July 1997 Volume 48 No 7

Editor Rodney Milnes A ssociate Editor Max Loppert Assistant Editor John Alliso n Administrator Alice Lindsay Editorial Board Alan Blyth Hugh Canning Andrew Clark Andrew Clements Richard Fairman Noel Goodwin Charles Osborne Andrew Porter John Warrack

Editorial Offices la Mountgrove Road London N5 2LU Telephone: 0171-359 1037 Fax: 0171-354 2700

Advertising orders and copy to Jackson-Rudd & Associates (London North East) Ltd 2 Luke Street London EC2A 4 T Tel: 0171-613 0717 Fax: 0171 -6131108 Advertisement Manager Brian R. Hook

Front Cover: Alexey Steblyanko and Valeria Stenkina as Parsifal and Kundry at the Maryinsky Theatre (Photo: Valentin Baronovsky)

Founded by th e Earl of Harewood Eclitor 1953-86 Harold Rosenthal, OBE

era

765 Things are beginning to stink . . .'

The Editor 769 Readers' Letters 770 'Parsifal' and paradoxes

John Allison on the Kirov Opera 774 Opera Newsdesk 775 People 230: Andrew D avis

A lan Blyth 780 'Somewhere between Moscow and

New York .. .' Rodney Miln es on Strauss ·s 'H elena' 784 Opera Around the World: reports from America, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Russia, South Africa , Sweden, Switzerland 809-822 COMI G EVE TS SUPPLEMENT

including plans for the new seasons at Opera North and Scottish Opera, the 1997 BBC Proms; Liege, Vancouver, Helsinki , Par is (Chatelet) , Tel Aviv; 'We hear that .. .'; Opera calendar home and abroad 822 Opera books 847 British Opera Diary: 'The Return of

Ulysses' and 'Tannhauser' at Opera North; 'Otello', 'Eli si r' and 'Elektra' at Covent Garden; ENO's 'Ariadne on Naxos' and 'Traviata '; Scottish Opera's 'Samson et Dalila'; National Opera Studio Showcase 863 Opera on the fringe 867 Opera at the colleges 869 In concert 873 Opera on disc 880 Classified advertisements