The art of reviewing

Kudos to Anne Midgette in the New York Times for writing a review that is aimed at first time operagoers. It is highly refreshing to see someone in music journalism breaking the mold here, while still writing a constructive review. She makes the interesting point that listeners may not be to blame for thinking a classical music performance is dull:

"For me, as someone who loves opera, the point [of a review] is actually to encourage everyone to think more critically about what they did and didn't like and challenge the things that didn't work, rather than simply praising it for being lovely and letting people continue to believe that if they don't like classical music, the fault lies with them rather than a possibly indifferent performance."

I've long lamented the state of most classical music reviews. It seems that more time is spent on dissecting the work and the composer than actually talking about the performance. Look, if I wanted to read about the Mozart 'Requiem', I'd go to the library and read a book on it. I read concert reviews to find out which performers to watch for, how the performing forces were able to respond to the challenges presented by the given work, and in opera how the drama was presented and what the sets and costumes looked like. For concertgoers reading reviews the morning after, they are hoping to find out what a literate, intelligent person has to say about the performance. If anything, it should make their next concert experience more enjoyable because they will have additional things to listen for and a broader way of perceiving the concert. I'm often appalled at how inadequately many reviews address these issues. Education, people! That is how classical music will survive. People need to feel like it's okay to not get everything or to find some things boring. We in music need to train people how to listen and to feel confident that their perception matters. It is okay to have questions about music and wonder why certain things did not work.

I am encouraged both by Anne Midgette's review and by City Opera's inventive way of opening their season. It's too bad that Paul Kellogg has decided to move on from his post as general director there. Big shoes to fill...