[Avodah] R' Unna on Kol Isha

[Chaim G Steinmetz]

>  "Jonathan Baker" <jjbaker at panix.com> writes
> 
> If people are still interested, a PDF of R' Unna's teshuvah on 
> girls'
> choral groups is now available on
> 
> http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/faxes/shoalin.pdf
> 
> He construes kol isha narrowly, following the Rishonim, indicating 
> that
> none of the poskim use the gemara in Sotah about men & women singing 
> being
> like a fire in flax, which might actually asser such choral 
> performances.
> If one chooses to be machmir on himself, he should be machmir on 
> himself
> davka, and not make a public protest.
> 
Thank you.
In that tshuva he forbids kol isha of an ervah, he only permits (or
rather more precisely - says there is no chiyuv macho'oh concerning)
girls that are not ervah. The gemoro in sota would extend it BEYOND
ervah, just the fact they are singing together, concerning which he says
it is not brought by the poskim. 
I fail to see how this tshuvah helps concerning opera etc. since there we
are (usually) dealing with ervah. In addition, according to many nida is
also considered ervah which would cause a problem even concerning single
Jewish girls.  See concerning all this Otzar Haposkim EH 21:21.
KT
CGS