December 1980

Vol 31 No 12

Founded by the Earl of Harewood

Editor

HAROLD ROSENTHAL Alan Blyth , Rodney Milnes

Associate Editors Editorial Board Elizabeth Forbes , Arthur Jacobs , Max Loppert ,

William Mann, Charles Osborne, Andrew Porter Desmond Shawe-Taylor, John Warrack

Personal Assistant to the Editor Editorial Offices

Deidre Tilley 6 Woodland Rise, London N /0 J UH

In the News

'Hoffmann ' : The Original ( ?) Version by Antonio de 1166

Almeida

Opera on the Gramophone: 49 'Les Contes d 'Hoffmann ' by Robert Henderson

Readers ' Letters

1169

1173

J J 80

Kurt Weill : Composer without a Category - Part 2 by Kim H. Kowalk e I J 81 Christmas Book Suggestions by th e Editor 1 J 87 Our Critics Abroad : Reports from America, Argentina , Austria , Brazil , Chile, France, West Germany, DDR , Holland , Ital y, and Switzerland 1190 COMING EVENTS - SUPPLEMENT including plans for Welsh National Opera, Seattle , Brussels, Czechoslo vakia , Nancy, Naples, Trieste , Turin , Festivals J 981; 'We hear that . . . '; Opera Calendar Gramophone Records Obituary British Opera Diary; including re v iews of 'Lucia di Lammermoor' a nd 'Le nozze di Figaro ' at Covent Garden ; 'Arabella ' and 'La Boheme' at the Coliseum ; Scottish Opera's 'Tosca '; Gl yndebourne Touring Opera ; 'Bal lo in maschera ' and 'Tosca ' in Belfast ; and Losey's 'Don Giovanni ' film Classified ad vertisements

1201 - 1214

1214 1239

1242 1264

Front Cover: Josephine Barstow in the title-role , and Norma Burrowes as Zdenka in English ational Opera's new production of 'Arabella '