Where Has This Girl Been Hiding?

Outside the critical writings of New Yorker classical music critic, Alex Ross, one has today to really scratch about long and tediously to find critical writing on classical music and opera that's genuinely well-informed, revealingly detailed at appropriate length, and expressed in graceful, evocative prose that does both the subject and the critic proud.

Well, this is the culturesphere corner of the blogosphere, which makes the scratching about lots easier, lots quicker, and relatively painless, and my latest scratching about in this realm turned up just such writing in this superb review of the Met's production of Don Carlos by that most elegant of vilaines filles, Marion Lignana Rosenberg, on her tres elegant weblog, Vilaine Fille. In certain circles I'm somewhat notorious in respect of my distaste for Italian opera generally, and the operas of Verdi and Puccini in particular, but Ms. Rosenberg's richly detailed and illuminating review of Don Carlos almost makes this opera sound like something an Italian opera-hater such as myself really ought to get familiar with in some depth. I don't know that I'd actually go that far, but Ms. Rosenberg's informed, thoughtful, and passionate assay is certainly making me think about it.

Wherever has this girl been hiding?