The press is piling on in the day and a half since the Metropolitan Opera announced that James Levine is withdrawing from the fall portion of the company’s 2011-12 season. A few are worth a read, including Zachary Wolffe at the NY Observer, who writes:
Continue reading Classical Press Piles on Levine Story (… plus a bonus zing at DG)
Dan Wakin has the scoop at the Times. This detail jumped out at me:
Continue reading NY Times Reports James Levine Pulls Out of MET Fall Season
Tozzi was a much-beloved Metropolitan Opera basso and, from 1991 to 2006, a professor at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. And you might not have known he was born George John Tozzi in Chicago. Margalit Fox fills in more at the NY Times, and Anastasia Tsioulcas reports for NPR.
I’ve never warmed to Andrea Bocelli’s opera recordings, but I am that rare classical snob who likes his pop and Neapolitan offerings. Zachary Woolfe’s negative review of Bocelli’s MET recital in the NY Times spreads the blame quite properly. Woolfe did not make mention of Bocelli’s management, which has also done an extraordinary job, at least up until now. The talented, likable crooner should sack whoever it was on his team that persuaded him to do a MET recital.