March 2013 Volume 64 No 3 Editor John Allison Deputy Editors Erica Jeal  Hugo Shirley  Commercial Director 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 email: editor@opera.co.uk Website: www.opera.co.uk operamagazine @operamagazine Subscriptions Telephone: 01371 851804 email: operasubs@opera.co.uk Advertising Jane Stoggles Cabbell Publishing Ltd Telephone: 020 3603 7940 Fax: 020 8544 0811 Front cover: Jacques Imbrailo and  Michaela Selinger as Pelléas and Mélisande in Essen (see  pp. 338-9) (photo: Hermann und Clärchen Baus)

Founded in 1950 by the Earl of Harewood

Past Editors Harold Rosenthal and Rodney Milnes

277 Crisis? That crisis

By the Editor 278 People 408: Christian Thielemann

John Allison 287 The Opera Awards 290 Sonic splendours

Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker on Verdi, Wagner and Paris 304 Readers’ letters 307 The Saxon connection

Hugo Shirley explores Wagner’s links with Leipzig and Dresden 313 Newsdesk 319 ‘Il Sassone’ rises again

Alexandra Coghlan examines the nascent Hasse revival 323 Obituary 325 Opera around the world 356 Opera in Britain 359 Opera on CD 374 Opera on DVD and Blu-ray 377 Opera books 383 Coming events including plans for the UK houses, Houston, Los Angeles and Toronto; ‘We hear that …’; Opera calendar home and abroad 399 Classified advertisements 400 Wish I’d been there …

Barry Smith

Opera, March 2013

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