Opera reviews: why does no one write about the music?

Staging tends to take precedence over singing, at least if critics are to be believed. But surely it's the music that really matters"For here, nothing is talked about except Figaro, nothing is played, blown, sung and whistled." So wrote Mozart about the reception his opera received in Prague in 1787 – and, indeed, after attending Don Giovanni at English National Opera last year it was Mozart's music that remained in my mind, while the staging had mostly faded from memory (it was largely panned...

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