Terry Teachout is talking about opera.
Rarely, though, has a slogan puzzled me more than the one I saw on a Baltimore billboard a couple of weeks ago. It’s the motto of the Baltimore Opera Company: Opera. It’s better than you think. It has to be. I’m not averse on principle to self-deprecation, but why on earth does the BOC think that running down opera will induce people to change their minds about it?
I think Mark Twain once said of Wagner’s music, “It’s better than it sounds.”
I actually like Wagner’s music (and lots of opera music). But I tried watching a TV production of “The Ring of the Niebelungs” once, and it bored me to incontinence.