“The future health and development of opera depends on it embracing the whole of society, and that means being a part of society and being prepared to change as rapidly as society itself. We have to find a way of recovering a fundamental sense of adventure, challenge and interaction – a modern world demands nothing less. However, the desire to keep everybody happy – from paymasters to reviewers, from the conservative and wealthy to the modish and wealthy – has created a strange climate of catch-all, in which it is sometimes difficult to understand whether we are being offered vision, excellence, audience-pleasers, or a competition for who can produce the glossiest international brochure.”