You may have noticed that there wasn't a whole lot of coverage of Ojai North in the area's major music news outlets: SFCV and the Mercury News covered only John Luther Adams's Inuksuit and the Chron covered Inuksuit and Thursday's concerts. (There's also a review in the Financial Times, explaining Allan Ulrich's presence beyond his general interest.) It's a big damn schlep for Richard Scheinin to get the Berkeley and both he and Joshua Kosman really do have a good excuse for missing Tuesday and Wednesday: SF Opera happened to put the openings of The Magic Flute and Attila opposite the first two full programs.
It's traditional for opera opening nights to be covered, and on one hand, I understand why: it's traditional, the buzz is good, etc. On the other hand, for one-critic papers, it means making nasty choices, and we all know that some shows are better after the first performance. (I've always wondered if that lackluster opening Fidelio got any better, for example.)
The ideal solution to this would obviously be to have more than one classical music critic, which would allow better coverage all around. SFCV's review budget is at an end-of-season ebb, so they missed reviewing a series of fascinating programs.
Thank goodness for the blogosphere. I was there (and plan to get up a review of the Thursday programs); John Marcher was there; Cedric was there; OT was there; Charles Shere was there. We'll fill in the gaps as best we can.
4 comments:
Unfortunately I missed "Inuksuit" on Monday and both of Wednesday's concerts, but here's what I had to say about Tuesday and Thursday nights:
http://abeastinajungle.blogspot.com/2012/06/pleasures-of-ojai-north.html
I know, I know, just missed linking to you in my hurry to get the above posted. I will get the link in, really.
Charles Shere was also there, and wrote about it, from his emeritus chair as East Bay critic.
Duly updated, thanks!
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