Re: That's absurd.

Heh, Renee Fleming's attempts at jazz and Kiri Te Kanawa's take on Cole Porter reinforce HT's point. Domingo's duets w/John Denver aren't exactly going down in history.

And I agree that Jewel's attempt will probably not make someone decide to go to the opera. Look at all of the non-trained voices out there doing "Nessun dorma," and the best that we can say is that they encourage other non-trained voices to try it out. And butcher it. And, indeed, there are substantial grounds for banning that aria entirely from "XXXX's Got Talent" competitions. Personally, I'd be happy not to hear it again for several years.

I'm saying that we are not serving the music well if we say that only the chosen few are allowed to perform it and build a fence around it. We don't need to protect it: the music does a pretty good job of making people look foolish. It makes trained singers look stupid on a regular basis.