Last year after 20 years trying to convince Riccardo Muti to conduct in its house, Covent Garden had to watch as the maestro walked out at the last minute. And Muti? He puts the blame squarely on the opera company: “I think that Covent Garden didn’t behave properly. La Repubblica wrote a line that was wonderful. It said, ‘In this story, for once, the English behaved like Italians, and the Italians behaved like the English.’ That said everything.”