By Andrew Clark [Financial Times, 16 November 2008]

The news that Gerard Mortier, the controversial Belgian impresario, will not be moving to New York City Opera has surprised no one. It was always a stretch to imagine a man so accustomed to the largesse of the state answering to a board of private individuals on whose generosity his every artistic decision would depend. Mortier remains at the Paris Opéra, but only till the end of the season: under French law state employees retire at 65.