional singing career. However, I would think that if a person enjoys singing at all, they would want to do it at least reasonably well.

And as to serious aspirations, I've heard it said that if a person doesn't enjoy practicing, they'd better reconsider any ambitions for a career in music.

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As to the diversion into Italian opera, this is just a slightly self-indulgent display of the dazzling brilliance of my wide-ranging cultural awareness.

Una Furtiva Lagrima ("a furtive tear") is the main tenor aria from Gaetano Donizetti's opera, L'Elisir d'Amore ("The Elixer of Love"), the opera on Saturday's Metropolitan Opera broadcast, which for which glueman absented himself temporarily from this forum to listen to.

Briefly, the plot of the opera is that Nemorino (tenor), a likable but naïve country bumpkin, is hopelessly in love with a beautiful local girl named Adina (soprano), who apparently can't see him for dust. A charlatan, snake-oil salesman type (bass), passes through the village and sells Nemorino what he tells him is a love-potion, and says that if he drinks it, Adina will fall in love with him. Nemorino guzzles the "elixer of love" (which is actually a large bottle of cheap wine). He gets stinkin' drunk, and in his cups, he becomes thoroughly charming. At the same time, and unknown to him, he inherits a big wad of money. There are other plot complications going on, but this is the main thrust of it. Partly because of his newfound charm and partly because he's almost rich, all the local girls gather round him making goo-goo-eyes. While this is going on, he doesn't pay any attention to Adina, who really does care for him. He rouses a bit from his boozy state, and in a slightly more lucid moment, notices that while he was enjoying the attention of the other girls, a furtive tear trickled down Adina's cheek. He suddenly realizes that Adina, for all of her previous aloofness, loves him after all. The aria, una Furtiva Lagrima is the point at which he realizes this. Happy ending.

Luciano Pavorotti said that this was one of his favorite operas to sing. "It's all good fun and nobody dies!" he said.

But enough of this. Back to our customary jousting!

Don Firth