Sir, Mr Peter Croft of Cambridge (letters, Jan 20 and 24) doubts that the total number of English works ever played in foreign concert halls is more than a dozen a year. Let me put his doubts to rest.
For February alone the current Opera magazine lists 54 performances of English operas all round the world — from Purcell through Gilbert and Sullivan to Britten. The latter has Turn of the Screw in Copenhagen, Peter Grimes in Augsburg, Midsummer Night’s Dream in Bremen, Death in Venice in Frankfurt, Curlew River in Warsaw and Albert Herring in New York, just for starters (24 performances in all).
Incidentally, I have not included any Handel operas: if I were to do so, the February total would be about 100. In a year, that would give 1,200 evenings, round the world, of opera by English composers, before we even look at symphonies, concerti, choral works and chamber music.
MIKE REYNOLDS
Witnesham, Suffolk