Krenek's jazzy opera, Jonny spielt auf was massively popular in its day, influencing loads of composers, including George Gershwin, who went to see it before he wrote Porgy and Bess. Krenek, was another so-called Degenerate Musician, and though the story—like Porgy—has, from a modern standpoint, some very unsavory overtones, there is still much worthy material to encounter in the work. Ironically, Krenek never thought that Jonny, the thieving, "savage" jazz fiddle player, was the main interest or subject of the opera (note to Ernst: then, for starters, don't name your opera after Jonny!) For him, the focus should be on Max, the quintessential Romantic composer, with all that that connotes. There is a great mystical element to the opera, and I agree with Krenek that it is more interesting than the "main" story of seduction, thievery and a great violin (which is, to be fair, not uninteresting)! In the excerpt this month, we hear an angst-ridden Max return to the nature with which the opera opens. He pleads with the glacier to go with it into the dark, never to return to light and life, to let him melt into eternity. The voice of the glacier refuses his request, explaining that mortals must recognize their limits and fill the space that is allotted them, but that Max must not be afraid to do so.