According to Tim Page‘s Facebook page (and who is La Cieca to doubt Tim Page’s Facebook page, I ask you?), Anthony Tommasini and his long-time partner Ben McCommon were married on Friday. Congratulations to the happy couple!
“For decades New York City Opera was a model of an organization with a clear mission. Now there may be no opera company, orchestra or ensemble more in need of a mission reboot…. Though Mr. Steel has brought tireless enthusiasm to City Opera and presented some exciting productions, he has been unable to give the company a clear profile.” [New York Times]
“The Met’s new Ring is the most frustrating opera production I have ever had to grapple with. The machine represents a breakthrough in stage technology…. [b]ut on balance the effects achieved are not worth the distractions they create.” That’s the sound of Anthony Tommasini pounding the nail into the coffin in the New York Times. (Photo: Ken Howard)
Just in time for the beginning of the first cycle of the Robert Lepage Ring (pictured), Peter Gelb tries to convince Anthony Tommasini that everything is just fine, thank you…
In honor of Martin Luther King day (belated), the New York Times hosts a discussion about the current Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. As a bold gesture toward diversity and inclusion, the keynote speakers range from Anthony Tommasini to Ben Brantley.
Is Peter Gelb wearing too many hats? Anthony Tommasini seems to think so, adding that one of those headpieces in particular is ill-fitting and might perhaps more flatteringly perch upon some other head. Call La Cieca suspicious, but she thinks the timing of this piece is hardly an accident.
So, tell me this, what do Anthony Tommasini, Zachary Woolfe and James Jorden (not pictured) have in common? Well, according to John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute Heather MacDonald, these three “trendy” critics constitute “a press corps determined to push Met general manager Peter Gelb into conformity with European opera houses, where narcissistic updatings of opera plots are now de rigueur.” [City Journal]
“With the news this month that James Levine had slipped and injured a vertebra while vacationing in Vermont… Fabio Luisi became the company’s music director in all but name.” [New York Times]
Cher Public