This dude is simply negative

Useless genius

Aww come on, Reader, you can do better with someone else as your reviewer for classical music and performances (“Schumann vs. Schubert,” Classical Music, April 6). This current guy is not providing you or us with anything more than a glimpse into his immature, uneducated, and silly opinions. Schubert and Schumann were both geniuses, and comparing them in this ridiculous rant is useless. Who cares if one wrote more lieder than the other? They had different motives and life arcs. Their inspirations were different. Their ambitions were different.

And unfortunately, complaining about one singer, as he does in this piece, and claiming another is better is another example of immature bias. The performers are different, both have attained prominence in their field, and the way this writer of yours comes off is simply petulant and trivial.

As far as lieder singers being “failed opera singer(s)”, give us a break. I happen to be descended from a lieder singer, and she had no interest in performing opera but loved attending it. Her ambitions were different. She was not a failure because of it.

A skilled critic sees the good and the bad, equally. This dude is simply negative. As a result he does a great disservice to our classical audience and performers. His personal observations on what he calls his “so-called friend” are cruel and his “professional” opinions equally hurtful.

In these sad times, Reader, you should find and use a real reviewer, one who would also encourage and celebrate the magnificent and varied forms of classical music and its many performers, who represent the heritage we all share. Dump this guy. He isn’t worth whatever you pay him.

• Susan D. Walter
• Chula Vista

City hall’s cow patty meltdown

Julie Stalmer got it right (“Are you kidding me? It’s a cow pasture,” Neighborhood News, April 9). “Part of the problem may be that the city’s real estate assets division is in charge of Presidio Hills.” Yah think? The gang that couldn’t shoot straight has nothing on these ineffectual bureaucrats. They mismanage everything they touch. The mayor canned the head guy last year, but the rot is pervasive.

• Anonymous