Intermezzo reports that Harrison Birtwistle’s 1991 (revised 1994) opera Gawain is to be performed at the 2014 2013 Salzburg Festival.  I saw this when originally broadcast on TV in the UK and really want to see it again.  I’m hoping that there will be a DVD release as it’s unlikely(!) that I will make it to Salzburg.  I’m half surprised that it hasn’t been performed again or spread beyond Covent Garden (same is true of The Minotaur of course).  But only half surprised.  There seems to be a real reluctance currently to produce work that is seen as less “accessible”.  There are exceptions of course.  Saariaho seems to be quite fashionable for example but overall, and especially on this side of the Atlantic, the modernist tradition seems to have been firmly rejected.