It’s fun to read about opera in a beer hall. I don’t have any problem with doing this sort of thing. But I’m sorry when it turns into a fight. I’m not sure it has to be a “one or the other” sort of thing. I’m not certain the blogger does either, but his last line, “Opera in a beer-hall? I’ll take that any day over the stuffy elitism of big-city concert halls.” sets up an “us vs. them” sort of thing, and the blogger wrote that someone had called and left a hostile message about this sort of thing being the destruction of opera of opera in America. (Give me a break! If it’s destroyed that won’t be the reason!)

The beer hall relaxes things, to be sure. You don’t get the all of it (only piano accompaniment and no sets or costumes and of course no full opera), but you do get some of the joy of it. You definitely get the fun of it, but I’m not sure you get the gut wrenching aspect I love so much. But you get beer. (Although Pabst in a can wouldn’t be my choice!)

Anyhoo, interesting thing to read about.