Oliver Knussen tells Tom Service why he read 1,700 Emily Dickinson poems in order to compose a requiem for his former wife Sue. As he approaches his 70th birthday, Steve Reich looks back at the bold predictions he made for music in 1970, and asks how much he got right. Ailing leading men, a rib-crushing corset and padded rooms were the least of Emma Bell's worries as she prepared to sing Violetta, one of opera's toughest roles.
How did a jet-setting opera director come to work with Newcastle's homeless? Alfred Hickling meets Keith Warner. Nigel Kennedy doesn't mind the classical world sniffing at his geezer routine, rock-out irreverence and new jazz project.
After all, someone has to keep the stuffed shirts on their toes. After radical stomach surgery, Deborah Voigt is taking on new roles. She talks for the first time about her extraordinary transformation.
A season of films scored by Shostakovich, usually portrayed as a tortured soul, reveals the composer's warmth, says Ed Vulliamy. Haydn was treated like a superstar when he arrived in London - and life in the big city inspired him to write some of the greatest music ever composed, says Marshall Marcus. We all like to moan about the Last Night of the Proms: its cliches and its jingoism.
We asked the experts to play artistic director and tell us how - or if - they would change it. It was the humble composer who used to take centre stage - but then they all died. Donald Sassoon on the rise of the cult of the maestro.
The murder of American journalist (and violinist) Daniel Pearl has inspired Steve Reich to write the most political work of his career. Piano camp is not for softies. Grown men have cracked.
Can Alan Rusbridger stay the course? ENO has been attacked for presuming to put on a show about Muammar Gaddafi, with music by Asian Dub Foundation. We spoke to the team behind the opera to find out why they chose such a risky subject.
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