Opera in London

Extract

During the three months, September ist to December ist, London has had the opportunity of seeing twenty-three different operas, given by five organisations—Sadlers Wells, the resident Co vent Garden Company, the New London Opera Company, the Vienna State Opera, and the English Opera Group. These twenty-three works have been made up as follows; four by Puccini: three each by Mozart and Britten: two by Verdi and Richard Strauss: and one each by Beethoven, Rossini, Donizetti, Smetana, Gounod, Bizet, Rimsky-Korsakov, Leoncavallo and Mascagni; that is to say, three written in the eighteenth century, twelve in the nineteenth, and eight in the twentieth. There is a certain amount of inevitable duplication amongst the five organisations concerned, and the considerable variation in production and performance is probably best seen by looking at the repertory of each company separately.