John Copley: a life in opera

'I caught opera like other people caught measles, and La Bohème changed my life'When John Copley was asked in 1974 to direct a new production of La Bohème for the Royal Opera House the brief was very clear. "It couldn't be a copy of the old [1896] Nellie Melba production," he recalls. "But it did have to be quite traditional as the main thing was that it should stay in the repertoire. They were insistent on that. It had to last for at least three or four seasons."Thirty-eight years and more th...

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