Why did Raymond Gubbay’s Savoy Opera fail so quickly? “Gubbay was selling the Savoy Opera as unexceptional everyday West End fare, without the ‘snobbery’ and ‘elitism’ that supposedly put “ordinary” folk off. But what came across, I think, was an unfortunate impression of mediocrity. And Joe Public never wants to pay good money for that. Precisely the opposite, in fact.”