In Brief: Summer's End

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond. There is not much activity out there, it being summer and all, but a few people are still posting.

• Bob Shingleton pours some vitriol on a fawning puff piece on Gustavo Dudamel. He basically uses it as an example of why press cultural journalism is losing ground to bloggers, because the latter "don't receive press releases, free review CDs and complimentary concert tickets," etc. As far as I can tell, Dudamel is a critical darling at the moment, of both newspaper journalists and bloggers. Anyway, except for people who have considerable personal wealth, complimentary review CDs and concert tickets are the only way to make well-rounded critical experience possible. [On an Overgrown Path]


• Clayton is absolutely right: there has been a quiet change to the casting of Washington National Opera's Lucrezia Borgia next season! One of the best things noted in my season preview is no longer true -- instead of finally getting to hear Giuseppe Filianoti, apparently stolen away by the Met, we will have Vittorio Grigolo instead (boo). For now, Renée Fleming and Sandra Radvanovsky will still share the title role, and Ruggiero Raimondi is still listed in the role of Duke Alfonso, so it remains the best cast of the WNO season. [Operatically Inclined]


• Phil Ford has some thoughts on the Orwell Prize's plan, now being realized, to put all of George Orwell's diaries online, in blog format. [Dial "M" for Musicology]


• Kriston Capps has fortunately been able to retrieve his domain from Internet squatters who swooped in when he let his registration lapse. Welcome back! [Grammar.police]


• "Brian" arrived in Santa Fe shortly after we left New Mexico. He has some thoughts on all of the productions. [Out West Arts]


• Scott Spiegelberg embedded a video of the site-specific instrument at Vitthala Temple in India: 56 pillars tuned to the pitches of the ragas. Tan Dun or Osvaldo Golijov incorporates this into a new piece in 5, 4, 3 ... [Musical Perceptions]