We have just heard the sad news that author and longtime Opera News editor Brian Kellow died earlier today. He was 59.
Finally we know what Brian Kellow used to do at Opera News: proofreading.
Brian Kellow (not pictured) boasts, “Peggy Noonan, interviewed in last Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, mentioned that Can I Go Now? is on her nightstand.”
Brian Kellow‘s “Coda” piece in the current Opera News, summarized: “I’m so cranky that even namedropping has lost its thrill.” (Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)
Congratulations to Opera Chic, named “Essential Opera Blogger” in the current Opera News by a panel consisting of Brian Kellow and Tristan Kraft.
See, La Cieca thinks Brian Kellow is asking for trouble when, in the second paragraph of his analysis of last March’s Slatkinshchina, he admits, “I did not attend the March 29 opening-night performance of La Traviata, nor did I listen to it on Sirius Radio.”
Sharpen those nails and slather on a fresh coat of “Jungle Red,” ladies, because La Cieca hears that “it’s on” between two of the biggest players in NYC’s opera criticism power gay elite. (Well, admittedly that’s not a large pool of talent, but what they lack in numbers they more than make up for in…
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
