MUSIC: Maestro Zinger

Eventually, the whole thing deteriorated to the point that the antagonists were calling each other names -- actual proper names. "I don't want to live under another Kim Il Sung," said Myung-Whun Chung, referring to Hugues Gall, the official who last week forced Chung out of his job as musical director of the Paris Opera. For his part, Gall said of Chung, "He's a good conductor, but he's no Seiji Ozawa or Daniel Barenboim." And "Mr. Chung is neither Mother Teresa nor Florence Nightingale."

What do the late North Korean autocrat and the founder of modern nursing have to do with...