In the August issue of Opera News, William Braun interviews Andrew Porter, my immensely distinguished New Yorker predecessor, whom many people would consider the greatest music critic alive. (I certainly endorse that proposition.) The interview isn't yet online, but here is a choice excerpt:
BRAUN: With all of the hundreds of people you've reviewed, has anyone ever taken great umbrage? Has anyone ever come after you?
PORTER: I gave offense to Colin Graham once by saying there were cheap touches in his Coronation of Poppea, which he did at the ENO. It was just a disagreement, really, that's all. But there's someone who looks rather like me who was attacked in the lobby of La Scala, thrown to the floor and kicked. I was thought to have been unappreciative of the prima donna Leyla Gencer. People were yelling, 'How could you say what you said about our Leyla Gencer!' And the poor man was crying, "I'm not Andrew Porter! I'm not Andrew Porter!"
