Otto Schenk, who has died aged 94, was an Austrian actor and theatre director from another era. Lavishly traditional, he was known for his attention to detailed staging notes on the score.

Where Wagner wrote ‘here be dragons’ dragons is what Schenk delivered, notably in a giant and dragon infested Ring Cycle at New York’s Mat in the 1980’s. It became a staple.

“I wanted to tell a romantic old story, like starting with ‘Once upon a time,’” he told an interviewer in 1989. “All the secrets of Wagner’s Ring should be guessed by the audience or found by the audience.” Directors, don’t get in the way.

Of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, conducted by Claudio Abbado and starring Plácido Domingo and Gwynne Howell. “It’s an old opera, of its time, and we mustn’t try to modernise it.”

Verdi, Schenk said, always wanted, “Verità”. Truth. Today’s fashion for Regietheater is more about. “Me! Me! Me!”

The Master is in mourning. His outing to the Glimmerglass opera festival in upstate New York in August has been scrubbed. One of his favourite calendar items, the festival is a showcase for up and coming artists and cutting-edge productions.

He was particularly looking forward to a performance of Handel’s Rinaldo, featuring brilliant up and coming counter tenor Aryeh Nusbaum Cohen, who he heard in San Francisco last December. How many more summer delights will be knocked on the head?

“Perhaps by some miraculous situation we can return in the Fall.” What? Not an optimistic assessment from Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera. At the Met’s online streaming Gala, as recently as 25^th April, Gelb was upbeat about “meeting in September”.

Now 41 admin staff have been placed on furlough and may be paid off, the chorus and orchestra are in deep freeze and booked artists are champing at the bit. The Met’s already dodgy finances are now in tatters. Will the hocked Chagalls in the Met lobby be called in?

Critics of Gelb’s failure to implement structural reforms say the Covid crisis is an ideal opportunity to address the Met’s towering cost base. Heavily unionised, reliant on quirky donors’ largesse and facing plunging ticket receipts, there must be serious doubt that the Met can carry on as before post crisis.

Sir Peter Jonas, Director of English National Opera from 1985 – 1993 and Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich 1993 – 2006 has died. He was wild on and off stage. His productions of Wagner rendered traditionalists incandescent. He kept a “stink box” of poison pen letters from Wagner fans which he flourished with glee.

In a Parsifal – Wagner’s most religious work – production the hero swings into the action, Tarzan-like. Richard Strauss’ grandson walked out of an Elektra performance, disgusted by the gore. “We must be doing something right”, gloated Sir Peter.  He regularly appeared in Munich in full fig Highland dress. Claimed his grannie was a Campbell. He will be mourned by Westies everywhere.

Sir Peter Jonas, Director of English National Opera from 1985 – 1993 and Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich 1993 – 2006 has died. He was wild on and off stage. His productions of Wagner rendered traditionalists incandescent. He kept a “stink box” of poison pen letters from Wagner fans which he flourished with glee.

“Perhaps by some miraculous situation we can return in the Fall.” What? Not an optimistic assessment from Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera. At the Met’s online streaming Gala, as recently as 25^th April, Gelb was upbeat about “meeting in September”.

Now 41 admin staff have been placed on furlough and may be paid off, the chorus and orchestra are in deep freeze and booked artists are champing at the bit. The Met’s already dodgy finances are now in tatters. Will the hocked Chagalls in the Met lobby be called in?

Critics of Gelb’s failure to implement structural reforms say the Covid crisis is an ideal opportunity to address the Met’s towering cost base. Heavily unionised, reliant on quirky donors’ largesse and facing plunging ticket receipts, there must be serious doubt that the Met can carry on as before post crisis.

His outing to the Glimmerglass opera festival in upstate New York in August has been scrubbed. One of his favourite calendar items, the festival is a showcase for up and coming artists and cutting-edge productions.

He was particularly looking forward to a performance of Handel’s Rinaldo, featuring brilliant up and coming counter tenor Aryeh Nusbaum Cohen, who he heard in San Francisco last December. How many more summer delights will be knocked on the head?