I guess I am a little out of touch with finer culture and admittedly have little experience with opera. (OK almost none, really; my girlfriend Sine took me to a production of Kafka’s The Penal Colony in Brooklyn recently, it was very nice; that is about it).
Who knew that the opera world was filled with rabid fans, scathing reviews, and hardball media relations tactics? I refer of course to the controversy over the Metropolitan Opera, and their efforts to stifle bad media and blog coverage, which I wrote about in my post yesterday.
My friend Adam shared an article in today’s NY Times that said the Met had reversed itself. Here’s an excerpt:
The Metropolitan Opera…backed away from its decision to bar reviews of its productions in Opera News… The Met said an “outpouring of reaction” from opera fans on the Internet caused it to change course a day after the New York Times [article]
“I think I made a mistake,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager. “Clearly the public would miss Opera News not being able to review the Met, and we are responding to that…”
I like to think it is pressure from blogs like Flack’s Revenge that was the final straw, although of course the NY Times takes all the credit in their article 🙂
Anyway, the Met and Mr. Gelb must be getting some very good PR counsel, to eat humble pie so quickly and get the crisis behind them. I applaud the decision, and am glad Adam alerted me to this.
