GLYNDEBOURNE
SIR,—Mr. Colin Mason. in your issue of July 13, filled most of his space in lauding the English singers working at Glyndebourne this year. Excellent. But he associates this with abuse of me. This I can stand, but I wonder why he should think the work we have done at Glyndebourne, at Edinburgh and else- where should be rewarded in this way.
To quote his article of July 13: 'but for those snobs who do not know how to judge the evidence of their own ears, perhaps the testimony of Mr. Christie at Glyndebourne, certainly not noted for favouritism towards English singers, will carry more weight.' Are our Glyndebourne public snobs? Am 1 a snob? Why am I noted as a Britannophobe, when the rest of his article praises our use of British' singers? Is he entitled to raise such a point when we have no State subsidy and the State is paying £270,000 per annum to Covent Garden—even if they are bankruptl- to compete with Glyndebourne founded twelve years before Covent Garden opera? Were we wrong to use our family fortune for this work? The envy and malice with which we have for years been attacked has not stopped us. The best answer is to ask you to laugh at it.— Yours faithfully,
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