{"id":2134,"date":"2011-05-19T12:44:09","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/?p=2134"},"modified":"2011-05-19T12:44:09","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:44:09","slug":"critiquing-the-critic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/?p=2134","title":{"rendered":"critiquing the critic"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2138\" href=\"https:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/uncategorized\/critiquing-the-critic\/2134.html\/attachment\/critic\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2138\" title=\"critic\" src=\"https:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/critic-100x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a>Audiences rely on them; performers love them or loathe them. Much has been discussed and written about the role of the critic.\u00a0In an ideal world, the critic\u00a0would perform one key function: to express a knowledgeable and balanced opinion about as many possible aspects of a performance which they have attended. They inform their readers about significant qualities of the work, its creators and its performers (and, in the case of genres such as theatre, dance and opera, about the company presenting the work and their staging of it). The critic aims to share with the\u00a0 public, a succinct and accurate opinion of the artistic merit which a certain artist, production or company has to offer.<\/p>\n<p>I see the role of the critic, ideally, as that of an \u00a0informer or even educator of the public. I don\u2019t propose that critics should lecture their readers on every intricate dimension of a work or performance, but their main function should be to give\u00a0audiences an idea of what to expect if they\u00a0attend the same event (or to highlight some important aspects of what the reader would have experienced if they had attended the event). According to these guidelines, a knowledgeable critic would also provide artists and companies with valuable feedback on their performances, making it a win-win situation for audiences and performers alike.<\/p>\n<p>As we all know, it doesn\u2019t always, or even often, work this way. Many critics currently hold a great deal of authority over important matters such as ticket sales and artists\u2019 or companies\u2019 reputations. A great review by an influential critic or publication can fill houses overnight, while bad reviews can prove to be a huge setback in an artist\u2019s career. Some critics misuse their reviews as vehicles for self-aggrandisement or to further their private agendas for or against companies and performers. There are even cases where it is blatantly obvious that the reviewer has nowhere near enough knowledge to form a well-balanced opinion about a performance, or lacks the writing skills to coherently express any type of opinion at all.<\/p>\n<p>Should audiences and performers take heed of critics? A published review is the written expression of an opinion. It may often be a well-informed opinion, but it\u2019s still only an opinion. Most artists know which comments are useful to them and which are to be ignored, but the majority of audiences don\u2019t. Art is an essentially subjective experience, and verdicts of artistic success or failure should not depend on the opinions of a select few, especially if their knowledge of the subject is questionable. It is a mistake to generalise about all critics, as every generation has a handful of writers whose knowledge has duly earned them respect. Also, critics\u2019 influence varies across specific arts industries.<\/p>\n<p>My bottom line is that the ultimate arbiters of artistic achievement should be audiences and the artists themselves, as good art is largely determined by the quality of the interchange of emotions and ideas between these two, and history has proved them to be the best judges of what is good enough to transcend generations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><div><em>Paulo Montoya is a 26-year old music and theatre lover from Sydney who won the 2010 Pacific Opera Young Critics Award. He has since reviewed opera and theatre for Arts Hub and Limelight Magazine (online) and is currently Editorial Intern at Limelight. His main passions are opera and German Lied and his dream is to play a creative role in the opera industry. You can follow him on Twitter at @operarules.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><div><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><div><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><div><strong><\/strong><\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br class=\"spacer_\" \/><\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Audiences rely on them; performers love them or loathe them. Much has been discussed and written about the role of the critic.\u00a0In&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[],"sls_format":[],"class_list":["post-2134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"acf":{"deck":"","is_featured":false,"media_type":"standard","audio_embed":"","video_url":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>critiquing the critic - Sounds Like Sydney<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/soundslikesydney.com.au\/?p=2134\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"critiquing the critic - Sounds Like Sydney\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Audiences rely on them; performers love them or loathe them. 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