February 1999 Volume 50 No 2

Editor Rodney Milnes Co-Editor John Allison Marketing Director Alice Lindsay Edirorial Assisrant Stefanie Bri.iggemann Edirorial B oard Martin Bernheimer Alan Blyth Ian Brunskill Andrew Clark Andrew Clements Richard Fairman 1 oel Goodwin Michael Kennedy Fiona Maddocks Charles Osborne Andrew Porter John Warrack

Editorial Offices la Mountgrove Road London N5 2LU Telephone: 0171-359 1037 Fax: 0171-354 2700 e -mail: opera mag@clara.co.uk WEBSITE: http ://www.opera .co.uk

Advertising orders and copy to Ca therin e Hawkins Cabbell Publishing Ltd 31 Hartfield Crescent London SW19 3SG Tel: 0181-395 3808 Fax: 0181-395 3999

Fro111 Cover: Imelda Drumm as Hansel and Linda Kitchen as Gretel in WNo·s new production of Humperdinck·s opera (Photo: Cli ve Barda)

Founded by th e Earl of Harewood Ediror 1953-86 Harold Rosenrhal, OBE

era

139 Jones in Jekyll mode

Hugh Canning on WNO's 'Hansel' 144 Readers' Letters 145 People 249: Maria Guleghina

Richard Fairman 151 'An exquisite tonal artist'

George Loomis assesses Hasse 156 Aim: to hear 'Grimes ' better

Peter Stein talks to ick Kimberley 161 Opera Newsdesk 162 ROH countdown-2 163 A tale of two operas

Rodney Milnes 167 Opera Around the World: reports from America , Australia , Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain , Sweden, Switzerland 177-190 COMING EVE TS SUPPLEME T

including plans for the K houses; Chicago, San Francisco, Helsinki , Naples, Palermo, Venice; 'We hear that. .. '; Opera calendar home and abroad 190 Opera books 217 British Opera Diary: 'The Barber of

Seville ', 'Boris Godunov' and 'La traviata ' at the Coliseum; Scottish Opera 's 'Hansel and Gretel '; The Royal Opera 's 'Bartered Bride' at Sadler's Wells 226 Opera on the fringe 229 Opera at the colleges 231 Opera in concert 234 Opera on disc 239 Classified advertisements 240 I can 't live without. .. opera in

Munich Alan Bly th