The Picture of Dorian Gray edition of the novel; nonetheless, by June 1891, Wilde was defending "The Picture of Dorian Gray" against accusations that it was a bad book. In the essay "The Artist as Critic", Oscar Wilde said that: In the 19th century, the critical reception of the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890) was poor. The book critic of "The Irish Times" said, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was "first published to some scandal." Such book reviews achieved for the novel a "certain notoriety for being 'mawkish and nauseous', 'unclean', 'effeminate' and 'contaminating'." Such moralistic scandal arose from the novel's homoeroticism, which
The Picture of Dorian Gray (opera) its first performance on June 6, 2007 at the Perelman Theater in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a production by Leland Kimball, conducted by Andrew M. Kurtz. Aspen Opera Center staged the work in July 2014. "Scene 1" In the studio of Basil Hallward, Basil and his old university friend Lord Henry Wotton converse as Basil completes his new portrait of Dorian Gray, a handsome young aristocrat who has become Basil's muse. Lord Henry wishes to meet Dorian, but Basil says he would be a bad influence on Dorian. After Dorian arrives to pose for