Public domain knight illustration by Paul Mercuri: http://www.oldbookart.com/2012/01/15/middle-ages-medieval-dress/.
This is OperaGene’s annual report on opera critics in the mid-Atlantic, a group who in good natured humor, I refer to as “Knights of the Opera Table”. Their charge is to champion good performances and slay the bad ones…within reason. Well, 2020 was a tough year for the Knights; the phrase ‘what if they gave a party and no one came’ was changed to ‘no one is allowed to party’. There were almost no operas this past year in the mid-Atlantic beyond the second week in March. The COVID-19 pandemic closed all opera houses in the US, and they are yet to re-open. So, this report it is not so much about how did the Knights do, but what did the Knights do? (Keep in mind, the Knights tend to also review classical music as well as opera, but the concert halls were also closed for the most part).
So, did the Knights lay down their pens and hope for a stimulus check? No, they wrote, but without apparent focus or purpose beyond what the critic could find interesting, while staying close to home. Normally, coverage of performances in the most prominent local venues anchor a critic’s review space; for example, readers can count on a Washington Post review of essentially every Washington National Opera production. Since the middle of March 2020, I only know of two operas staged before an audience by mid-Atlantic opera companies – Pittsburgh Opera’s Cosí fan tutte (Oct 2020) staged in the PO Headquarters and Opera Lafayette’s The Blacksmith (Oct 2020) staged in…well, outdoors in Montana, seating provided by socially-distanced bales of hay). Pittsburgh Opera meant for their staged production of Soldier Songs to also be presented to an audience, but they ended up having to show it online, and Opera Philadelphia’s Soldier Songs was brought forward as a newly created movie version for the Opera Philadelphia Channel.
In general, Knight productivity was down this past year, and things reviewed were predominantly things online, so-called virtual concerts. As the year drew on, a vast array of pandemic-inspired online concerts and recitals popped up from opera and classical music companies as performers and companies sought to connect with their audiences and find new revenue streams. How online performances were selected for review is a mystery to me - there was a host of fine online offerings that failed to receive any attention at all from professional critics. Often, the Knights’ reviews gave evidence of gratitude for any performance during the pandemic, and nothing was judged too harshly, nor should it have been. Online recitals and concerts take on an added hue; the effects of pandemic restrictions on the concert and commentary on visual effects, sound quality, and filming direction also influence how performances are received; in that regard, it has been a learning period for all.
The majority of articles published by Knights this past year were announcements of events, like new seasons, and announcements of cancellations of events, like new seasons, music-related personnel changes, commentary on funding and support of arts, social issues involving equity and representation in the arts, and sporadic attempts to provide streaming lists and recommendations on what to watch; what was before side dishes became the main course in closed down 2020.
I do want to offer kudos to the Knights covering the Philadelphia area. Peter Dobrin and David Patrick Stearns of the Philadelphia Inquirer as well as Cameron Kelsall of the Broad Street Review gave stellar service to their communities. In particular, Mr. Stearns, who I put in the penalty box last year for an overly harsh review, could have been team captain this past year. His productivity and breadth of coverage of classical music and substantial coverage of new programs on the Opera Philadelphia Channel was impressive. His reports were both insightful and pleasingly upbeat in a depressing year. Yay, Team Philadelphia!
Team DC did not sparkle but hung there. The music/opera reviews of Charles Downey of the Washington Classical Review, Susan Galbraith of the DC Theatre Scene, and Whitney Fishburn fo the DC Metro Theater Arts were all limited by the pandemic closures. I did like Mr. Downey giving Wolf Trap Opera’s summer program some coverage, Ms. Galbraith’s interview with WNO’s Francesca Zambello, and Ms. Whitburn’s review of OL’s film of The Blacksmith’s staging.
Let’s spend some effort on the Washington Post’s new critic, Michael Andor Brodeur. He came on board in March 2020 just as everything closed down. He still managed about one Post article per week, not bad for a pandemic. I read most of his articles, and I think they evidence good journalism, but I was unable to get a read on him as a critic. His coverage of Met Opera 2022 season was little more than reporting. That said, if one looks at the limited number of actual reviews of performances he wrote, there is good criticism. Furthermore, his articles tend to be interesting and demonstrate an extensive knowledge of music. I do suggest he talk to his title editor about being overly dramatic (either he or his editor is): a few samplings of titles - “it feels more vulnerable…its survival may depend on it…the future of opera may depend on it.” In terms of social media, he has removed himself from Facebook and instead has initiated a newsletter, Brodeurnote, only one issue so far. He is still on Twitter, but the style of his tweets are hip, seemingly directed to his friends, but low in information content about music or opera; not much discussion of operas going on there. (Charles Downey and former Post critic Anne Midgette remain the DC choices for opera-related chatter on social media). His most recent Post articles have drawn substantial numbers of reader comments from online readers, a good sign perhaps. I was impressed that in a recent Brodeur article, he confessed to having made some ill-considered comments in earlier articles; his willingness to reconsider is ingratiating. I only wish he had given Maryland Lyric Opera, Opera Lafayette, the Virginia Opera, Washington Concert Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera some attention; in fact, I think the bravado efforts of smaller companies to stay in the game deserved more coverage by all Knights. Overall, I look forward to reading his opera reviews once stages open back up, but for now he remains a promising but mysterious Knight, still a little bit shrouded by the pandemic fog.
The year was also not without dark clouds on the horizon for our Knights. Shall we talk Team Pittsburgh? In the second half of 2020, critic Jeremy Reynolds of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who had gotten off to an excellent start in his young career as a qualified music critic, was reassigned to work in the Opinions Section (on the Editorial Board) and no longer covers classical music or opera. As a result, press coverage of Pittsburgh Opera’s heroic efforts to have an opera season received much too little attention. PPG reporter Tyler Dague, covered Pittsburgh Opera’s chamber-sized, pandemic-restricted-audience Cosi fan tutte; he wrote a good event report as a journalist, not as a music critic. Pittsburgh Opera’s at-the-last-minute-shifted-to-a-videocast production of Soldier Songs was not reviewed by the Post-Gazette. The productivity of Pittsburgh Table-in-the-Round’s excellent critic, George Parous, was diminished by the pandemic, though he managed a review of the aforementioned Cosi.
In conclusion, it was a tough year for the Knights who were confronted with a largely online world. With all the opera houses closed, motivation and direction were hard to come by. Curiously, something new emerges when the opera/classical music buffet is online. Online viewers are not restricted to locality, but if I watch a feature on the Opera Philadelphia Channel, I still have to go to the Philadelphia Inquirer for a review, not my local paper. Should the Knights restrict themselves to local performances? Or pick from the very best the world has to offer? What are the responsibilities of a critic when it’s an online world? They seem to largely fall back on being journalists, more than critics. But perhaps it will free them up to tell us about interesting performances we might otherwise be unaware of. In this regard, Mr. Brodeur seemed less restrained than most. While staged performances will return, I suspect the online world may have found a continuing niche for itself. To review or not to review, Knights? And what? Those are the questions still, and perhaps going forward.
The Fan Experience: Former lead Knight, Anne Midgette, will be conducting an online class titled, “How to Love Opera Like an Insider'‘ meant for all levels of opera fans on Saturday, February 20 and available online for nine months; cost of the two hour class is $60.
A sampling of the past year’s reviews by professional opera critics of note:
Peter Dobrin – Philadelphia Inquirer classical music critic and culture writer:
https://www.inquirer.com/arts/sondra-radvanovsky-jennifer-higdon-opera-philadelphia-20200227.html
https://www.inquirer.com/news/opera-philadelphia-o20-festival-cancelled-20200729.html
David Patrick Stearns – Philadelphia Inquirer classical music critic and columnist:
Cameron Kelsall – core theater critic for Broad Street Review
Michael Andor Brodeur – Washington Post classical music critic
Charles Downey – Washington Classical Review lead critic and associate editor
Susan Galbraith – theater and opera critic for the DC Theatre Scene
https://dctheatrescene.com/2020/05/15/francesca-zambello-thoughts-on-opera-in-the-time-of-covid/
Whitney Fishburn – author for DC Metro Theater Arts
George Parous – author for Pittsburgh Theater-in-the-Round