I'm not actually familiar with Tommy, but I'm sure willing to give it a listen.

Andrew Lloyd Webber. He's written some darn good stuff. His . . . what? Operas? Musicals? I'm not sure how he regards them himself. Anyway, they all seem to share the same characteristic: one hit song from each, and the rest of the work is, well, okay ("I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ, Superstar, "The Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera, 'Memory" from Cats, even "Pie Jesu" from his oratorio—I did see a full-length TV production of Cats, and I know it makes some people run out of the room and hock up a fur-ball, but I thought it was great). But then, there are a number of operas that are what you might call "one hit wonders." Maybe it's like trying to pin down whether a particular song is a folk song or not. Are they operas? Time will tell . . . perhaps?

I haven't combed carefully through all the operas listen above, but as I recall, I don't think any of them are in English. There are quite a few in English, such as Samuel Barber's Vanessa, Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes and Billy Budd, and others, but they tend to be pretty modern, which to many ears raises another problem. But they are good. Just keep an open pair of ears and an open mind.

For a lot of people, Wagner is an acquired taste, but my wife Barbara and I sat through all sixteen hours of Seattle Opera's production of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung about fifteen years ago. All four operas in one week takes a lot of endurance and a cast-iron butt, but it was magnificent!

Don Firth