The more ignorant segments of the public and the critical establishment continue to shout praise to David McVicar‘s torpid Tosca as the greatest triumph of the reactionary since the Bourbon Restoration.
The Metropolitan Opera reports an “astonishing” $182 million in donations for last fiscal year, almost triple what the company garnered in 2003. The bad news is that James Levine is still collecting seven figures annually for duties that at this point seem restricted to New England pratfalls. [New York Times]