Antonio Pappano is the best thing that has happened to the Royal Opera in its lifetime. His 22 years as music director, notching up 700 performances – making him the Alan Shearer of Covent Garden – have not just been a record stint, studded with highlights. They also came at precisely the time they were most desperately needed.
By the force of his musicianship and commitment he has done more than anyone to turn it from the haunted and defensive place of the millennium into the happy company it still succeeds in being, in defiance of so many anti-musical headwinds, today.
