When Puccini Rode Tall In the Saddle

By Cori Ellison [NY Times, 3 December 2010]
MUSICAL centenaries are double-edged occasions. They can inspire illuminating perspectives on worthy topics, or they can be little more than knee-jerk pretexts for music publishers, presenters and record labels to fetishize round numbers in the name of sales, with musicologists gratefully riding their coattails.