Jonathan Dove is writing works as topical as the classics once were, writes Matthew Westwood

[The Australian, 24 February 2006]

JONATHAN Dove's Flight is possibly the first and only opera to be set in an airport departure lounge. And, perhaps because of that, it has travelled widely since its premiere at Britain's Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1998: to continental Europe, to North America and, next month, to Australia. When so many new operas have their first performance and are then promptly forgotten, this is an opera with legs - if not wings.