LA Opera

I am a big fan of the Los Angeles opera and their upcoming 2008/2009 season is amazing. Hell, it’s breathtaking.

Just consider some of the operas coming up over the next twelve months:

Madame Butterfly, by Puccini; number one on the list the list of most performed operas in the US.

Carmen, by Bizet; in my opinion the opera with the greatest score ever.

The Magic Flute by Mozart; yes Mozart.

Die Walkure by Wagner; full of superb music like the rousing “Ride of the Valkyries“, and featuring Placido Domingo, recently voted the best tenor ever, as Siegmund.

La Traviata by Verdi; which contains this magical, magical duet and some of the most beautiful and popular opera music you will ever hear.

Wow.

 

Read Full Post »

Indian English

Quirky Indian has a hilarious post about the way we Indians misuse the English language. To his many well-chosen examples, I’d add one more — when asking a question, Indians often put the pronoun before the verb, as in, “what you are saying”.

To those curious to find more such examples, here’s a simple instruction that’s guaranteed to work. Go to rediff.com, click on any news article and read the comments.

Read Full Post »

More on Obamanomical nudges

George F. Will believes that Barack Obama is a ‘libertarian paternalist’ at heart.

I had made the same point in this post from a couple of weeks back.

Read Full Post »