Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Clinker

Have you noticed that The Irish Times has not so far mentioned the passing of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, perhaps the greatest singer of the twentieth century, in print or online? By contrast they reported the deaths of Donna Summer and Robin Gibb immediately.

For comparison, The Guardian carried a report of Fischer-Dieskau's death on Saturday, the day after he died, together with a reaction from the tenor Ian Bostridge and a long obituary by the noted vocal critic Alan Blyth. This latter had clearly been ready for some time: Alan Blyth died in 2007. On the same day The Irish Times had an obituary of Donna Summer. Priorities!

While I wouldn't particularly look forward to any of the IT's current writers' reflections on DF-D, it would be nice if there were a timely acknowledgement of his importance. It's a salutary reminder of how peripheral classical music is to Irish culture.

Sanguine Fan

Full marks to the Indo so. There was a brief piece in the online edition on Friday last:
http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/world-news/singer-fischerdieskau-dies-at-86-3112119.html

It does not invalidate your main point though. Classical music is simply not part of the mainstream cultural scene here, certainly not to the same extent as literature or even art.