London’s Royal Opera House, out to prove it is more populist than in the past, has scheduled its first musical for the main stage: Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Music director Antonio Pappano “said he wanted to open the windows … ‘I am not interested in this old argument about what is opera and what is musical theatre. Often it’s so intense and serious here, but it is OK for this opera house to have fun too’.”