performances of the Ring cycle at the Royal Albert Hall in 1998. There, with the orche. tra in full view as Wagner had never intended it to be, one experienced the monumental works in a completely new li ght, perfec tl y ba lanced, immaculately haped, texturally perfect, and dramatica ll y overwhelming.

Sir Jeremy___L_aac 'Prima la mu ica ... ' Covent Garden has benefited from having at the heart of its crea tive effort a dedicated mu ic ian. Bernard Haitink g ives hi s a ll to music, subordi nating to it hi ego and hi geniu . . He may be the 1110 t modest mLL ici an ever to have led an opera hou e. A . how-off he a in 't. When, at the end of a Ring cycle, I tri ed to crown him on stage with a laurel wreath, he waved it away. Orche tra and audience ee that dedication in him, and re pond. For him, the mu ic always come. fir. t. When we first met and T cooked supper in Bermondsey, he looked at the pictures on my wall and hoped for visual in sights that would match hi s vision in the pit. Tt did not quite work out like that.

In February 1988 I li stened in an empty theatre to the first orchestra 'al one' fo r Parsifal. As the prelude sounded, I sensed the li ghting of a flame. Bernard, full y prepared, was embarking on a voyage of di covery a. th stre tches of Wagner he had come to the ROH to tackle opened in front of him. There, in the pit for an 'alone', a. on the concert platform, he was certa in of what he could achieve. He made music.

From earlier vi it , and from what he'd done at Glyndebourne, we were sure of hi s Mozart, and that there wa me Verdi at hi command- Don Carlos most evidentl y. At the ROH he happily took on Britten- Grimes and Budd, sharp and powerful. Hi. performances of Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage were a fin e as I have heard . He added Katya Kahan.ova and , after Simon Rattle, The Cunning Little Vixen, bringing a 20th-century • Bernard Haitink ensibility to tho e dazzling core . In Strau s, he exhibited the oaring architecture of Die Frau ohne Schatren. I personally treasure hi s grand and moving Prince Igor. Conducting the Royal Ballet, he bowed how Ravel, Stravinsky and Prokofiev hould sound, even if the full orchestra for Romeo and Juliet (not usually called for) overflowed the pit.

But the heart of hi Covent Garden offering was Wagner: Par ifal, the Ring, Meistersinger, Tristan. His Fliegende Hollander preceded me: Bernard told the Board nothing like it should be seen again. He was to be

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