To the editors:
I’m a little late entering the Dennis Polkow Bash-o-Rama but hope my entry can be accepted anyway. I have not read Polkow’s reviews for long, since I moved here from New York City six months ago, so I don’t know about his old mistakes. I AM appalled by his new mistakes.
Two other things not mentioned in any of the other Bash-o-Rama letters. 1. After making up his research for Rosenkavalier from his own imagination [October 6] Polkow apparently did no more research for Clemenza than read the program notes [October 20]. How much do you pay him for this? 2. I don’t know anybody else who found stridently antisexy Agnes Baltsa either physically or vocally attractive as Dalila [November 10]. Polkow has odd tastes.
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T.W. Hyatt Chicago
Should any of this mean that my opinion should be more respected or taken more seriously than anyone else’s? No. I wish you “opera people” would get off your high horses; the people reading all of this correspondence who don’t know what we’re talking about must be getting the distinct impression that all opera lovers are vicious, narrow, and elitist–and that there may be something in the art form itself that may contribute to this.
