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July 17, 2005

View from London

Plunging in from London, I don't entirely recognise the idea that critics specifically answer artists or vice versa except in extreme circumstances: a high-profile event like an over-hyped new opera that's made headlines, say. The large number of British daily and Sunday newspapers carrying music reviews - even in reduced column inches compared to years past - means in effect there's already a constant sound of different voices without needing to resort to dog-eats-dog, or maybe that's not quite what Doug meant.

When and where you write makes a difference. I am the opera critic for London's daily evening paper, so always have a same-night deadline. This means rushing to pronounce within hours of the curtain falling. So my response is adrenalin-driven, unfiltered by sleep or discussion and with no time for second thoughts, which of course I sometimes live to regret next day when I'm already in print.

Previously writing for The Observer, a Sunday broadsheet, I was aware of the task being entirely different, more digestedand long-distance. Sometimes that meant taking into account the general mood of reviews already published, especially if that mood was loudly opposite to one's own, but that's rather different from taking issue directly with other critics. That's the view from here.

Posted by fmaddocks at July 17, 2005 02:31 PM

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