15 AUGUST 1981, Page 17

Mismatched

Sir: Readers of the Spectator are doubtless used to your opera critic's habit of crediting strange sexual deviations to the heroes and heroines of the standard works. But in describing Ann Howard's Fidalma as 'uxorious' (8 August) surely he goes too far. Who in Cimarosa's opera is the lesbian partner to whom the lady is so obviously devoted?

Julian Budden

External Services Music Organiser, British Broadcasting Corporation, London W1