Monday, May 21, 2012

Shooting the Messenger

Why, it was only the other day that I said that all publicity is not good publicity, contrary to the old saw. And here comes Peter Gelb, proving me right again:
Opera News, 76 years old and one of the leading classical music magazines in the country, said on Monday that it would stop reviewing the Metropolitan Opera, a policy prompted by the Met’s dissatisfaction over negative critiques. 
[several paragraphs deleted] 
“As of the June 2012 issue, Opera News is not reviewing Metropolitan Opera productions,” F. Paul Driscoll, the magazine’s editor in chief, said in a terse telephone interview. He declined to elaborate but acknowledged that no other opera company had been banished from its pages.
Translation: Peter Gelb's displeasure over the negative Ring reviews and some some comments by Brian Kellow mean that Opera News's 100,000 subscribers won't get to read reviews of Met productions in ON. Instead, they'll have to rely on the NY Times, the WSJ, the New Yorker, the Daily News, and, of course, the blogosphere.

Dear Peter, when messengers from all over deliver the same message, perhaps it's time to ponder that message a bit.

See also (in the order in which I found them, more or less):

4 comments:

Chanterelle said...

The combination of thin skin and tone-deaf arrogance boggles the mind. How can he possibly believe this is acceptable, let alone a good idea?

Paul Pelkonen said...

Writing mine right now. Damn the torpedoes.

Patrick J. Vaz said...

I warned him: all things must pass away, including multi-million dollar productions and bad publicity! Surrender the Ring! In his arrogance, he did not listen! And now he is doomed by the Ring's curse!

Lovingly, Erda

vespaferox said...

For Patrick J. Vaz -- And to change legends somewhat, What has it got in its pocketless?