For full reviews of The Rape of Lucretia (seen at Central City Opera, 6/12) and Nixon in China (seen at Opera Colorado, 6/13) keep an eye on MusicalAmerica.com.

Lucretia is a problematic opera (although it contains some incredibly beautiful music), but it would have been worth the trip up to historic Central City and its gem of an opera house in any case. (And it was fun to open the program and see that St. Louis native Phyllis Pancella was singing the title role. She did a fine job.)

Nixon was given in the production that originated at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, with an almost identical cast — in particular Robert Orth in the title role, Maria Kanyova as Pat Nixon and Tracy Dahl as Madame Mao — and Marin Alsop in the pit.

It proved difficult for most members of the Music Critics Association of North America to spend a lot of time at other groups’ sessions — or at the general sessions, for that matter — because of both our hotel’s distance from the Colorado Convention Center and because our own sessions overlapped. (I’m also on the board of MCANA, which involved other meetings.)

One unavoidable conclusion emerged from its dominance in every session in which critics took part: Blogging is our collective obsession right now. Even when we were supposed to be talking about something else, the conversation always made its way back to blogging.