Coming up on Monday night on BBC Radio 3: The Lebrecht Interview Natalie Dessay Monday 21 July 2008 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3) Norman Lebrecht in conversation with French soprano Natalie Dessay, whose performances in bel canto roles have won her awards and brought her international acclaim. However, her career was threatened seven years ago, when she developed a problem with her vocal cords that required surgery.In a revealing interview, she speaks candidly to Norman Lebrecht about that … [Read more...]
In a critical condition (3)
July 19, 2008 By
A friend in Charlotte, North Carolina, reports that their newspaper, the Observer, has shed two critics, music and movies. With the Los Angeles Times heaving bodies overboard and the Wall Street Journal on the verge of a cull, it looks like open season on the endangered critical species across the US print media. And while I have no idea what Robert Thomson has in mind for Rupert Murdoch's WSJ, his editorship at the Times in London showed no understanding or personal sympathy for … [Read more...]
In a critical condition (2)
July 18, 2008 By
Last night, I went to see Kurt Weill's Street Scene at the Young Vic, its first UK staging in 20 years which drew chief theatre critics from almost every national daily. This morning, I addressed a dozen students, year 10-11, at corporate HQ on the prospects for arts careers in the media. Which would you think was the more excitable audience? The students were terrific, sharp as buttons and receptive to early-morning stimulation (they laughed at my jokes). They were also … [Read more...]
In a critical condition (1)
July 17, 2008 By
There are two reasons why newspapers are getting rid of established critics. The obvious one is that newspaper revenues are caught in a double arm-lock by the internet and the credit crunch, neither of which is likely to ease in the forseeable future. Less obvious is the internal perception, right or wrong, that certain forms of commentary and opinion forming are no longer central to what editors want and readers expect. As a sometime editorial executive, I … [Read more...]
New kids on the blog
July 13, 2008 By
The Observer, a British Sunday newspaper, set up one of those self-fullling propositions today by asking: Critic vs Blog - is the art of criticism under threat from the web? The article that explores these tensions is, so far as I can judge, fair, balanced and, insofar as it quotes my views, pretty accurate and to the point. What skews it are the photographs which show the critics to be bursting with middle-age, while the bloggers portrayed are uniformly young, hip and … [Read more...]
All that glitters is not Gelb
July 6, 2008 By
A statement by Peter Gelb to the Economist has set alarm bells ringing. At his former job, as head of Sony Classical, Gelb used to deliver hour-long harangues about how his genius would rescue the label and the recording industry as a whole. By the time he quit, Sony was a shambles and the industry near-dead. For the detail, see here. Now read Gelb in The Economist: 'When I took over, the Met was on a declining slope toward extermination...' He does not finish the … [Read more...]
More eminent members
July 2, 2008 By
The newest recruit to the Overture Protection Club (see here) is Valerio Tura, former artistic director of La Monnaie in Brussels, a man who knows what's what in an opera house. We now have a quorum at OPC headquarters and are starting to roll. Maestros and producers who abuse the humble overture had better watch out. This could be as big as the Early Music Revolution - before it went the way of all revolutions and settled for a desk job-with-dacha, a dictatorship of the … [Read more...]
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