26 DECEMBER 1970, Page 18

Garden and Wells

Sir: In your current issue the Spectator's Notebook recommends that Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells should be allowed to wither and die.

Throughout the world opera and ballet are recognised as major art forms in which this country today holds a pre-eminent position, and to which the SPECTATOR has con- sistently devoted a great deal of valuable critical attention.

May we therefore ask whether the view expressed last week in your Notebook represented a funda- mental change of Editorial policy, or whether we can take it that it was no more than a temporary lapse? Lord Drogheda Chairman, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden David McKenna Chairman, Sadler's Wells Opera, Coliseum, St. Martin's Lane