Today's title is brought to you courtesy of Henry James. Knew of what he spoke, did Mr James.

How is your Summer progressing? I hope you are having fun. Just a couple of months to Portland Opera's opening production, La Traviata. Without wanting to wish the Summer away I am starting to look forward to evenings of opera again, aren't you?

I thought it may be a good idea to mention here that tomorrow morning at 10am All Classical 89.9fm, Portland's very own and wonderful all-classical radio station will be broadcasting Portland Opera's production of Bizet's Carmen which opened last season's offerings.  Those of you who attended and saw Jossie Perez's performance of the title role will want to hear it again and for those of you who didn't, now is your chance!  Either way 89.9 on your radio dial is the place to be tomorrow morning for an off-season opera fix.

The picture?  One of my personal favorites,  tenor Richard Troxell who sang Don José in our production of Carmen is shown singing the National Anthem at opening day for the Baltimore Orioles this year.  'Cos they don't have any bullfighting in Baltimore, see.

And by the way, Richard Troxell will be back in September to sing Alfredo in our season opener, La Traviata.

Maestro James Levine, 65 year old ringmaster extraordinaire of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra pit and conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has had to cancel his remaining performances at Tanglewood this Summer. After last weekend's performance of Berlioz Les Troyens ( a multi-hour marathon which is performed in two halves, one on Saturday night the other on Sunday afternoon). Levine informed management that he would be admitted to hospital this week to undergo nephrectomy surgery - the removal of a kidney. Apparently tests have discovered a cyst on that kidney which is causing pressure and discomfort. It is no secret that such cysts are commonly cancerous but a surgeon friend of mine tells me that removal of the affected kidney is often a successful treatment and we do quite well firing on only one kidney. Levine’s hospital stay is likely to be around four days and then some weeks of recuperation at home is called for.

Over the last few years I have developed unreserved admiration for Maestro Levine's skills in the orchestra pit and a good deal of affection for him personally. The obvious joy and enthusiasm he shows for his work are a pleasure to watch. And as I have commented here before when I see him enter the pit and hoist himself up onto his seat before the podium I relax, knowing that whatever other disasters may befall theperformance the orchestra will turn in a performance that will be at the very least polished and may be revelatory.

Maestro Levine is scheduled to conduct the Metropolitan Opera Opening Night Gala on September 22nd, and it really just won't be the same if he isn't there, so please join me in hoping for his speedy and complete recovery.

It's what you - or more particularly, I - don't know that comes as such a delightful though sometimes disturbing surprise to me over and over again. F'rinstance, I know a bit about opera. Perhaps more than just a bit or I suppose someone else would be writing this blog and I would not be able to use the soubriquet Operaman without producing a chorus of sniggers. I am well aware that I am not in any way an opera expert but I am cognizant enough of the general canon that if someone mentions Monteverdi I don't think they are discussing a light and fruity white from the hills surrounding Florence and I can immediately pitch in with a smattering of talk of opera in early 17th century Venice.

A few weeks ago Sir Alexander McCall Smith visited Portland from his home in Scotland. For those of you for whom that name rings no bells let me explain that he is famous on two different fronts. As an author he has written a very successful series of books whose theme is The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. There have so far been nine of these novels all of which are set in Botswana and revolve around not only the solving of mysteries but the eccentricities and foibles of the characters involved. A series is in preparation for broadcast on BBC television, so I imagine that we may expect to see it here a few years down the road. In addition to his authoring, Smith is the founder and driving force behind the The Really Terrible Orchestra. This group of players whose enthusiasm greatly outweighs their technical ability or musicality was founded by Smith in 1995 as "an inclusive orchestra for those who really want to play, but who cannot do so very well. Or cannot do so at all, in some cases." This orchestra has developed something of a cult following, particularly in Edinburgh where it regularly performs at the annual Edinburgh Festival under what it describes as the distinguished baton of Sir Richard Neville-Towle. Indeed so popular have they become that a guest gig is much sought after, as evidenced by the fact that when they performed the Major-General's song from Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore they had a real Major-General to sing it. Sir Alexander wrote a charming column for the New York Times recently entitled “And The Band Played Badly.” I recommend that you read it and give yourself a smile to get the week off to a happy start.

Finally, Summer! In the four and a half years I have been in Portland I have grown to really enjoy this city. But I won't lie to you...I am still having trouble with the weather. Between the seemingly endless drizzle of England and the torrential rains of Asia I seem to have lived the vast proportion of my adult life in wet-weather zones when what I really like is Marin County's climate. Still, Rose Festival Week is over so the rain has let up temporarily and we are having some glorious days. So, what with it being Summer time and all, I am not feeling the urge to raise complex, intellectually challenging/stimulating topics; I thought I'd go with lighter fare for a week or two. Switch the Sancerre for a crisp Pinot Grigio. Listen to old Dylan albums and hold off on worrying whether Deborah Voight has lost some of the power in her voice along with all that weight. Of course should you have a subject in mind that you would like me to address don't hold back.

In last week's post I touched upon whether Gilbert and Sullivan is opera. In a comment posted by Lorin Wilkerson he suggested that there be further discussion on the whole what-is-opera topic and asked "...it seems like there are so many shades of gray, and it's a bit confusing. Why would you be able to see "Porgy and Bess" or "Sweeney Todd" at the Royal Opera House, but I can't imagine seeing "South Pacific" or "West Side Story" there. Where is the dividing line? Thematic material? X% of the total number of words sung as opposed to spoken? It's something I've never really been able to figure out..." I promised to address this further this week.

More of that later.

For a couple of weeks I had been hearing commercials on AllClassical for the University of Portland production of The Pirates of Penzance. I was tempted to attend as I have had much fun at previous Mock's Crest productions so when conductor Professor Roger O. Doyle left the customary bribe under a wine coaster at Jake's Grill I cleared the decks for Saturday evening ,called Elizabeth who is a big Gilbert and Sullivan fan and hot-footed it to the Mago Hunt Theater.

"Is G&S opera or...?" Elizabeth began a chat about our date. Don't get her wrong. She knows her opera in general and her G&S in particular. This was more a "So, under what particular operatic rubric does G&S fall?" -type question. Light opera? Operetta? Musical theater, perhaps? And how does one come to a proper conclusion?

One could have been forgiven for believing that the near canonization of Al Gore had been brought to a suitably impressive ending over the last eighteen or so months with his being awarded an honorary fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, prizes in Spain and Sweden, several honorary doctorates, the Sir David Attenborough Award for Excellence in Nature Film-making and an Emmy. Top those off with the conferral of last year's Nobel Prize for Peace and that's a pretty good year by anyone's reckoning. Short of his achieving something truly spectacular - winning Dancing With The Stars, say - it seemed to me as though Mr. Gore's post-presidential-candidature days had pretty much run their course. I had reckoned without them wacky folks at La Scala, Milan who have just announced that they have commissioned an opera. From the book of the documentary-movie of the slide-show of the same name they are to bring you An Inconvenient Truth. The work is to be written by Giorgio Battistelli artistic director of Verona’s Arena opera foundation and a man described as "a composer very much in tune with contemporary themes, including the environment.” I am having a great timewondering who is to be cast in the role of Mr. Gore. Nathan Gunn, perhaps? Who knows, perhaps crowning all of his other achievements Gore himself is a barihunk and will play and sing the role himself.

None of the above should be taken as suggesting I don't admire and respect Gore personally. I do. Very much. And I loved the movie An Inconvenient Truth. Somehow, though, making it an opera just seems a bit silly.

This post is not a continuation of my rant last week about Regie but thoughts on the topic stemming from correspondence over the last few days. You will have seen that my previous post was met with a comment by a correspondent identifying herself only as 'grrlpup'. She made a most astute observation about Regie to which I replied. Shortly after that I received an email from her which really got me thinking. With her permission I quote it here:

"Some people think that Falco only did Rock Me Amadeus, but that is not right!  I think after you see his interpretation of Titanic, you'll agree he could be the man to redeem opera regie.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ToYWrHuNFTE&feature=related