Asymmetrical Information

I downloaded this version of La Fille du Regiment from eMusic preparatory to going to see the thing this week. The opera is already comic, but the sound quality (it was originally recorded for radio in the pre-television days) is so bad that it is actually hilarious. Someone keeps knocking over the microphone, which gives the whole thing a sort of Abbott and Costello quality. Highly recommended.

And thanks to Ezra Klein, incidentally, for encouraging me to join eMusic, although now I'm like a crack addict; I keep upping my subscription level as I trip out my max downloads. Pretty soon I'm going to be in the eMusic equivalent of First Class, mortgaging all my future children so that I can keep downloading obscure radio recordings of Glenn Miller, and Ray Charles duets, along of course with lashings of ancient opera. All I can say, Ezra, is when I end up on the street, shaking a cup for contributions to my eMusic fund, I'd better get a sizeable donation from you.