Perhaps my All-State band experience doesn't hold water against, say Maynard's resumee, but I don't need to be a music major to hear what sounds bad. And seriously, there's not much that Maynard wouldn't do that you guys wouldn't worship, regardless of how good it sounds.
Also nice to know that you weren't trying to be condescending at all with your word choices. It's great to see that people can 'pontificate' without being offensive in these days with rap music and violent video games.
I've stacked my fair share of chords. I wouldn't dream of hanging it, though. The pop of a good release throughout the ensemble is far more impressive and hard to do well than the wow factor of one good soprano player playign a impossibly high note. It's barely ever done tastefully... And you'd be kidding yourself to say that the leads at Bucs and Phantom aren't stacking chords, but they certainly aren't doing it for the bragging rights of being the guy that hung a chord by 3 seconds at finals. When was the last time
As for the comment about how sopranos shouldn't blend with the corps... They'll never blend as long as show designers keep putting the higest, loudest section on the sideline in front of the corps. Especially since they have no physical demands put on them to limit their sound output. They'd drown out the rest of the corps on the back sideline, but instead, they're put up front so that everyone can see their face and the soloist can get their street cred.
