Talk:James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala

Editing

I have made numerous significant changes to this article. Among them:

• I have rearranged this as a listing of what happened on the night. This is not an article about a CD or a DVD, so to have separate lists of these seems non-notable and also not reflective of the event itself, whereas there was no list of the performances that took place in the order they took place.
• The original contributor (thanks, by the way) copied out the entire DVD/CD booklet including details of the operas' backgrounds. I have retained these because it was quicker to copy, however I'm not convinced they're all Wiki-worthy. This information is on the original pages of each opera. On a list where one column happened to feature US presidents, one wouldn't list the hometown, parents, and other facts of the President just for the sake of completeness. Up to future editors to decide.
• I've rearranged the critical reception. As it stood, it was confusing for two reasons. First of all, listing out each critic's views in order made the article very choppy, rather than finding out multiple views on, say, Renee Fleming at once. More importantly, spreading the critic's views over several paragraphs gave the impression that it was Wikipedia's view that certain singers were the best or worst of the night.
• I have removed the reference to Clyde T. McCants's "American opera singers and their recordings". On browsing this book I found no "discussion" of this gala. There were mentions in singer's discographies, but that is not "discussion".
• I have left the full personnel and the gallery, because I suppose those are encyclopedic, but not sure how worthy it is.

Ultimately, to be clear, this event is the Woodstock of the English-speaking opera world in the 1990s, so I think it deserves extensive coverage. Just needed cleaner coverage.

The Cardigan Kid (talk) 05:37, 5 September 2024 (UTC)