Klarinet Archive - Posting 000378.txt from 1996/12

From: Roger Shilcock
Subj: Re: Opus (fwd)
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 04:04:41 -0500

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 15:00:19 -0600
From: Gary Young <gyoung%EXECPC.COM@-----.UK>
Subject: Re: Opus

This stuff about "opus" is all very confusing. If "opera" is the plural =
of "opus," then what is "operas" the plural of? If "opera" is plural, =
then, listening to Wozzeck, may one ask: "How many other opera did Berg =
write?"? How could Wozzeck be both Berg's opera and also Berg's opus =
(namely opus 7)? Is "opus" derived from the nineteenth-century English =
expression "Oh Puss!," with which clarinettists then chastised their =
chronically misbehaving cats? Was "Wozzeck" -- i.e. Berg's Oh Puss! 7 =
-- the name of Berg's seventh cat? Did Wozzeck the cat have an =
"operation" or an "opusation"? (I ask these questions in public with =
considerable trepidation.)

"Opera" is the LATIN plural. Whether you use it in English is a
complicated matter. The *Italian* plural of "opera" is of course "opere".
Again, whether you use it in English .......
Roger Shilcock