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19.10.08

In Brief: Fall Weather, Finally

LinksHere is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

  • With hat tip to ArtsJournal, Joe Brown, the entertainment critic of the Las Vegas Sun, is the subject of an online haters' forum. He's actually happy about it, except that it is not attached to his articles. Seriously -- anyone who has anything to say about an article (including mine for the Post) should take the few seconds to write an online comment about it at the paper's Web site. Then the editors will know that people are reading! [Las Vegas Sun]

  • When an opera composer publicly critiques another composer's opera, one is tempted to cry sour grapes. Still, if you can disregard the possible professional conflict of interest, this is one of the more salient assessments of Doctor Atomic to have appeared. [Mark Adamo Online]

  • Speaking of John Adams, WTF? [Opera Chic]

  • Could the political fallout from Valery Gergiev's victory concert in south Ossetia damage the jet-setting maestro's career? First, the critics turn against you. [Norman Lebrecht]

  • Thanks to everybody who links to Ionarts and follows those links to read! We're Number 9! [Sounds and Fury]

  • The hand-wringing over classical music's white whale, the young audience, continues, although Leon Botstein says we should not worry. [Sandow]

  • But wait one second, says Matthew Guerrieri, about those numbers... [Soho the Dog]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would hope to find a contrasting assessment that matches mine regarding Mark Adamo: His music is truly pointless and irrelevant. I cannot tell you how bored I was with his "masterwork" Little Women. What a snoozer of an opera.

(This is coming from someone who adores contemporary opera and finds Mr. Adamo's contributions to be among the worst ever experienced.)

Charles T. Downey said...

No, you are not going to find that assessment here. "Little Women" has its kitschy moments, but it is a very effective piece of theater, with some great music, especially the ensembles. The only other piece we have reviewed here was his new harp concerto, Four Angels. Adamo reportedly aspired to be a Broadway composer, and like Bernstein, sometimes his music seems lightweight.

But pointless and irrelevant? No, not by a long shot.