Where opera went wrong

’Twas the night before Christmas, a time for ghouls, spectres, and phantoms to walk among the living. The ghost of the legendary vocal pedagogue Manuel Garcia jr has come to find out what exactly has happened to opera since he died over a hundred years ago this very night*... Footnotes: “Hints on Singing“, Manuel Garcia, 1894 “Mémoire sur la voix humaine : présenté à l’Académie des Sciences en 1840”, Manuel Garcia “Letters from Manuel Patricio García to Pauline Viardot-García“, collected by James Radomsky *OK not actually this night, it was half a year off on 1st July, which is as far as you can get from Christmas Eve before you start coming round again, but that doesn’t sound as spooky...