[Desdemona]

If the classical music station is playing Bach or Beethoven, I stay and listen.

No Rossini overtures? No Clar de Lune? No Carmina Burana? Oh, I think my heart just stopped.

Mozart? Never could get past that silly laugh. Bach I like -- I could be a Bach (or Beethoven), Mozart never, ever...

If, as a devout Catholic, I can get over that Mozart went freemason and ridiculed the Church on a regular basis...seriously, you don't know what you're missing. le Nozze di Figaro is every opera singer's favorite. The piano concertos are fabulous background music. The Requiem is a lot of fun to sing, but I wouldn't do it in church.

We're doing Beethoven 9 in May and I hope I stay awake during the 3rd movement. Wouldn't do to fall asleep on the stage.

[Borges]

The Mozart Piano concertoes are the best music for soloist and orchestra ever written by anyone. Carmina Burana? Ugh! That’s up there with the Pachelbel Canon in the ‘Enduring Schlock’ category. Ever listen to late Debussy like the Etudes? He went way beyond ‘Claire De Lune’.

[BroJoeK]

"If, as a devout Catholic, I can get over that Mozart went freemason and ridiculed the Church on a regular basis...seriously, you don't know what you're missing. le Nozze di Figaro is every opera singer's favorite. The piano concertos are fabulous background music. The Requiem is a lot of fun to sing, but I wouldn't do it in church."

Well, I'm delighted to learn Mozart was a Freemason, and at the same time as our own Founding Fathers such as Washington, Franklin, about 1/3 of the signers of the US Constitution and nearly half of Washington's generals.

Freemason at the time generally meant unitarian, deist, Jew-friendly, certainly "anti-papist," but also highly supportive of all free expressions of religion. Remember, Benjamin Franklin -- likely the most irreligious of our Founders, but also gave money to support building every new church in Philadelphia, including a synagogue. That's what "Freemason" means to Americans.

So to me, Mozart's freemasonry puts him in a different light. I might even overlook the gosh-awful laugh that movie gave him...

Still, the real issue here is doo-wop. I love doo-wop, am pretty sure angels in heaven sing doo-wap acapella, along with barbershop and maybe a little Bach, occasional Beethoven Odes to Joy! ;-)

But his freemasonry notwithstanding, they reserve most of Mozart for cases where waterboarding is no longer allowed. ;-) Also, those 72 virgins (or is it raisins?), they all laugh like Wolfie in the movie. ;-0 !