On Perfection

I really feel sorry for Martin Bernheimer.

It must be tough to have seen a perfect version of every opera ever written, and then to have to spend the rest of his life sitting through production after production in search of that perfection. And getting paid for it yet!

I don’t know if the presentation of Opera Pacific’s “Die Fledermaus” at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Friday, Feb. 26, was perfect (Bernheimer’s review, “A Weekend at the Opera,” was Feb. 29).

I had never seen it before, so I can’t say if the sets were “fancy el cheapo kitsch” or the music did not “soar” or the costumes “looked dowdy.” All I can tell you is that from my viewpoint, I (a member of the Center ushering staff) and the 2000-plus patrons thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, as evidenced by the standing ovation and the four curtain calls.

Perhaps if Bernheimer would view each performance on its own, he would be able to see the good--and the not-so-good--points of that performance.

Who cares if it isn’t perfect? Not I.

FRITZI BERKOWITZ

Garden Grove