Songs of the north
Swedish composers are a closed book to most of us. Anne Sofie von Otter intends to change that.
Thumbs down at the Coliseum
James Fenton wonders whom the new Don Giovanni is for.
In perfect harmony
When Alma Schindler got a musical love letter, she knew it had to be from Mahler. It was the first of 350 - and the beginning of a blissful union.
Bloody chambers
Is it a feminist parable, a misogynistic attack or a satire of desire? Tim Ashley gets to grips with the enigmatic Bluebeard.
Evil genius
Paul Claudel was a misogynist, an anti-semite and an Islamophobe. He was also regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists. By Tim Ashley.
Shock treatment
Taught by Jesuits, Calixto Bieito studied art history and went on to work with some of the great European theatre directors. His challenging interpretations of stage and opera classics have been dismissed by some as pornographic sensationalism and praised by others as revelatory. This month he opens two shows at Edinburgh, including a graphically violent version of Il Trovatore.
Road map to peace in the Middle East? Try this….
The World of Books: Stephanie Merritt on the unifying power of a unique collaboration between the late Edward Said and Daniel Barenboim.
The melody lingers on
James Fenton on poetry in music.
Critical player
Charles Rosen took piano lessons as a child with a teacher who had studied with Liszt. He wrote sleeve notes for a record company before his groundbreaking book, The Classical Style. A champion of modern composers, renowned as much for his intellect as for his musical skill, he continues to extend his repertoire. By Lucasta Miller.
Collector’s items
It wasn't until he saw the bus ticket that Michael Nyman realised he had to write an opera about Kurt Schwitters. Here he tells how he discovered his link to the co-founder of Dada.
Out with the old
When Michael Berkeley became director of the Cheltenham festival, he wanted to make it sparkle. A decade on, he looks back on all his shocking ideas - and offers some advice for his successor.
How Grimes became grim
James Fenton finds Benjamin Britten's Aldeburgh opera powerful - but immoral.
Sounds and silence
A rebel against authority since childhood, Peter Maxwell Davies won a scholarship to study music in Manchester where he joined a remarkable group. Influenced by plainsong and European modernism, he composed a string of provocative works before founding a festival in the Orkneys. This year he became Master of the Queen's Music, and his 70th birthday will be marked at the Proms.
Secrets and lies
James Fenton on the invention of the unreliable child
Death and the muse
No one knows the real identity of Beethoven's 'immortal beloved'. But she left the composer in a creative crisis that lasted for years