To judge from reader response following my “Opera heresies” posting to the

corner yesterday, enough people agree with me that we can now form the cadre

of a new organization: Papageno Haters of America. Those interesting in

joining us–high net worth individuals will be particularly welcome–should

contact me through National Review. I am preparing a draft Mission

Statement. Our goal must be to utterly and completely excise that obnoxious

birdman from the libretto of what will then, without him, be Mozart’s finest

opera. (I am not yet clear what our line on Papagena will be. In my

opinion, she should go too–in fact, she should go first. There is some

pro-Papagena sentiment in my inbox, though, and I do not want to precipitate

a schism at this early stage of the movement. I am sure some compromise can

be effected. Perhaps we could keep her, but just drop those awful

moon-booted 18th-century Austrian jokes.) Further bulletins will appear on

The Corner as necessary.