Notes from Constructor John Underwood

Opera has always been one of my passions, ever since my sophomore year at UNC when I took an opera appreciation course. Then living in New York at various times gave me the opportunity to see so many of the great singers at the Met: Birgit Nilsson, Joan Sutherland, Pavorotti, Domingo, Tebaldi, Price - though I never saw Callas, just missed her! It truly was a golden age of singing. So I was delighted to see that the OPERA was published today.

Thankfully the editor wasn't so ruthless with his changes this time, except I have to agree with one of your readers who said the theme clues were bland. I didn't like just clueing them according to the composer. Here are my original definitions:

10A: LULU: Streetwalker is murdered by Jack the Ripper (Alban Berg)

20A: FAUST: Scholar makes pact with the devil (Gounod)

25A: CARMEN: Gypsy is stabbed by rejected lover (Bizet)

41A: MADAMA BUTTERFLY: Japanese girl marries US Navy officer (Puccini)

63A: NORMA: Druid priestess loves Roman solder (Bellini)

71A: AIDA: Ethiopian slave betrays Egyptian lover (Verdi)

Though perhaps a little awkward and probably too long.

Also, for 52D OPERA, I had: Subject of this puzzle.

John Underwood

Monday January 12, 2009 John Underwood

Theme: OPERA (52D: Highbrow entertainment)

10A: Berg opera: LULU

20A: Gounod opera: FAUST

26A: Bizet opera: CARMEN

41A: Puccini opera: MADAMA BUTTERFLY

51A: Strauss opera: SALOME

63A: Bellini opera: NORMA

71A: Verdi opera: AIDA

Well, I've only heard of CARMEN, AIDA and MADAMA BUTTERFLY. Actually, I thought it's MADAME. Nevertheless, I still got all the opera names sans cheating. The intersecting clues certainly helped.

John Underwood always amazes me with his theme ideas, so simple and original. Interesting how he could turn LULU into a "Berg opera". I wonder if he is a real opera fan or just constructed this puzzle with some research.

Across:

5A: Laminated rock: SHALE. Here are some SHALE rocks. Wikipedia says it's the most common sedimentary rock.

15A: "Rodeo" composer Copland: AARON. Have never heard of "Rodeo", the so-called "cowboy ballet".

16A: Genesis character: ENOS. Adam's grandson. Sometimes it's clued as "Slaughter of Cooperstown". This name Slaughter sounds very menacing. My husband told me our surname Burnikel means "Don't kill the child" in Viking language. Does your family name carry any special meaning also?

17A: Tolkien creatures: ORCS. The baddies. ENTS are those talking trees. Learned from doing Xword of course.

40A: Ottoman official: AGA. Can also be spelled as AGHA.

62A: Shakespearean curse: POX. Oh, so that's how Shakespeare cursed. Is it like our "damned"?

64A: Egyptian cross: ANKH. Is that the sun god Ra at the bottom of this gold ANKH? This word is very close to SIKH in spelling.

Down:

2D: Hebrew scroll: TORAH. How is it different from Talmud?

4D: University of Montana city: MISSOULA. See this map. I got it from the across fills. Wikipedia says Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress, was born and grew up here. In fact, she attended the University of Montana. And to this day, she is the only woman to be elected to Congress from that state. What's the matter with Montana then? Is it a red state?

11D: Early computer OS: UNIX. How "Early"?

26D: Trophy shelf: MANTEL. I always confuse MANTEL with the "loose cape" Mantle. I wonder how many of those Mickey Mantle fans made mistakes spelling his name when they asked for his autograph via mails.

43D: Inflated language: RHETORIC. Bacon once said: Histories make men wise; poet, witty; mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and RHETORIC, able to contend.

53D: Virtuous: MORAL. Do you know why Bacon said "moral, grave"?

59D: First name in spy: MATA. MATA Hari. She looks so exotic.

60D: Letters on a cross: INRI. Abbreviation of Latin "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum". Funny how letter I became letter J.

66D: Casablanca cap: FEZ. It's called tarboosh in Egypt. Most of them seem to be in red color.

C.C.