The G&S divide

RUM SORT OF JOINT, COVENT GARDEN. One minute there’s the boss saying: “We can’t just produce La Traviata and La bohème. That way lies artistic ruin,” the next they unveil a season headlining precisely those old boilers, plus a load more cluckers by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Handel, Wagner — y’know, operas from the old days there.

Non-insiders might be a bit baffled by all this, as if the head of the RSC was all like: “What, do a bunch of old crap like bloody ? Piss