standard ? They start with conductors, they have to, with the orchestra, the chorus and whoever's in the pit. That' the starting point. To achieve standards, we've got to look at what we might regard as the quick reviva l , which has perhaps dominated the house rather a lot in recent years, and it has done so because we have had to make money: we have had to fi ll in performances because if you have people permanent ly employed, then every time you perform you improve your box-office situation. So when we look towards 1989 and beyond to 1993, or whenever the closure is , the key mu t be to make sure that every piece goes on for a particular reason . You come down to, say, 16 or 17 works maximum a year . You start with conductors. Then you look at British singers : how many can you use and at the ame time leave gaps for ome of the great international singers? Of course not everybody i like Domingo. There are fine singers from overseas who come and work here , like Claudio Desderi in Figaro . It's a question of balance all the time . The priority is to see how best to u e those British singers who are prepared to give us time, while still ensuring that they ha ve the opportunity to go and develop elsewhere, because the reason British singers have developed to the extent t hat they have i because they have had the chance to sing abroad. 1 reall y don't belie\'e whl:!n you talk about a 'company' today you mean, in a house that has only 16 or 17 production a yea r , a s inger who is going to sit here all the time. Obviou ly the younger ones, yes, because it is part of our job to develop them . But it's a question of looking over a three - or four-year period, talking to Tom Allen, Marie McLaughlin , Ann Murray, Diana Montague and o on, a king them what roles would work well for them between 1989 and 1993 , what roles we should advance them in h re at Covent Garden , and a t th e same tim e dovetailing these ro les in with what they may do overseas.

To come back to a point that Jeremy made about a famil y, about making singers fee l they are part of Covent Garden, that Covent Garden is their home, and that they are going to focus their work around what they will do in this country. This leads to another point. If you go back to the '60s, you find that there was a tremendous di vide between the London houses. There were certain British singers who only appeared at Sadler's Wells or the Coliseum, and certain singers who only appeared at Covent Garden . That has blown wide open, and it's one of the best things that's happened here. Thomas Allen, Philip Langridge, all these people appear equally at the Coliseum and Covent Garden , and then go to Scotland. So we have to examine very carefully what we mean by 'a company' s inger. I think it 's a singer who is giving a commitment to this house over an extended period, a singer with whom we have talked in great detail about the roles they will sing, bearing in mind that we still-i f we are going to have two houses in London-leave the spaces where a Domingo , or a Pavarotti, or whoever, can come and sing. RM: You mentioned Desderi who, whatever else he is, is not a Domingo: he doesn't ha ve that sort of following. But he does strike me a s being a 'family'singer, someone with whom you are de veloping a relationship.

PF: Bernard started to develop it with him at Gl yndebourne. BH: He's a very good company singer. RM : And h e wants to come and work here.

PF: So do singers like Carol Vaness. There are a number of such singers, and of course when they are looking at new roles, they want to come to a house where they are go in g to get the facilities and the time really to learn a role. One of the most

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