Land of opera and glory

In her 2001 book about the city, travel writer Jan Morris famously described Trieste as ‘the meaning of nowhere’ – a place left behind by history and by its political geography. A quarter of a century

Robert Thicknesse on Opera

What Italian opera signified to the Habsburg court

Having first attended a concert by Pavarotti (cover profile; October) in Toronto in 1975, over the following years I went to a number of recitals by him, the last one being in 1990. I was working in t

In other circumstances, it would be heartening to see an opera getting national attention. Yet once again, the recent buzz around Covent Garden concerns politics rather than performances. The latest f

Is there a special sorcery in Seoul? Cunning creativity in Canada? Preternatural pizzazz in Paris? Oh, why do so many great pianists come from this or that country? We even have some in Britain; is th