Today I learned on public radio that mice sing, too. That is, if you define "singing" as a sound that takes some time to finish, has varied syllables and tones, and has a kind of meter of sorts. We can't hear them sing because the sound is higher than the human ear can hear, but when it is brought down four octaves it resembles a bird that is quite experimental and not in love with "melodic".
One of the speakers (this was on SoundCheck) said they don't know why mice sing, but think it relates to sex. That they may sing to attract female mice, and that females tend to hang around singing male mice more than nonsinging male mice.
That wasn't all I heard in that program. They also interviewed the author of Puccini without Excuses, one in a series of books meant to popularize opera by explaining it in a friendly, often funny way. I was taken by the author, who also hosts radio programs of his own, by his sense of humor and understanding of his subject. I immediately went to amazon.com and put that book on my wishlist and read customer reviews of it. It rates highly. The only complaint one non-neophyte opera lover had was that in this book Berger "protests too much". Makes too much of the complaints that Puccini is "too accessible", "too easy". That's probably a valid comment, considering the intended audience. I have never felt the need to defend my love of Puccini. Good is good, whether it's easy to like or not. Think of Jimi Hendrix, f'instance.
And all this because I was not listening to Sonic Theater, as I am so much of the time. They were playing ZBS recordings and I just don't like those. To me they are overly "cute" and annoying. So I turned to my no. 2 station, XMPR, which features mostly New York City public radio. I am sure I hear more NYC public radio than my daughter does, and she lives there.
