Covent Garden has abandoned a long-established practice of black-face portrayals on stage. “The Royal Opera has been forced into a last-minute U-turn over the casting of a white mezzo-soprano in the role of a black woman. Stephanie Blythe was blacked up during rehearsals of Un Ballo in Maschera (The Masked Ball), but when the production opened at Covent Garden last Thursday her skin colour was its natural white. The company said it made the change because of the need to be ‘sensitive to issues such as racism’. In doing so it overruled the production’s director, Italian film-maker Mario Martone, who was informed just hours before the curtain went up – and did not agree with the decision.”