Observations: The talented Mr Copley

When the curtain rises on Covent Garden's La Bohème tomorrow, it will mark 34 years of continuous life for this much-loved show, and 60 years in showbiz for its director John Copley, who started his career as a dancer. Has the length of its run surprised him? "Oh no – and I didn't particularly want it to run. I just thought it was a one-off. I've done five Bohèmes elsewhere since then, one of which I much prefer."

Waspishly camp, Copley himself is a one-off. "I was very fashionable once," he says mock-plaintively, "but then I fell victim to fashion." Too true: from being the most ubiquitous director in London in the Seventies, he was cast out by new brooms in the Eighties. Rather than weeping about it, he has been producing big shows in America, Europe and Australia ever since. When director Jude Kelly left the ENO's Merry Widow earlier this year, Copley was drafted in to save the show. "Who's he?" was bandied about, but the answer was a triumphant: "Here's who!" when the reviews came out. Singers love him, and he loves them, even if one American diva got very cross when he threatened to sing Isolde in her place if she didn't rise from her sick-bed.

'La Bohème' is in rep to 18 October (020-7304 4000)