More on Jonathan Miller: form an opinion, why don't you

Consider this: the Vancouver Opera's brought in one of the last century's most prominent directors, and it turns out he has massive problems with the art form as it exists today.

Here's just one of the fiery nuggets served up in my interview with Jonathan Miller: "Opera’s riddled with sentimentality and vulgarity, or–just as bad–by a sort of postmodern conceptualism. And most of the things which are called conceptual don't have a concept at all: there’s just TV screens hanging about. It’s ridiculous!"

Or how about this: "I haven't been to an opera in about 10 years”¦I don’t go to opera and I don’t do lobby." (See more at http://www.straight.com/article-389232/vancouver/verdi-without-vulgarity)

Refreshing, isn't it? And who said opera was pretentious?

And if you think opera is the only world where he's fearlessly stirring things up, check out this snippet from his BBC series on atheism, A Rough History of Disbelief, in which he takes on religion and faith:

And for his views on his mortality, atheism, and the opera, plus a sense for who this remarkable man is, here's his life squeezed into five minutes (complete with timer) from the BBC.