I entirely agree with you about the opera point and his neglect of Britten. He also failed to include Sibelius (how could he!!), Rachmaninov, Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Tippett - pivotal figures, all. He couldn't include everything but his choice of what to completely ignore was questionable to say the least. He did give Stravinsky his due, which was on the mark, and I agreed with him about the dead-end nature of Wagner and of serialism. I think he got Mahler all wrong though. Much of it music to slit your throat to (but that's just me innit). The series got better as it got into the 20th century - he seemed to be on much firmer ground there. Annoying that the charlatan Dylan got a (brief) mention but Woody didn't. Grr.