[New Statesman, 3 April 2006]

In London, an early-evening injection of rigorous debate has become quite the thing, and this past week the Italian Institute was dissecting opera. Not the art form, but the financing. In the Italian corner was Antonio Cognata, general manager of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Sicily. He introduced himself by saying: "I am an economist." In the British corner was Elaine Padmore, director of opera at Covent Garden, whose rejoinder went something like: "I'm no good at figures, but I know a lot about music."

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