LETTERS.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)

DRESS-CODE NO-NOS

My thanks to Barrymore Scherer for bringing his quaint, old-fashioned ideas down from the attic and showing them to us in his coda, "Fashion Police Blotter" [November 2000]. I'm afraid that, like many things stored too long, they've started to smell a little.

I think the "old-fashioned black-or white-tie" options favored by Mr. Scherer make men look as faceless as twenty cigarettes in a pack. If Matthias Goerne (my current pick for Best Dressed Man on the concert stage) expresses his art wearing "an all-black postmodern outfit," then I am all for it. Even if her gown "prevented her from putting down her arms" while singing, there is still plenty to enjoy about Kathleen Battle -- a true fashionista. And if I want to attend these performances wearing nothing but my pajamas, at least I'll be comfortable.

This insistence on dress-code conformity for audience and performers is so twentieth-century. It works to keep potential audiences away from classical singing. It is time to help return this art form to the people. Rather than attending performances in a state of disapproval concerning the attire of the performers and the public, use the opportunity to evaluate differences between people. If we can't grow to appreciate how those differences add to the texture of the art, perhaps we can at least learn to respect them.

Robert Lilligren Minneapolis, MN

STILL STANDING

Brian Kellow was right on target ["Standing Room Lonely," December 2000] in his slam at the globalization of musical life in today's world. Until the advent of the jet airplane, audiences had to go to great singers' home opera houses. Nowadays, the greatest singers of our time perform and record everywhere.