December 2009 Volume 60 No 12 Editor John Allison Deputy Editor Erica Jeal Assistant Editor Kate Molleson Publisher Fletcher Dhew Subscription Manager Megan Jackson

Editorial Board Martin Bernheimer Hugh Canning Rupert Christiansen Andrew Clark Andrew Clements Richard Fairman George Hall Michael Kennedy Fiona Maddocks Rodney Milnes (Chairman) Roger Parker Andrew Porter

Editorial Offices 36 Black Lion Lane London W6 9BE Telephone: 020 8563 8893 Fax: 020 8563 8635 e-mail: editor@opera.co.uk Website: www.opera.co.uk

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Front cover: Sónia Alcobaça (Gutrune) and Michael Vier (Gunther) in Götterdämmerung in Lisbon (see pp. 1484-5) (photo: Belenus/Widepress)

Founded in 1950 by the Earl of Harewood

Past Editors Harold Rosenthal

and Rodney Milnes

1427 Ensemble parts

By the Editor 1428 People 373: Diana Damrau

John Allison 1436 Readers’ letters 1439 Managing Munich

Nikolaus Bachler talks to George Loomis 1443 Newsdesk 1447 Making a Gluckian epic

Christophe Rousset talks to Hugh Canning about his Iphigénie project 1452 Chronicles of a company

Rupert Christiansen on Susie Gilbert’s new biography of ENO 1458 Obituary 1460 Opera around the world 1496 Opera in Britain 1519 Opera on CD 1532 Opera on DVD 1538 Coming events

Including plans for the UK houses, Auckland and Wellington, Melbourne, Monte-Carlo, Perth, Sydney; ‘We hear that …’; Opera calendar home and abroad 1551 Classified advertisements 1552 Wish I’d been there …

Roger Neill

Opera, December 2009

1425