I've heard a rumour that Harteros is already out of the Don Carlo, although the dates are still on her website. But that may be just the doom-mongers working on overdrive. I can't say I want to hear Poplavskaya sing Elisabeth again, but maybe, if the reports of this Desdemona are correct, she's getting better. She was one of the better elements of the Viaggio performance the other night - not that there was much competition.... ******************************************** Intermezzo replies - And I've heard from a reliable source that Harteros has NOT pulled out of Don Carlo (yet), and furthermore that her personal circumstances are such that if she does feel obliged to withdraw, it is likely to be on short notice again. If she does, I can think of no-one I'd rather hear than Poplavskaya.

Thanks for the link, IM. I liked the typo about Nikitin's "Operkörper" - hehe - and interesting to see that Catherine Foster, British soprano who never seems to sing over here, is next year's Brünnhilde at Bayreuth. Have any regular posters here heard her live? I've only seem bits of the Weimar Ring on DVD.....

@ Kit Gill Jonas isn't in Tannhäuser - it's Johan Botha and I v much doubt IM will be eyeing him up throughout the run, unless she watches through the wrong end of her opera glasses. :)

The idea that they could stop you from attending performances at Covent reminds me of the Stasi in East Germany. I attended several first nights of Ruth Berghaus productions at the Deutsche Staatsoper under the GDR regime and there would be plain-clothes officers taking photographs of booers, some of whom were arrested and banned from attending. This is even more sinister than the threat to take legal action. It's probably because you publicize the fact that quite a lot of RO shows are discounted - they don't want this information in the public domain. You very rarely read about these cut-price pfs in the mainstream press. I imagine ENO is even more hacked-off about it, even though their wholesale discounting is hardly a secret nowadays.

It's just bullying. What is it that you are doing that, for example, musicalcriticism.com isn't. Or do they do so many puff pieces for Royal Opera artists that they are alllowed? Can't you continue to post images of ROH productions if you don't give permission to readers of your blog to use any material from here and don't ask for a credit. Why don't you ask for press facilities like lots of other bloggers do? Or just cut down the number of images you post - that would be a shame, but not the end of the world and you could still continue to write about Covent Garden. I do think regular readers should write to Tony Hall complaing about these unnecessary strong-arm tactics.

Well Trevor Nunn's most recent Peter Grimes was announced as a co-production between the Salzburg Easter Festival and the Met. The Met coughed up, but when Peter Gelb saw it in Salzburg, he nixed it and commissioned a new one. Also this summer's Salzburg production of Elektra was announced in the festival brochure as a co-production with ENO, but, by the time the programme was printed, ENO had clearly dropped out. I suspect something similar has happened to Bieto's Fidelio.

I'm relieved you didn't try Johan Botha's recipe.

And Danceny - the Royal Opera don't do ballet - the Royal Ballet does. Completely separate companies both resident at the Royal Opera House. It's great that one can fill in when the other is away!

Hilarious Intermezzo! This is way the most entertaining opera blog in the business.

Intermezzo - can't you start a campaign to get the ROH to improve its website? It must be the worse of any major opera house in the world. Why can't they have a calender like the German companies' Spielplans where you can click on the performance you might be contemplating attending and get the cast and all the other detail? Sorry if you have dwelt on this topic at length in the past, but it's maddening.

Quite a few sopranos have sung Les nuits d'été - Steber, de los Angeles, Crespin, Norman - the songs were written neither for a mezzo nor a tenor but for different voice types. I think only Colin Davis has recorded the songs for the voices designated by Berlioz.

Well, at least this is a good excuse for a change! On similar - more worrying - note, the Vienna State Opera has just announced that Rolando's two Bohemes in Vienna will be sung by Stephen Costello. Is he really planning to sing Cavaradossi, as he told the Vienna press, next season? Or any time?

Or Boccherini for that matter. Well, it's the silly season and journalists have to spew out mouthfuls (bocconcini) of drivel while Cameron is on holiday in Cornwall and Blair is dreaming up ever more elaborate schemes to increase his pots of gold. As Intermezzo says, it's amazing that 96% knew that Bocconcini wasn't a composer. This item would struggle to make it into Private Eye's Dumb Britain feature.

The Massenet production could either be the Werther he is scheduled to be directing in Lyon or the revival he is slated to sing at Covent Garden, although there is already speculation that either Vittorio Grigolo or Bryan Hymel will be headlining the Royal Opera cast. Where is he doing Hoffmann next season? He says it's absurd that managements book singers five years aheard, but all star singers have to deal with with that. If he isn't booked that far ahead, it suggests that most of the important houses have cold feet about his future prospects. Anyway, let's hope he's really on the mend and this isn't him being delusional.