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About Last Night

Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City

TT: Shame on Peter Gelb

May 22, 2012 by Terry Teachout

Back in the Eighties, not long after I arrived in New York, I spent a couple of happy years covering second-cast Metropolitan Opera performances for Opera News. It amazed me that the magazine was willing to publish whatever I wrote, even though I occasionally submitted some pretty rough reviews. Moreover, it impressed me that the Met was willing to allow such reviews to be published, seeing as how Opera News was in essence its house organ. This editorial independence ensured that the magazine was taken seriously and read widely.
peter_gelb--300x300.jpgIt’s now widely felt among knowledgeable operagoers that similarly frank pieces are very much called for these days. Alas, they will no longer be found in Opera News. Peter Gelb, who runs the Met, has castrated the magazine, declaring that it will no longer be allowed to publish reviews of the company’s performances and frankly admitting that the purpose of this decision is to prevent the publication of negative reviews and commentary.
In so doing, he has guaranteed that nothing published in Opera News about the Met, be it positive or negative, will henceforth be taken at face value, and that no reputable music journalist will ever again agree to appear in its pages.
Gelb should be ashamed–and he should reverse his pusillanimous decision at once.
UPDATE: A friend writes:

Thanks for this, Terry–saves me the $23 I would have spent on next year’s subscription.

As well it should.

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Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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