Forgive the absence, I have been outside of the space time continuum, ie living in India, where classical music was not on the top of my mind. For harrowing tales from a plane crashing on the runway to 3 foot squirrels to holding up inside during riots after the bombings of the mosque in Hyderabad, visit my other blog at HyderabadAdventures.blogspot.com. But, now that I’m back, and slowly integrating into American life, I am more motivated than ever to share my opinions on the state of the music world today, as well as how you can escape the problems with fantastic recordings and videos from the shining days of opera performance in the 50’s and 60’s.

I went to see Samson and Delilah at San Francisco Opera about a month ago. It was my first real re-introduction to the American classical music scene. I was, as always, overwhelmed by the number of people who were there for one purpose and one purpose alone – see and be seen. I was also overwhelmed by the percent of really old people to everyone else – what is going to happen in 20 years when all those 70 year olds are dead? Will there be a group of opera-loving baby boomers to take their places, or will the opera houses be filled with an entirely new group of younger fans, or will all the live opera houses be closed in favor of watching videos of amateurs singing along with Pavarotti on YouTube.

I don’t know what the future holds, and I’m ambivalent about where I hope it will go. Given the poor caliber of most famous opera singers these days – the Samson was truly horrible, although Delilah was a better mezzo than I expected, since she only slipped into uncontrollable vibrato on the high notes, rather than throughout all of her range – I think that the democratization of information and performance that YouTube provides may actually push the opera industry to find good singers again.

Then again, since they seem completely un-self-aware, they may just tank and continue to publicly lament “popular culture’s influence on the downfall of opera” when the clear cause of its waning popularity to anyone who’s had a chance to hear the great singers of the 50’s and 60’s is the horrible sounding singers who fill the leading roles at today’s most famous opera houses.

Back to Samson and Delilah – I have to give them props for the production value – great costumes, a fantastic middle-eastern inspired ballet in the last act, and an attempt to reach the masses by projecting one evening’s production to the jumbo-tron at AT&T Park. Alas, I was not informed of the free option with hot dogs and spent the $70 to sit on the nose-bleeds of the opera house, contemplating what would happen if the “Big One” began shaking that very moment.

The lush orchestration and Saint-Saens famous aria made it worth the trip, although the performers themselves didn’t do their part. The tenor was quivery and shamefully off- key, Delilah (Olga Borodina) was ok but not inspiring and lost control on the high notes, and neither lived up to their international reputations.

If you want to hear what “Mon Coeur S’Ouvre a Ta Voix” should sound like, dig through the discount bin at Amoeba records to find Rise Stephens, who is not only has rich and beautiful timbre and complete control with passion, but is also beautiful and not 250 pounds. Yes folks, it is possible to be a famous opera singer and not be fat and ugly, but alas, the casting directors at the major houses seem to think that fat and ugly are more classic than hiring a great singer who also happens to look remotely like their character.