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Available for over a year

Terry Gilliam's new production of Berlioz's Benvenuto Cellini opened at English National Opera this week. Tom Service speaks to ENO's music director Edward Gardner and reviews the production with the critics Alexandra Coghlan and Geoffrey Smith. On a flying visit to London, the Metropolitan Opera's General Manager Peter Gelb explains to Tom that although the launch of the Met's live HD cinema relays worldwide have been a tremendous success the opera company faces bankruptcy within in the next two or three years if things aren't rectified now. Gelb sets out his plan to save the Met to Tom. Tom also took the opportunity to catch up with the American countertenor Lawrence Zazzo when he was in town and found out about the influence Frankie Valli and the Bee Gees had on him...as well as James Bowman! Zazzo also expressed his frustration at the idea that countertenors are a continuation of the castrati line and not seen as falsettists in their own right. Tom also visits Birmingham to see how preparations are coming along for the composer David Lang's new work called Crowd Out which features a thousand voices shouting, whispering and chanting!