December 2014 Volume 65 No 12 Editor John Allison Deputy Editors Erica Jeal Hugo Shirley Commercial Director Megan Jackson Editorial Board Martin Bernheimer Hugh Canning Rupert Christiansen Andrew Clark Andrew Clements Richard Fairman George Hall Michael Kennedy Fiona Maddocks Rodney Milnes (Chairman) Roger Parker Andrew Porter 36 Black Lion Lane London W6 9BE Telephone: 020 8563 8893 Fax: 020 8563 8635 email: editor@opera.co.uk Website: www.opera.co.uk operamagazine @operamagazine Subscriptions Esco, Trinity House, Braintree CM7 4AY Telephone: 01371 851804 Fax: 01371 851808 email: opera@escosubs.co.uk Advertising Jane Stoggles Cabbell Publishing Ltd Telephone: 020 3603 7940 email: jane@cabbell.co.uk Front cover Susan Bullock as Minnie in ENO’s ‘Girl of the Golden West’ (see pp. 1552-5) (photo: Robert Workman)

Opera, December 2014

Founded in 1950 by the Earl of Harewood

Past Editors Harold Rosenthal and Rodney Milnes

1477 Pension plan By the Editor 1478 People 428: Anthony Dean Griffey Roger Pines 1483 Readers’ letters 1486 Long live the revolution year 1494 Newsdesk 1502 An impresario’s progress Stanley Henig explores Oscar Hammerstein’s two London seasons 1508 Obituary 1511 Opera around the world 1546 Opera in Britain 1577 Opera on CD 1585 Opera on DVD and Blu-ray 1593 Coming events including plans for the UK houses, Rome; ‘We hear that …’; Opera calendar home and abroad 1608 Largo al factotum …

1473