Les Biches

From the August issue of Opera News:

The opera world is reeling from the news that PETER G. DAVIS has been dismissed from his post as classical-music critic at New York magazine. The news was conveyed to Davis, who enjoyed a twenty-six-year run at the magazine, via telephone by managing editor ANN CLARK. (Beginning in September, JUSTIN DAVIDSON, Newsday's Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, will cover both classical music and architecture for New York.) For many music-lovers, Davis's by-line was reason enough to renew their subscription to New York each year. His opinions were often sharp, in the best of all possible ways, because they were based on an enviable store of musical knowledge and a long, committed history of attending performances. From the early 1980s, I eagerly tore into the back pages of each issue of New York, because I knew that I would be reading uncompromising music criticism, rendered in lively, engaging prose. All of us on the OPERA NEWS editorial staff are happy that Davis (now seventy-one) will continue to contribute to our pages, as he has done for many years. With all due respect to Davidson, a fine writer with a proven track record, the loss is New York's. I've heard the magazine's editor-in-chief, ADAM MOSS, described as a champion of culture, but I've never seen much evidence of it in his slick approach to arts coverage. Does Moss know - or care - that for many of us, Davis's departure will make New York matter even less than it does already?