Dumbed Down or Just Different?

ON LITERATURE — by G.L. Horton (9/18/04)

BFB wrote on playsandplaywrights: "My point was re substance that A Little Night Music (which is all I was referring to) isn't it. It's a dumbed down version of the original material."

Is Cosi Fan Tutti lacking in substance? Is Rossini's Barber a dumbed down version of Beaumarche? Because as far as I'm concerned, that's the category ALNM fits into: the first rank of comedic opera.

I may be wrong-- posterity will decide-- but so far, and we're going on 40 years, more people accord ALNM this rank now than when it was written.
In IMHO comedy, like opera, can be a substantial art form. Midsummer Night's Dream is not inferior to Coriolanus: merely different.

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