Separated At Birth

<rant> Oh how I wish I could see the Salonen/ Viola/ Sellars/ Brewer Tristan und Isolde, but I just can't afford it right now. The lowest ticket price is $175, equivalent to almost a dozen evenings at the Met. I'm pissed that the organizers can't corral more corporate sponsors or Mercedes Basses to offset the large production cost. I'm hearing so many good things about it left and right, but I can't do more than imagine what it would be like to finally hear Christine Brewer's Isolde live, to participate in the Esa-Pekka worship engulfing much of the literati, see and be moved by Viola's moving art. So I say, f* you all, who'll come out of it declaring that they've been forever altered by the singular experience. </rant>

While (Deborah Voigt) believes the art of singing should be more important than appearance, or "package," she said, "in order for the art form to survive with the media of today, singers have to be more believable, whatever that means to the public. Opera houses have to compete with everything else, and audiences are less likely today to accept singers who are 130 pounds overweight."

Dear Debbie, is there really any need for the Gelbspeak?