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Monday, June 20, 2005
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TOMMASINI A number of UD’s readers have noticed that she cares about good writing. Very true. If you care too, you should make a habit of reading the New York Times reviews of UD’s hero, the music critic Anthony Tommasini. Beyond having at his command the world’s longest list of adjectives describing mezzo voices (“plummy”), Tommasini is in all ways a first-rate writer -- direct, witty, literate, judgmental, knowledgeable. But Tommasini is also a gentleman. If UD went to an opera where the lead soprano was so fat UD could barely pay attention to the story, she’d write, “The lead soprano was so fat, I could barely pay attention to the story. When she took a few dance steps, I worried she'd have a heart attack.” Here’s what Tommasini wrote this morning about the star of Benjamin Britten’s opera, Gloriana: It must be said that Ms. Brewer made a portly Elizabeth. Still, she sang with such conviction that you believed in her dramatically. She even bravely took a few dance turns… |