Queerty is trying to puzzle out this question: on which side of the aisle does Newsday music critic Justin Davidson sit? Ripping into the premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy as if he were Sha-Boom-Boom and it were Hedda Lettuce, Davidson misaligned the new opera as a “flaccid melodrama.” Was he mixing it up with what happened to him in bed afterwards? Most other critics have greater praise for the score.
Davidson went on to say something that makes you think “No, he can’t possibly be gay;” namely, he said he thought the thing should only be half as long as it is. Then again, evaluating baritone Nathan Gunn, who sang the lead role of Clyde, Davidson claimed that he has “the finest legs in opera.” What is Renee Fleming; chopped foie gras?
Writing in the New York Times, Pulitzer-Prize winning critic Anthony Tommasini . . . proudly on our side of the aisle, and a far more incisive reviewer than Davidson, had many more favorable comments to make on An American Tragedy, yet refrained from mentioning Nathan Gunn’s legs. If your legs can’t get you to the Met to see Picker’s piece live, remember that the broadcast will take place on the afternoon of December 24.
