If we defund opera saying it is for toffs, then only the toffs will go. Where’s the sense in that?

If you happen to travel through Paris on the Métro, as I did recently, you’ll see huge, distinctive posters for this year’s Aix-en-Provence opera festival flash past. Sandwiched round “Stravinsky – Ballets Russes”, you’ll see the names of two British composers, George Benjamin and Philip Venables, writ large and proud – doubtless in the expectation that Parisian commuters will be sufficiently intrigued to plan a summer trip to the opposite end of the country to see their new operas.

Both premieres are actually coproductions, with the Royal Opera House and Manchester international festival respectively, so they will wend their way to the UK in due course. But it is hard to imagine they’ll get quite as much fanfare on British mass transportation systems.