November 2021

As we complete our coverage of this year’s festivals, the cover this month shows the production of Alessandro Scarlatti’s Griselda at Martina Franca. The issue also includes reviews from the new season, including Rigoletto at Covent Garden.

This month’s features are:

—Great singers in great roles: Renata Scotto talks about Norma

—We interview the composer Gerald Barry about his operas

—Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani offers an appreciation of Arthur Sullivan

—18th-century audience behaviour: some eye-witness accounts

—The overlooked impresario William Hawes

Leading off the recording and book review section, our ‘Disc of the month’ is André Messager’s Passionnément on the Bru Zane label. ‘For the record’ is with the soprano Nicole Cabell.