By JAMES D. WATTS JR. Scene Writer on Aug 23, 2010, at 5:04 PM Updated on 8/23 at 5:04 PM
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To much the world, the fact that Don Rosenberg -- for many years, the classical music critic of the Cleveland Plain Dealer -- filed suit against his employer when he was reassigned from covering the Cleveland Orchestra, is the definition of "tempest in a teapot."
Yet in the classical music world, the main issues involved in this imbroglio have been much discussed. Rosenberg claimed that his reassignment from covering the Cleveland Orchestra -- whose conductor, Franz Welser-Most, Rosenberg had an less-than-enthusiastic opinion, which he expressed repeatedly in his reviews -- to writing about other arts and culture events was "age discrimination," as a younger writer took over the job of writing about the orchestra.
There was much talk of the Cleveland Orchestra -- one of the country's leading orchestra's and certainly the cultural linchpin of the city -- exerting pressure on the newspaper to remove a critic who expressed an opinion contrary to that of the orchestra's leaders.
Rosenberg sued, and lost. He may appeal. He will lose again, I'm afraid.
In Saturday's The Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout in his "Sightings" column gives a fine overview of the case, and also offers what would have been the common-sense answer to the problem -- namely, have two people review the orchestra's 21 subscription concerts, either alternately or in tandem.
Read the story: Sightings Of course, having two writers cover the same event is unheard of -- at least, outside of the sports department.
But it does point to the fact that a review -- any review -- is an opinion, and is not supposed to be the "last word" about a performance, but the starting point for the audience's own discussion and investigation of what is out there to be experienced in the world of the arts.
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