Let me say up front, I hate opera. I am one of those who is delighted that MPR has done away with that horrid wasteland on Saturdays. Saturday afternoon was one of the times when I didn’t have to be in my office, when I could relax and listen to stuff on the radio I wanted to hear…and what did I get? “Turandot!” Enough to curl your hair.

“Philistine!” I hear from all sides. Actually, no. I am equally opposed to all that stupid jazz on Friday and the brainless, mushy, hippy-dippy non-music late at night… I can’t bring myself to remember what that’s called, but it has to do with “Space.” And all that truly dreadful organ music that goes on and on and on, sonorously but tunelessly sounding like great-uncle Griswold snoring after dinner. I’m glad that’s gone.

I confess that I love classical music, but by my definition. Classical music starts a little before Bach and ends after Beethoven. They were the transition geniuses. The early Renaissance is dull and the 19th Century romantics were hopelessly overblown (hence the failure of opera as a rational musical genre). And Mozart, a pretty good hack pop composer, ruined his life and his future by insisting on trying to do opera, of all things.

Bravo, Charles Beck. You have finally listened to the people who really do listen to MPR and who care about the fun things, the word games, the talking by sensible people who never show up on commercial radio. Phil Price Orrington