January 2020 Volume 71 No. 1 Editor John Allison Deputy Editors Erica Jeal Henrietta Bredin Commercial Director Megan Jackson Editorial Board Hugh Canning Rupert Christiansen Andrew Clark Andrew Clements Richard Fairman George Hall Fiona Maddocks Roger Parker O 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 Telephone: 020 3603 7940 jane@cabbell.co.uk Front cover Simon Wilding, Peter Hoare and William Morgan in ENO’s ‘The Mask of Orpheus’ (see pp. 85-7) (photo: Alastair Muir)

Opera, January 2020

Founded in 1950 by the Earl of Harewood

Past Editors Harold Rosenthal

and Rodney Milnes

5 The B word By the Editor 6 People 479: Omer Meir Wellber Hugo Shirley 11 Readers’ letters 14 Counter intuition James Bowman, Anthony Roth Costanzo and Iestyn Davies talk to Stephen A. Brown 21 Newsdesk 25 ‘Tum-tum ninna-nanna’ Danielle Simon and Francesca Vella on Italy’s r t ra i era 30 Obituaries 35 Opera around the world 83 Opera in Britain 99 Opera on CD 117 Opera on DVD and Blu-ray 122 Coming events including plans for the UK houses and the 2020 Salzburg Festival; ‘We hear that …’; Opera calendar home and abroad 1 5 Classified advertisements 136 For the record … Max Loppert

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