Glyndebourne suits Haitink 's way of working, as his personality seems to suit them. Because he is a slow worker, he appreciates the opportunit y Glyndebourne offers him to rehearse comprehensively and to prepare a production consistently with Peter Hall or whoever happens to be in charge of the stage. The number of repeat performances allows him to exploit his gift for developing a performance on successive nights. He believes that the fourteen evenings of Der Rosenka va/ier was evidence enough of all those benefits .
His chief loves among operatic composers are Mozart, Verdi and Wagner. There has been plenty of opportunity to conduct the first , and Idomeneo , one of his favourites , will be added in 1983, while La clemenza di Tiro shou ld be a possibility in a few years time. It is an open secret that the house has it in mind to return to Verdi , beginning, probably, with La rra viata. If the evidence of the Covent Garden Ba/lo is anything to go by, his Glyndebourne Verdi should be worth waiting for.
Wagner is more problematic. Haitink fully understands that in larger houses the Rings, Tristans and Parsifals tend to be the prerogative of the musical director, but he earnestly hopes to be allowed to conduct these works before long, even though he has no ambitions to become a musical director - 'too much administration' - in a large house himself. Meanwhile his Metropolitan debut comes next year with Don Giovanni and Fidelio . Despite that engagement , he is adverse to the 'sickness of our age', the star system. Much as he admires Covent Garden and Colin Davis's work there, he regrets the tendency there to pander to that system. 'You have, with your unique English mentality and musicality, a great chance to create a true company. I have the feeling that your people do not understand that asset enough - you only have to go to the Continent to appreciate the difference .'
Haitink is regretful that Glyndebourne productions are so seldom recorded , partly because the casts are not 'international ' enough. He believes that, with the kind of preparation available there, they should be preserved permanently . He is demanding and fastidious about his own recordings , and careful about what he will accept. His first opera recording, Die Zauberftote, has just been completed for EMI with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, of which he is guest conductor, and Haitink insisted that th e dialogue be recorded at the same time as the arias and ensembles in order to preserve the unity of the work . 'That's the only way that the architecture can be heard. '
His association with the Concertgebouw has lasted now for more than twenty years . He is contracted for thirty concerts a season plus tours, in effect fifty concerts over a period of sixteen weeks. He has to fight a constant battle with the management, who feel that he may no longer be as deepl y committed to the orchestra as he once was. He understands their worries : a principal conductor should be with his players as much as possible. On the other hand, he now feels so much at home in Britain - 'my musical fatherland ' - that he may not be averse to settling here before long . 'I always am so happy here ; my temperament suits the country. The whole cultural background , not to mention the standard of the criticism, is to
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