'I'm trying to take American folklore that I know, that I've experienced, which is jazz,' he says, 'and bring that into the operatic world, but not totally use the entire piece to make a statement about jazz.' Rather, he calls it 'an opera in Jazz.' What he means to do, he explains, is similar to what Stravinsky did in bringing folkloric music into the classical realm. You may listen to it and love it, so I am not one to say don't waste your time or money.Blanchard is a jazz composer, but he says Fire Shut Up in My Bones is not a jazz opera. Now I know that everybody's taste is different. At this point, she was giving us a headache and the opera as a whole was making us nervous, so that after watching it for less than 40 minutes, we decided to shut it off and junk it. When Kathleen Battles sang she seemed to try to impress us with how loud and piercing she could sing.

The biggest gripe I have is that it seems as though there was only one microphone and as the singers moved around the volume went up or down. Figaro was sung by Leo Nucci and I think that the acoustics did him no justice.

Even my wife thought that I sing as good as the lead tenor (Rockwell Blake), which is to say 'pretty bad'. The orchestra played OK, not great, kind of subdued or restrained. A few minutes after the overture began, I could tell that I was going to hate it. So when I put this movie on, I was prepared ahead of time to not like it.

Except for his overtures, I never cared much for Rossini's music. I have heard the Barber of Seville several times and have never really cared that much about it. Among them was this VHS in like new condition. I recently purchased a mixed bag of operas at a flea market.

The metropolitan opera presents