Why on earth would we want to see the same tawdry old stories endlessly re-enacted?

A large proportion of the English drive themselves mad with a baroque cocktail of fury, snobbery and self-hatred over Gilbert and Sullivan

Robert Thicknesse on the woes of modern, British opera

Robert Thicknesse on Rossini’s extraordinary de-cluttering of the musical atmosphere

Robert Thicknesse on how the idea that foreign poetry was better than local soon became established dogma

Robert Thicknesse reveals how in searching for meaning, opera adaptations are becoming more obscure

People are terrified of modernity’s great gift: the sudden freedom to make appalling noise, says Robert Thicknesse

Opera unswervingly believes in the potential for a divine spark in humans, says Robert Thicknesse

Opera has treated the subject of cancelling the pleasures of others in some depth

Covent Garden’s first post-lockdown offering is in a long, grim tradition