A reminder that critics, simply because they are invited to give their opinions, are not immune from the laws of libel when they do so comes from Edinburgh, where opera composer Keith Burstein is reported to be attempting to bring a legal action against the Evening Standard following the Standard’s Edinburgh critic Veronica Lee’s damning assessment of his show Manifest Destiny.
Lee called it “a trite affair”, referred to the tone as “depressingly anti-American”, called Dic Edwards’ libretto “horribly leaden and unmusical”, and the music “uninspiring, save for the odd duet”, before adding, “full marks to the talented cast of four for carrying it off.” But it was the last line that stung: “The idea that there is anything heroic about suicide bombers is, frankly, a grievous insult.”
According to a spokesman for Burstein, “He feels it’s libellous to say that he glorifies suicide bombers in the opera”.
This is not the first time, of course, that critics or columnists have faced off libel actions for their words. In the case of Daily Mirror writer Matthew Wright, a “review” of David Soul in his 1998 West End show The Dead Monkey that Wright had not even seen cost the paper £20,000 in damages, plus legal costs (estimated at £150,000 at the time).
Wright had claimed that only 45 people were at the performance on a Monday evening and that he had never seen a worse play in the West End. But it was shown that not only had he not attended it himself but rather that a freelancer had been there on his behalf, but also that it was factually incorrect: the performance in question had been seen by approximately 130.
As Soul commented at the time, “I stand really strong on the side of fair comment and opinion about the theatre. I think it’s a cornerstone of the theatre, but you have to see the play, you have to be there, you have to have the facts.”
