The Art of the Reviewer - Part 1

The Sydney Mail on 13th August 1924 carried a short note reporting the following:

In a recent issue of the New York Theatre, Grenville Vernon, a
prominent critic, declares that Mme Galli-Curci is enjoying a triumph which her
singing has never earned. “Far greater artists and singers than she today,” he
asserts, “have to content themselves with salaries one-quarter of what she
receives.” And Mme Maria Jeritza, another pillar of the Metropolitan, according
to this critic, though an artist of real merit, owes her position to her beauty
and her great body agility, her feeling for plastic poses, and her knowledge of
the value of acrobatics. Her first real sensation, we are told, was made in
“Tosca” when she sang the “Vissi d’Arte” lying on her stomach. “It might not
have been art, but it certainly was news.” (Sydney Mail 13/8/24, 13)

Balanced? No. Reasoned? No. Bitchy? Somewhat.

Not having studied Mr Vernon’s work within its context, I can’t say whether this is typical of his style. However it provides a great contrast to the type of criticism occurring on the other side of the world at that time. The reviewers of the Melba-Williamson Opera Company in Sydney and Melbourne in 1924 had their prejudices and idiosyncrasies, but they also took a responsible stance towards what they were covering.

It may be that harsh criticism was moderated by the nature of publication of theatrical comment. The practice in Australian papers at the time and up until the 1940s was for reviews to appear without a byline. This was not confined to criticism; most articles carried in the newspapers were anonymous ("by our Special Correspondent"), the exceptions generally being opinion pieces by major figures (usually establishment) and the daily novel extract. This anonymity contributed to the authority of the paper and in turn that authority was granted to the article. By sitting on the dignity of the publication the writer could make statements with ex cathedra status. It is only in journals such as the Bulletin, with its deliberate larrikin ethos, that anything approaching Vernon’s ferocity appears; and that was only to deflate, not destroy.