December 2018 Volume 69 No. 12 Editor John Allison Deputy Editors Erica Jeal Henrietta Bredin Commercial Director Megan Jackson Editorial Board Martin Bernheimer Hugh Canning Rupert Christiansen Andrew Clark Andrew Clements Richard Fairman George Hall Fiona Maddocks Roger Parker Editorial Offices 36 Black Lion Lane London W6 9BE Telephone: 020 8563 8893 editor@opera.co.uk www.opera.co.uk operamagazine @operamagazine @opera_magazine Subscriptions and customer services Esco, Trinity House, Sculpins Lane, Wethersfield, Braintree CM7 4AY Telephone: 01371 851804 Fax: 01371 851808 opera@escosubs.co.uk Digital edition Exact Editions support@exacteditions.com www.exacteditions.com/opera Advertising Jane Stoggles, Cabbells Ltd T elephone: 020 3603 7940 jane@cabbell.co.uk Front cover Montserrat Caballé (see pp. 1462-1470) (photo: Parlophone Records Ltd)

Opera, December 2018

1461 The Porgy problem

By the Editor 1462 La Superba

Founded in 1950 by the Earl of Harewood

Past Editors Harold Rosenthal

and Rodney Milnes

Janet Baker, Joan Matabosch, Max Loppert and Christopher Webber pay tribute to Montserrat Caballé 1471 Readers’ letters 1473 People 468: Louis Langrée Nicolas Blanmont 1477 Newsdesk 1482 An operatic lantern

Albert Ehrnrooth discovers the musical world of Ingmar Bergman 1488 Marvellous Minton

Roger Neill salutes a great Australian mezzo on her 80th birthday 1492 Nilsson collected George Loomis surveys the new r eleases

celebrating the centenary of Bir git Nilsson 1496 Obituary 1499 Opera around the world 1540 Opera in Britain 1560 Opera on CD 1569 Opera on DVD and Blu-ray 1572 Opera books 1579 Coming events

including plans for the UK houses (with summer 2019 plans for Opera Holland Park and Garsington), ‘We hear that …’; Opera calendar home and abroad 1591 Classified advertisements 1592 For the record …

Gergely Madaras

1457