March 2021 Volume 72 No. 3 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 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 Russell Bass, Cabbells Ltd Telephone: 020 3603 7937 russell@cabbells.uk Front cover Julie Lea Goodwin as Hanna Glawari in Opera Australia’s The Merry Widow (see pp. 328-9) (photo: Prudence Upton)

Opera, March 2021

Founded in 1950 by the Earl of Harewood

Past Editors Harold Rosenthal

and Rodney Milnes

261 Britain’s lost talent

By the Editor 262 Newsdesk 267 People 493: Ailyn Pérez

Roger Pines 274 Evans above!

Great singers in great roles: Anne Evans talks to Hugh Canning about Brünnhilde 283 The theatrical style

Mahan Esfahani reconciles J.S. Bach and opera 290 Sailing the operatic waka

Thomas de Mallet Burgess talks to John Allison 298 A locked-down ‘Vixen’

Sam Brown 301 Readers’ letters 303 A very personal opera

David Chandler on ‘Fennimore and Gerda’, Philip Heseltine and the end of Delius’s operatic career 312 The art of apprenticeship

Stephen A. Brown on career navigation, part 2 319 Episode of the Madeleine

Jack Belsom finds a Verdi aria in New Orleans 322 Obituaries 328 Opera around the world 341 Opera online 346 Opera television 348 Opera on CD 365 Opera on DVD and Blu-ray 374 Opera books 377 Coming events

including plans for Greek National Opera; Spotlight, ‘We hear that …’; Opera calendar abroad 383 Classified advertisements 384 For the record

James Newby

257