So why do the Grammys matter? The classical division of the world's most prestigious music awards is often treated like an afterthought, but for the winners, the rewards can be substantial.

For the past year, the London Symphony Orchestra's live recording of Les Troyens has borne an eye-catching sticker plastered over the shrink-wrap: Grammy Winner. This month, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (known as the Recording Academy, or NARAS) will again hand out awards for Best Opera Recording, Best Classical Vocal Performance and Best Choral Performance. And many people in the business will say, again, "So what?"

"NARAS doesn't care a rat's behind about classical," says Alison Ames, senior consultant of 21C Media Group, a New York publicity firm. Others belittle NARAS's pop-dominated telecast and, more significantly, its voting processes. The scorn notwithstanding, classical singers value the award--and perhaps, all things considered, they have a point.

However unseemly the notion of a beauty contest for opera recordings, singers see Grammy as a token of recognition and acceptance; according to two-time winner Sylvia McNair, "It's a very brief way of saying that the business has validated you."

"I do remember the sense of awe I felt when I saw Sir Georg Solti's thirty-two Grammys lined up on a ledge, which practically encircled his studio entirely," says Renee Fleming, whose 1999 and 2003 Grammys figure prominently in her press bio. "I was equally in awe of the nineteen Grammys that graced a beautiful table in Leontyne Price's home."

The Academy says it venerates recordings in all fields, but the telecast implies that pop music--and pop music alone--matters. Opera's not the only orphan, as any fan of polka music can attest. NARAS, however, seems to have a tin ear for classical. Once, the producer of the telecast wanted to use a symphony orchestra live on the show and sought advice from Greg Sandow, a trained musician and journalist who has covered the Grammys for Entertainment Weekly. "Hollywood is a funny world," says Sandow. "They get an idea like that, and then they don't know what to do." The producer took Sandow's suggestion--that the orchestra accompany Leontyne Price in "Vissi d'arte"--but the telecast, in most years since then, has generally made a hash of classical music.

The Academy most offends its critics when it programs classical as a novelty. In 1998, subbing for an indisposed Pavarotti, Aretha Franklin performed a soul-inflected "Nessun Dorma." Five years later, Yo-Yo Ma "crossed-over" to accompany James Taylor on "Sweet Baby James," and the New York Philharmonic backed up Coldplay, the British rock band, on "Politik." According to NARAS spokeswoman Barbara Dehgan, "We have nearly 1,000 nominees in 105 categories, and only twelve to fifteen segments on the telecast to showcase the best in music for that particular year." The Philharmonic may, for some, have fallen on hard times, but even the orchestra's enemies would not call this performance its "best."

So how do Grammy winners get chosen in the first place? Look at the realpolitik of the nominations and voting process, say insiders in classical music.