Perhaps because an anonymous hack and his or her blog are not quite up to the challenge either? And critiquing a few howlers in an otherwise astounding output of quality writing of someone else does not qualify?

At least we can sleep safely that “La Cieca” keeps taps on the powers that be.

… as well as some serious gender confusion issues.

Correction! Apparently “The errors resulted from the reviewer’s confusion over his notes.”

…..yes.

I am pleased that you are ruffling the New York Times. The Times looks just ridiculous. How can they expect to maintain any level of influence within the arts given this shabby reportage? They act like nobodies. Soon enough, it will not be confined to the internet; these things do have a way of taking on a life of their own. And rightfully so.

Rothstein got kicked upstairs when his 1992 review of a new ELEKTRA praised Behrens to the sky. The poor woman had been in distress the entire performance, and withdrew from the run, leaving the remaining performances to her standby. All other reviews either mentioned her poor vocalism or drew a veil of polite silence in respect of a valued artist having a bad time of it. Rothstein didn’t know the difference.

Along a similar line: Just a week ago Midgette’s obituary of Giussepe diStefano on The Washington Post started by saying that DiStefano was primarily known for his recitals with Maria Callas. This tells me that she knows just about nothing about recent operatic history or about DiStefano himself. DiStefano was a world-leading tenor years before Callas hit the international scene and for some years his was one of the truly glorious voices of the Century. If the tenor’s and soprano’s names are linked in the public image, it’s because of the many recordings that they made together.