For three days I listened to nothing but birdsong, marvelling at the variety and the volume

It’s the perfect medium for the End Times, unequalled in its devotion to doom

How we underestimate the women in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte

Grand opera was long thought quite dead but is suddenly rearing its shaggy head again

Opera really doesn’t need the help of activist directors when it comes to politics — it’s all there already

Those in charge are in thrall to vain provocateur directors

The great British opera director Jonathan Miller has died aged 85. Here is one of his last interviews

Criticism has died at London’s newspaper

Every six months or so opera surfaces from its undersea lair, like a Bond villain, to enter public consciousness — generally when it’s been naughty.