hey guys (& gals!)...enjoy listening to your podcasts, having just discovered them. one thing came up recently where you were talking about rep and the lack of handel etc in the met. i think the problem with opera in the us is that a) it is all focussed on the met, and b) the met is way too big for intimate pieces (like baroque). i live in germany (cologne), and have a slew of opera houses close by (düsseldorf, duisburg, essen, bonn and cologne itself)...all within c. 20-30 minutes trainride away. we get the usual rep, but also unusual stuff....i mean cologne is producing one of stockhausen's licht operas this season! i also caught schrecker's irrelohe in bonn a couple of weeks back. the point being, the houses are small enough to put on a production of a work which is more marginal. the met needs to take in big bucks and so has to produce standard fare (for the most part). they can't risk stockhausen or schrecker or nono or whoever - simply because their sponsors won't support it, nor will they get an audience. for that reason, i think, much new american opera is really just popera - all those works ripping off puccini etc....like that new one in la....what's the point? modern music doesn't have to be atonal (look at britten), nor does it have to be derivatory (almost any modern american work). what you need are smaller houses/performing spaces...plus more support for the arts (more music - less bombs!)