In case you have not noticed, 2009 has been The Year of Sputtering Rage. Talk radio lives on it. The evening news seems calculated to foment it. The Senate Republicans would be utterly lost without it. Sputtering rage is "pure" and is alleged to embody "common sense" at high volume....

"Much good has been shown me and much evil, and the good has never been perfect. There is always some flaw in it, some defect, some imperfection in the divine image, some fault in the angelic song, some stammer in the divine speech. So that the Devil has something to...

Every four years, on January 20th a new president is inaugurated. Every four years, roughly seven months later, the Seattle Opera presents Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Both events provide extravaganzas and spectacles that incite the imagination. Der Ring des Nibelungen is, however, the vastly better show.

When the...

The silly season is starting a bit early this year. It is often very easy to find something to mock in the shenanigans of California politicians, but Los Angeles Supervisor Mike Antonovich has earned a place of distinction in the Pantheon of Public Stupidity.

The State of California is unable...

An article in the on-line edition of Gramophone dated June 4, 2009 has brought us news of Green Aria, a work of musical art. We are advised that the piece was composed by Nico Muhly and Valgeir Sigurdsson to a libretto (if that's the right word) by Stewart Matthew.

The press in Scotland has uncovered the news that orchestral musicians have been known to drink. This is of the "Mob Influence on Waterfront" or "Cronyism in Department of Sewers and Streets" genre. It would be quite easy to dismiss the report that ran on March 1, 2009 in Scotland...

"Of all the noises known to man," Moliere is alleged to have observed, "opera is the most expensive." Although this statement could only have been made by a man whose wife never knew from Bloomingdale's, it is well to keep it in mind at this time when the nation's opera...

Gilbert & Sullivan have told us that "the policeman's lot is not a happy one." The musical detective has it far worse, I'm afraid, and the Encore Identification Detectives' Union has had a particularly bad time of it lately.

The story is told of the young man who once...

Once again, there has been a nasty collision at the corner of Law and Music. This time the crack-up is in Urbana, Ohio, where the Champaign County Municipal Court is presided over by Hon. Susan J. Fornof-Lippencott. According to that august tribunal's official web site, Judge Fornof-Lippencott is a 1985...

An Op-Ed piece in the weekend Wall Street Journal by Greg Sandow took almost thirty six column inches to rail against "the appearance" of conflicts of interest insofar as they relate to music reviewers and orchestras. This dust-up seems to have been caused by the Cleveland Plain Dealer's decision to...

Very little good ever happens when artists insert themselves in politics. The major exceptions to this rule were Ignacy Paderewski (Polish Prime Minister and pianist), Giuseppe Verdi (peerless composer; a member of the Italian parliament and senator) and Vytautas Landsbergis (Lithuanian Prime Minister and musicologist). On the other hand, Condoleeza...

Several years ago, my wife and I attended the wedding of one of her professional colleagues. At the reception we were seated with eight other people, none of whom I knew. After being introduced to the gentleman sitting at my right, I asked him what he did for a living....

It has been announced that the New York City Opera has commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on Annie Proulx's short story Brokeback Mountain. It is scheduled to premiere in the spring of 2013. Mr. Wuorinen has been quoted as saying "Ever since encountering Annie Proulx's extraordinary story...

There are many ways to make the eyes of the average reader glaze over, and a discussion of Social Security Disability legal practice ranks high on most lists. The topic may induce profound slumber, but a recent nasty, mean-spirited action by the Bush administration ought to induce outrage as well....

On April 23rd of this year, Honda issued a press release that began:

Honda's ASIMO humanoid robot will focus attention on the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's (DSO) nationally acclaimed music programs for young people in Detroit by conducting the orchestra as it performs 'Impossible Dream' to open a special concert performance...

According to the TimesOnline on April 2, 2008, arts organizations in Britain applying for grants from the Arts Council "are being asked to state how many board members are bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual, lesbian or whose inclinations are 'not known.'" The reason for this, according to one Audrey Roy (director of...

The Royal Opera House Covent Garden has managed the rare trifecta of making itself appear crass, idiotic and pandering at the same time. It is the sort of activity that makes the English smile wanely in the hope that you will change the subject, and leaves Americans slack-jawed in astonishment....

In an article that appeared in The Observer on March 2, 2008, the question was asked: "How come many opera singers are so thin these days?" To this rather curious inquiry, Nicholas Kenyon, CBE, the managing director of The Barbican in London, stated: "One of the positive things that's happened...

There are certain things that I am fated never to understand. I will likely go to my grave with an insufficient understanding of the Icelandic sagas, and the language of Wales will forever be a mystery to me. Similarly, I will never understand the way orchestra management is said to...

A significant part of the problem with the use of diplomatic language in news reports is that it tends to obscure facts in an impenetrable linguistic fog. Alan Greenspan, a recent master of this form of non-communication, spoke in riddles in order to "prepare the markets" -- which was itself...