Appleton

APPLETON, WIS. — Not only will Lawrence University senior Erin Watson preside over the 44th edition of the nation’s longest-running trivia contest, she will become a trivial footnote in its glorious four-plus decades history.

Lawrence’s annual 50-hour mental marathon dedicated to mindless minutia returns Friday, Jan. 23 for a weekend rife with questions and answers as obscure as they are inconsequential. And for just the second time since the contest debuted in 1966, a woman will reign over the weekend ridiculousness.

“It’s exciting,” said Watson of her position of power. She joins Melinda Young, who in 1977 served as the first female grand master. (Three other female students have served as co-grand masters, the last in 1989). “I hope to bring a little different perspective to the contest. I think all the female trivia players out there will be excited about the change.”

Watson, a studio art and English major from Milwaukee, played trivia as a freshman, but served as a trivia master the past two years. She credits her “extreme dedication” to trivia for her ascension to this year’s grand master’s chair. By tradition, she was hand-picked for trivia’s top spot by last year’s grand master, James Prichard.

“It’s not exactly a democracy,” said Watson.

Even if it is all only for fun, the logistics of pulling together an enterprise of this size and scope is daunting.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun work,” said Watson, who managed to stay awake, if not completely alert, for 46 of the contest’s 50 hours last year. “The contest always presents challenges that you have to figure out as go along. I don’t know if I can make it all 50 hours this year, but now I at least have some powers of delegation.

“Trivia is a quintessential Lawrence event,” she added. “It’s an weekend unlike any over at Lawrence. A lot of what makes trivia great is the spontaneity and the unexpected things that happen during the weekend.”

Just as it has since 2006, when WLFM, the Lawrence campus radio station, switched to an Internet-based format, the contest will be webcast at www.lawrence.edu/sorg/trivia.

Some 350 questions of varying point values will be asked during the course of the weekend, with teams on campus and off, including some at distant locales across the country, calling in answers to a bank of phones in the WLFM studios.

For Sarah Davies, trivia weekend provides a welcome mid-winter rush.

“I love the feeling of everyone in the room working to find some stupid answer to some stupid question, but taking it all very seriously,” said the senior from Forest Lake, Minn. “Everyone needs to have some total ridiculousness in their lives, and if that’s dashing around campus at 4 a.m. to complete an action question to get 10 more points or calling museum curators in New York at 1 a.m., so be it.”

Since its founding in the mid-1960s as an alternative for students who didn’t participate in a serious academic retreat with professors, this game of questions and answers on steroids has managed to maintain its irreverent charm and quirky appeal, annually converting new students into trivianatics while bringing off-campus teams back for more.

James Breen, a senior from Cottage Grove, Wis., blindly stumbled into trivia after transferring to Lawrence as a sophomore and instantly became hooked, participating for 46 of the contest’s 50 hours last year.

“It is a weekend of sheer bliss, a rush of adrenaline and quite a bit of crazy all mixed into one,” said Breen. “It is arguably the best weekend on campus every single year. It is the one weekend where you will spend 30 or 40 hours straight with someone you might not know very well, but the need for manners or even proper hygiene are thrown out the window. Why else would this competition have lasted since 1966? It is a Lawrence University tradition that no one will forget.”

In keeping with the spirit of the contest, team names often reflect the combatants sense of humor, ranging from the self-deprecating (Baltimorons, for a team from Maryland) to the topically irreverent (Mark Foley’s Trivial Interns) to the tried-and true (Jabberwocky, which is celebrating its 30th year with the same name).

And in keeping with one of many trivia traditions, Lawrence President Jill Beck will get things rolling by asking the contest’s first question at precisely 10:00.37 p.m. Friday. Also by tradition, the final “Super Garrauda” question from the previous year’s contest will be this year’s first question. To wit: In the “Citadel of Opportunity” section of “An Invitation to the International Olympic Committee to Celebrate the XIX Olympiad at Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.” there is a photograph of a girl wearing a sign around her neck. This sign bears the name of what notable figure? Sadly, no one knew it was singer/entertainer Josephine Baker.

For most of this decade, the contest has been ruled by two teams. Student members of the Yuai community have rolled to six straight on-campus crowns, while the Bank of Kaukauna has dominated the off-campus competition, winning every year since 2001.

Count Breen among those who are looking to unseat the long-time champions this weekend. He’s part of a coalition of four residence halls whose goal is to end the Yuai’s reign at the top.

“It won’t be easy. I may not get much sleep. I may not do any of my homework that weekend, but if we can stand atop the con(servatory) steps Sunday night in victory, however, all will be worth it,” said Breen.

“Is that rational? Probably not, but it’s trivia,” he added.

APPLETON, WIS. — A historic, multistate agreement to limit use of Great Lakes water that was signed into law by President Bush last October will be the focus of the second installment of Lawrence University’s Spoerl environmental studies lecture series on water and its management.

Peter Annin, a long-time environmental writer for Newsweek magazine and currently the associate director of the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources, presents “Great Lakes Water Compact: Now What?” Tuesday, Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Lawrence’s Wriston Art Center auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Annin is the author of the 2006 book “The Great Lakes Water Wars,” which has been described as “the definitive book about the fight over Great Lakes water.” In it, Annin meticulously chronicles the long history of political maneuvering and behind-the-scenes schemes related to the diversion of Great Lakes water to destinations ranging from Akron to Asia.

The Great Lakes Compact, finalized into law after nearly a decade-long fight by the eight states and two Canadian provinces that border the five Great Lakes, prevents the large-scale, long-distance withdrawals of water from the lakes while also requiring Great Lakes states to develop water conservation programs.

Despite the agreement, Annin believes increased water tensions will remain in the Great Lakes region, calling southeastern Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois “the front line of the Great Lakes water war.”

Annin, who spent more than a decade covering environmental issues ranging from droughts, forest fires, wind power and the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone,” joined the IJNR in 2000. The nonpartisan national nonprofit based in Missoula, Mont., organizes educational fellowships for mid-career environmental journalists.

The environmental lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

APPLETON, WIS. — Making it a “day on,” rather than a day off, more than 75 Lawrence University students are expected to follow the leads of President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden by participating in community projects Monday, Jan. 19 as part of 2009’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.

Coordinated by Lawrence’s Volunteer and Community Service Center, students will volunteer several hours of their time Monday with numerous programs and agencies in the Fox Cities, including helping cook and serve a meal at the Emergency Shelter of the Fox Valley, assembling cabinets for a home being constructed by the Appleton Housing Authority and playing bingo and making valentine decorations for residents at Pioneer Village.

One of the day’s biggest service projects will involve 30 students, who in teams of two will present a diversity activity designed by sophomore Megan Luedtke, coordinator of the LARY Buddy program, to every class at Appleton’s Edison Elementary School.

“The Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is an opportunity for Lawrence students to better understand the needs of the Appleton community by providing service to area community agencies in need of assistance,” said Kristi Hill, the VCSC’s coordinator of internships and volunteer programs. “All of our students are encouraged to make it a day on, not a day off, to discover how a small donation of their time can make a big difference to a member of our community.”

In conjunction with the MLK Jr. Day of Service, a Volunteer Fair, featuring representatives from 16 area agencies and coordinated by the Volunteer Center of East Central Wisconsin, will be held Monday from 10 a.m. – 12 noon in Riverview Lounge of the Memorial Union.

The VCSC also will conduct a presentation on summer volunteer opportunity grants in the Barber Room from 12 noon – 1 p.m. Senior Harjinder Bedi, who worked on an organic farm in Ghana, senior Megan Bjella, who oversaw the Lawrence University Sustainable Garden last summer and senior Jamie Gajewski, who taught English and dance classes at a community center in Costa Rica, will discuss their experiences as previous volunteer opportunity grant recipients. Information on how to apply for 2009 summer grants will be provided.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service was founded in 1994 to transform the federal holiday honoring King into a national day of community service grounded in his teachings of nonviolence and social justice.

APPLETON, WIS. — Water has been called “the oil of the 21st century,” an increasingly valuable core commodity in a global marketplace. Although water covers more than 70 percent of the earth, only three percent of that water is fresh and only one percent of that is available for consumption.

Lawrence University’s annual Spoerl environmental studies lecture series will examine various facets of water and its management, the conflicts that arise between economic development and water availability, and methods for resolving those clashes of interest in 2009’s four-part series. All talks in the series are free and open to the public.

Jeb Barzen director of field ecology at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, opens the series Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 4:30 p.m. in Science Hall 102 with the address “How Can Lessons from China and Wisconsin Help Us Improve Conservation on Private Land.”

During his 21 years with the ICF, Barzen has overseen the development and implementation of restoration plans on the organization’s 200-acre site and been engaged in numerous wetland restoration projects throughout southeast Asia. Last October, his efforts were recognized with John T. Curtis Award for Career Excellence in Ecological Restoration from The Friends of the Arboretum in Madison.

Other talks scheduled in this year’s series include:

• Jan. 20 — “Great Lakes Water Compact: Now What?,” Peter Annin, associate director, Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources, Missoula, Mont., 7:30 p.m., Wriston Art Center Auditorium.

• Feb. 3 — “Water is for Fighting: Water Conflicts and Crises in China and the U.S,” Jennifer Turner, director of the China Environmental Forum, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., 7:30 p.m., Science Hall 102.

• Feb. 11 — “What China is Doing Right Environmentally,” Phil McKenna ’99, freelance environmental writer, Science Hall 102.

The environmental lecture series is sponsored by the Spoerl Lectureship in Science in Society. Established in 1999 by Milwaukee-Downer College graduate Barbara Gray Spoerl and her husband, Edward, the lectureship promotes interest and discussion on the role of science and technology in societies worldwide.

APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University geologist Marcia Bjornerud has been named a recipient of a 2009 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award. Beginning in March, the $28,000 award will support four months of research in New Zealand at the University of Otago, the country’s oldest and top-ranked research university.

Bjornerud, professor of geology and the Walter Schober Professor in Environmental Studies, specializes in mountain building processes. While in New Zealand, her research will focus on rocks exposed along the Alpine Fault on the South Island, one of the world’s most active plate boundaries.

“Convergence between two tectonic plates, combined with extremely rapid rates of erosion, can force rocks from as much as eight miles deep in the earth’s crust to the surface in ‘only’ a few million years,” said Bjornerud, a member of the Lawrence faculty since 1995. “I will be studying rocks that have recorded ancient earthquakes along this fault line as a way to understand better what happens during great seismic events.”

Bjornerud’s research in New Zealand will complement her current field-based studies with Lawrence students on the ancient rocks of northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which were once in a similar tectonic setting.

“Studying fault zones, both modern and ancient, can improve seismic risk assessments in earthquake-prone areas,” Bjornerud explained. “While it may never be possible to predict earthquakes with precision, understanding the phenomena that lead to runaway slip on faults may eventually lead to warning systems that could save lives.”

This is the second time in nine years Bjornerud has been recognized as a Fulbright Scholar. In 2000, she was awarded a Fulbright fellowship that took her to the University of Oslo for a year of field research on the west coast of Norway.

Appointed the first holder of the Schober professorship in April 2007, Bjornerud has written two books, the science textbook “The Blue Planet” and 2005’s “Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth,” a storyteller’s history of the Earth and the toll human activity is exacting on the planet. In 2003, she was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in geophysics at the University of Minnesota, Bjornerud earned master’s and doctorate degrees in geology at the University of Wisconsin.

Established in 1946 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Scholar Program is the federal government’s flagship program in international educational exchange. It provides grants in a variety of disciplines for teaching and research positions in more than 120 countries.

APPLETON, WIS. — A diversity scholar who believes in the power of turning dreams into reality will be the keynote speaker at the Fox Cities annual celebration honoring the man whose own dreams changed the United States.

Bola Delano-Oriaran will examine the question of what is each person’s purpose in the world at the 18th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Monday, Jan. 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the Lawrence University Memorial Chapel. The theme for this year’s event is “Beyond Dr. King’s Dream: Next Steps.”

The celebration, co-sponsored by Lawrence University and Toward Community: Unity in Diversity, is free and open to the public. The Post-Crescent and WFRV-TV are media partners for the event.

Rev. Roger Bertschausen, who helped found the MLK celebration in 1992 and continues to serve in planning the annual event, calls Delano-Oriaran “someone who has made a real difference in the Fox Cities.

“I am excited to have Bola Delano-Oriaran keynoting this year’s event,” said Bertschausen, pastor at Fox Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship church. “In her work with students as well as her work with our community, she has promoted and exemplified Dr. King’s dream.”

An assistant professor of education at St. Norbert College, Delano-Oriaran shares her message of understanding the richness and value of diversity in society in a high-energy presentation. Ever since she organized a fund-raiser for a disabled homeless man as a 13-year-old in her native Nigeria, Delano-Oriaran has advocated the importance of each person’s role in building a better community and world.

Delano-Oriaran saw her own dream of a place where all people could gather to celebrate their individual identities and experiences realized with the creation of the Fox Cities Rotary Multicultural Center in 2004.

Her efforts on behalf of diversity issues and community change have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Rotary Club of Appleton Charles and Patricia Heeter Outstanding Community Leadership Award and the St. Norbert College Bishop Robert F. Morneau Community Service Award. In 2000, the Wisconsin State Human Relations Association presented her with an Outstanding Human Relations Educator Award.

Highlighting the celebration will be the presentation by Toward Community of the annual Jane LaChapelle McCarty Unity in Diversity Award to an area individual who has made great strides in bringing different people in the community together. Delano-Oriaran was a recipient herself of this award in 2004.

“This year’s celebration occurs the eve before the inauguration of the first African-American president in U. S. history,” said Kathy Flores, chair of the MLK committee and a member of Toward Community. “Not only is this an exciting time, it truly is a realization of Dr. King’s dream. I am excited to come together with citizens of the Fox Cities to hear Bola Delano-Oriaran share her vision of how we as a people can move forward together into the future and into the next steps of Dr. King.”

The MLK celebration also will include music performances by the Kaukauna High School Concert Choir and Lawrence sophomore Isake Smith. Area students will read their winning essays addressing the question “Beyond Dr. King’s Dream: Next Steps” as part of the celebration.

“This celebration is truly another example of how a community, sharing similar yet different cultural values, can come together and pay tribute to a dream, dreamt by many,” said Mohammed Bey, acting assistant dean for multicultural affairs at Lawrence. “It is has been inspiring to witness the level of participation from the community for this event.”

A sign language interpreter will be present for the program and a reception for all in attendance will follow.

APPLETON, WIS. — Blizzards, cabin fever and ice storms will fill Lawrence University’s Stansbury Theater Friday, January 16 when Milwaukee-based Wild Space Dance Company presents — and embraces — “Snow.”

Tickets for the 8 p.m. performance, at $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens and students, are available through the Lawrence University Box Office, 420 E. College Ave., Appleton, 920-832-6749.

A mix of physical beauty, wit, power and the white stuff, “Snow” has been described as “Riotous… wonderfully clever and sweet” by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The show, featuring new choreography inspired by winter’s impact, pays tribute to a three-year running history of Wild Space winter performances that have coincided with raging blizzards and record-setting snowfalls.

Under the direction of Artistic Director Debra Loewen, the performance by the seven-member company will include Wild Space’s latest work, “Eight Feet Deep,” as well as “Winter Dream,” “Drift” and “Whiteout,” among others.

“Snow has been the muse for this performance,” said Loewen. “The annual blanket of whiteness enhances scenes of human movement, shifts our sense of sound and alters our physical patterns. We are different for living with snow. We love it and sometimes hate it, but it makes us who we are.”

Founded in 1986, Wild Space Dance Company has served as a company-in-residence at Lawrence since 2000. Hailed as “richly imaginative and witty” by the New York Times, Wild Space is known for site-specific works and artistic collaborations.

APPLETON, WIS — Thanks to Garth Neustadter’s musical talents, the classic silent film “The White Sister” will be silent no more.

For the second time in a year, the Lawrence University senior has put his composer’s pen to work on behalf of Turner Classic Movies, writing a 134-minute musical score for the 1923 movie starring silent screen legend Lillian Gish.

As part of an ongoing restoration of silent films, Warner Brothers has been converting the original “The White Sister” into digital format. When the studio went looking for someone to write a musical score for it — most silent films were originally shown with live music performed in the theatre — it turned to newcomer Neustadter rather than the usual carde of composers in Hollywood, where union regulations have made it increasingly expensive to produce film scores.

Neustandter was on TCM’s radar screen after earning first-prize honors (second place behind the grand prize winner) in the 2007 Young Film Composers Competition. Sponsored by the cable television network, the 8th annual international competition drew more than 800 participants, each of whom had to score a 90-second clip from the 1924 silent movie “Beau Brummel.”

“This is the first score Turner Classic Movies has recorded outside of Hollywood,” said Neustadter. “I’m trying to match the quality of sound they’re used to getting for these projects.”

“The White Sister,” the first American movie to be filmed overseas (Italy), was originally scheduled to be the film project for the 2008 TCM composer’s competition, but the writer’s strike earlier this year put the annual event on hold. Some gentle lobbying by Neustadter with contacts he had made the previous year resulted in an August request asking if he would like to tackle the entire film, not just a short clip.

“I was totally surprised,” said Neustadter, who is pursuing a double major in violin and voice performance, not composition. “I never anticipated it would work out the way it did. It turned into a great opportunity.”

And a time-consuming one, too. Since early September when he received a copy of the film, Neustadter has been devoting 10 hours a day to the score to meet his end-of-December deadline. He took a reduced class load this fall.

“I knew I would need all the time available to finish this,” said Neustadter, 22, of Manitowoc, who conservatively estimates he has logged 1,000 hours on the project.

Before writing a single note, he prepared for the project by reading the book on which the film is based, researched the history of the film’s settings and time period, read several books on film scoring, architecture and composition and studied numerous professional orchestral scores.

Neustadter’s previous composition experience involved writing 1-2 minutes of music a week. For this project, he was forced to compose 2-3 minutes a day.

“To write more than two hours of music is a daunting task. I couldn’t afford to have any bouts of writer’s block,” said Neustadter, who won two Down Beat magazine awards for composition while in high school. “The difficult part of writing for film is that all the music has to synch with the exact part of the film so that it clicks with every nuance. When you watch these silent films, it’s amazing just how silent they really are. You really need the right music to tell the story and pull the film along.”

Adding to the overall challenge of the project were several scenes in the film involving musicians. Neustadter had to write what he felt they were playing, including composing an up-tempo waltz in a gypsy style.

“I had to convince the audience that the music they heard is what the musicians on the screen were actually playing,” he explained.

“The size and scope of this project would challenge any professional film composer, let alone a heavily engaged college student like Garth,” said Fred Sturm, director of jazz studies at Lawrence and an award-winning composer himself, who has served as a mentor to Neustader on the project. “Professionals strive to compose about two minutes of film music per day, and most contemporary feature films typically use about 45 minutes of music. Garth has written almost three times that amount.

Sturm, who taught film scoring for 10 years while at the Eastman School of Music, says Neustadter “is right there with the best young writers I’ve taught. He’s got the talent and discipline to be a superb film composer. Folks are going to be amazed by the beauty and quality of his work.”

The restoration team originally wanted only a piano score for the “The White Sister,” which, at two hours and 14 minutes, is nearly twice the length of most silent movies, but told Neustadter he could add additional instrumentation if he wanted to. He quickly took them up on their offer, soliciting the musical talents of nearly 20 Lawrence conservatory faculty and students to perform.

“I wanted to do as much with it as I could,” said Neustadter. “I felt the film really needed a full orchestral score.”

With his deadline fast approaching, Neustadter has been laying down his own violin tracks in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel the past several weeks, sometimes from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. to accommodate the building’s heavy use. He’s also been scrambling to schedule more sane-time recording sessions with his collaborating musicians.

He plans to ship off his finished soundtrack by the end of the year and with TCM’s blessing, is hoping to present the score on campus in a recital format as a “night at the movies” early next year. The film is tentatively scheduled to air on TCM sometime in February.

“It’s been an enormous challenge to tackle this project from start to finish in the time frame I had,” said Neustadter. “Along the way, I’ve learned it’s good not to encounter writer’s block, that I truly enjoy film score writing, that professional writers employ assistants for good reason and that there are never enough hours in the day.”

“I was very fortunate to get to do something on this scale,” he added. “As a young composer, it’s so tough to find these kinds of opportunities. It’s a great start for me.”

APPLETON, WIS. — The refrain “tis better to give than receive” will never ring more true than this weekend when holiday shoppers will be able to purchase life-changing gifts on the Lawrence University campus.

The second annual Alternative Giving Fair will be held Saturday, Dec. 6 from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. in Riverview Lounge of the Lawrence Memorial Union. The fair is sponsored by the campus organization Students’ War Against Hunger and Poverty (SWAHP).

The fair will feature a wide variety of tangible items such as embroidered pillows and baskets, jewelry, ornaments, scarves and other items, all hand-crafted by people in developing countries of the world. Ninety percent of the proceeds from the sale of gifts will be returned directly to the artisan responsible for creating it.

“Alternative” gifts focused on local, national and international humanitarian projects also will be available for purchase. These gifts, ranging from tree seedlings for Haiti to dental care for African refugees, support social, economic and environmental progress in developing regions of the world.

Shoppers will have opportunities to honor family and friends by purchasing alternative gifts for a variety of worldwide programs that are supporting causes for children, improved health, literacy, education, and the environment, among others. People buying alternative gifts will be given cards they can send to the person whom they are recognizing, informing them an alternative present was purchased in their honor.

“The Alternative Giving Fair is an opportunity for people to do their holiday shopping while giving to those in need around the world,” said Casey Sautter ’09, co-president of SWAHP. “By purchasing alternative gifts, people are are not only providing funding for much needed causes, but they are giving someone the gift of hope.”

The fair also will feature live music performed throughout the day by Lawrence students and refreshments will be available. Last year’s first alternative giving fair raised more than $10,600 for more than 40 causes and organizations around the world.

APPLETON, WIS. — George Frideric Handel’s popular holiday classic “Messiah” returns to the Lawrence University Memorial Chapel stage Friday Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. in a performance by the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra and all three Lawrence choirs. Tickets are available through the Lawrence Box Office, 920-832-6749.

A live webcast of “Messiah” also will be available on WLFM, Lawrence’s student-operated radio station at http://www.lawrence.edu/conservatory/webcasts/.

Considered by many music experts to be the most famous oratorio ever written, Handel composed “Messiah” in just 24 days in 1741. The libretto, based on the King James Bible, chronicles the life of Christ through the prophecies of Old Testament texts.

“‘Messiah’ is a work that is amazingly balanced between the chorus and soloists,” said Professor of Music Richard Bjella, who will conduct the performance. “Many of Handel’s oratorios have some great choruses or arias, but none has the extraordinary balance that is present in ‘Messiah.’ The range of emotional impact is truly overwhelming.”

Because of its length, “Messiah” is rarely performed in its entirety. Lawrence’s performance will capture the work’s emotion with a range of selections, including “Ev’ry Valley Shall Be Exalted,” “And He Shall Purify,” “The Trumpets Shall Sound” and the famous “Hallelujah Chorus.” The orchestration will feature revisions written by Mozart. Fifteen student soloists will perform the oratorio with the orchestra and the Lawrence Concert Choir, Cantala (women’s choir) and Viking Chorale.

“The drama is complete from the joy of Christmas to the pain of the Lenten season and celebration of Easter as well,” said Bjella. “Handel was extraordinary in his ability to speak in every setting to all people directly. His talent for storytelling brings a theatricality and grandeur to his oratorios that are comparable to opera.”