There’s a long and interesting review by Philip Hensher in today’s Guardian of A History of Opera by Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker.  There are more than a few stock clichés but he does have useful things to say about the reason opera might, but shouldn’t, be relegated to a museum piece.  In any event, it’s good to see a major daily giving space to a thought piece about opera.

There’s also a related piece by Leslie Barcza over at barczablog.  He looks at why we owe it to ourselves to engage with the director’s vision of an opera and should avoid useless and pejorative epithets likes “Eurotrash” and even “Regie”.  It’s the best contribution to that endless debate that I’ve seen in a while.