BY JAY NORDLINGER [NY Sun, 13 August 2007]

On the Salzburg Festival menu this year was an evening of the Italian Baroque — dominated by one work: the Stabat mater of Pergolesi. This evening was to have featured one of the starriest singers on the planet: Anna Netrebko, the Russian soprano. But she canceled at almost the last minute, causing a bit of an uproar in this little town (a hotbed of intrigue, anyway). Ms. Netrebko said, simply, that she had laryngitis. Others were skeptical — and said that she had gone about her cancellation in a shabby way.