Every time La Cieca says she’s through once and for all reading Norman Lebrecht, that middlebrow minstrel of the maestro myth soars to new heights of noisomeness. This time (yet again) it’s about how utterly callous those silly opera singers are for canceling (imagine!) when they’re too sick to sing.  

Besides creating out of whole cloth the notion that Rolando Villazon was supposed to sing a Strauss opera earlier this summer, Lebrecht manages to insult Joyce DiDonato by implying that her current success is based not so much on talent but simply her willingness to show up on time, broken leg or no. (“That is why she is now every opera house’s mezzo of choice, taking the prime roles that were once Cecilia Bartoli‘s.”)  You will not be surprised to hear that along the way he takes a detour to piss on Luciano Pavarotti‘s grave. [The Telegraph]