[curzon]

I don't know if anyone else has read the Stage's crits from Bayreuth this year? For some unfathomable reason the paper has been granted tickets to the entire Festival. One would think, under these circumstances, they would assign the task to someone who has a deep knowledge of the Wagner rep, the history of Bayreuth etc etc.
But no - The critc in question (who had better remain nameless) has written a series of potted reports (reviews would be too kind a word) littered with mistakes, mispellings (Weiland Wagner, for chrissakes!!), infantile generalisations all reported in the gauche style of a middling GCSE student.
The nadir is reached when, in her review of "Meistersinger" she characterises the finally departed Wolfgang Wagner as "The brilliant" former Festival director. Funny, but I was under the impression that he had been a millstone around the Festival's neck for the last 25 years. A Festival director who behaved like a dictator resorting to childish tantrums when resisted, a stage director of outstanding ordinariness stuck in an artistic vacuum since his infinitely more talented brother's demise, a man who would never have risen to the heights he achieved had he been unrelated to Richard Wagner.
I know The Stage is famed for it's dreadful regional reviewing but if it can't manage better than this for an International Festival perhaps it should cede its tickets to someone who can?

Sebastian

[Job]

I had the same reaction when I read them. I can only surmise that the lady in question paid to attend the operas out of her own purse, then coyly submitted her pieces to The Stage who, as we so often see, are none too fussy about the quality of their review copy these days.

Seeing is believing, so it's worth adding a link or two. These'll get you started - but be warned: there are at least five more from the same source, so dose them out if you're worried about your sugar intake.

http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.p...des-nibelungen-
http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.p...val-die-walkure

Job

[curzon]

I had the same reaction when I read them. I can only surmise that the lady in question paid to attend the operas out of her own purse, then coyly submitted her pieces to The Stage who, as we so often see, are none too fussy about the quality of their review copy these days.

Seeing is believing, so it's worth adding a link or two. These'll get you started - but be warned: there are at least five more from the same source, so dose them out if you're worried about your sugar intake.

http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.p...des-nibelungen-
http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.p...val-die-walkure

Job

True enough! I didn't know that the Stage accepted submitted work but it would explain a lot! The general standard of their opera reviewing is lamentable so I just assumed it was one of their regulars.....

Seb