And just when you thought it was safe to start destroying the planet, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth has been commissioned as an opera by La Scala in Milan, to be composed by Giorgio Battistelli.  In this imaginary epistle, Mr. Battistelli writes Mr. Gore to discuss a few ideas for the opera.

Dear Mr. Gore,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on my draft of “Verità Inconveniente.” Rest assured that I and the management of La Scala are committed to a serious presentation of your scientific work. I will try to adopt some of your suggestions, but I hope you appreciate the constraints faced by the composer of an opera that is already five hours long.

I agree it would “round out the résumé” of Prince Algorino in the opening scene if he were to sing about his creation of a communications network. But the “Mio magnifico Internet” aria you propose seems to me a distraction – and frankly out of place in an 18th-century Tuscan village. I believe the peasants’ choral celebration of Prince Algorino’s wisdom suffices to establish his virtues.

And on and on.  It may be the funniest and most welcome thing I’ve read at the Times.  More like something from National Review or The Onion.