Alluring opera

Bravo to David Byrne on his discovery of opera (“Pop Making Sense -- of Opera,” by Scott Timberg, April 25)!

I look forward to hearing his covers of the Bizet and Verdi numbers on his new album. However, I’ll bet every opera fan reading the article laughed aloud at Byrne’s musing that “a lot of the opera is almost purely heart -- it’s either tragic or purely heartfelt passion. And not so much lust....” He should give a good listen to, for example, “Salome” or the final numbers in the respective first acts of “Tosca,” Verdi’s “Otello” or “Madama Butterfly.” In the case of the last, I knew the music from that amazing duet by heart by the time I saw my first “Butterfly” production. When the duet came around, I was somewhat surprised that the action on stage was not as X-rated as the music had seemed to be!

Regina Merwin

Burbank