Who finds the money?-
Sir: As an ex-chairman of the music section of the Critics' Circle of Great Britain and as editor of a magazine entirely devoted to opera, I feel constrained to write and protest about the critical ethics—or rather lack of them—displayed by Gillian Widdicombe in her article 'Yes, but who finds the money?' (11 July).
Miss Widdicombe, a very recent recruit to the London music critics, surely should have made it abundantly clear that she has, for the last two years, been employed as Glynde- bourne's press officer and I think it ill be- comes someone in this position to make a plea for a subsidy for Glyndebourne. To suggest that Glyndebourne 'surely qualifies as a national institution in terms of ex- cellence' is a matter of opinion; but to suggest that one-third of the 750 seats is available to the general (my italics) public, rather than to the Glyndebourne Festival Society, at a price range of £3 to £6 lOs a time, is too ingenuous to be taken seriously!
Miss Widdicombe suggests that Covent Garden is 'the only great opera house with a genuinely democratic system of ticket pur- chase'—what! at £7 a stall for the coming Ring cycle! Surely a very large section of the potential operatic public, especially the younger generation, is debarred from par- ticipating, purely for economic reasons, in this wonderfully democratic institution!
Finally Miss Widdicombe suggests that 'those who say they can never get tickets [for Covent Garden] should also try to get into the Met., Bolshoy, Fenice, La Scala, if they wish to discover what a closed circle really is'. I would like to ask Miss Widdi- combe how much practical experience she has had in getting into any of those opera houses either in her capacity as a critic or as a member of the ordinary operatic audience.
Harold Rosenthal 6 Woodland Rise, London NIO Gillian Widdicombe writes: Mr Rosenthal's social prejudice seems to have clouded his practical and economic sense. Champagne and caviar are expensive to produce; so are opera and ballet with international artists. Heaven preserve us from nothing but stadium opera at 7s 6d a head. As for his slur on my 'critical' ethics and credentials: I may be young in Mr Rosenthal's eyes, but
I have been a working music critic for some six years, and in 1968 I was invited to join the music section of the Critics' Circle. It was in 1966 that Mr Rosenthal first com- missioned a review from me for his 'maga- zine entirely devoted to opera'. In any case, his accusation is false. My article was more factual than 'critical' and specifically did not 'make a plea for a subsidy for Glynde- bourne'; and my position with Glyndebourne is not as 'press officer' with peaked cap and party flag but as a journalist whose working knowledge of Fleet Street may be useful to both sides.
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