Keep in touch
Follow the i journalists on our Twitter list
Subscribe to the i print edition - or on iPad
i is available on PRINT subscription or on our iPAD APP at just £45 for twelve months
Today's letter from the Editor
Today's Matrices
iJobs General
SAP SD Consultant
£475 - £476 per day + negotiable: Progressive Recruitment: SAP SD Contract Con...
Maths Teacher- Reading
Negotiable: Randstad Education Reading: Our client in Sonning Common, is looki...
Science Teacher- Reading
Negotiable: Randstad Education Reading: Our client in Sonning Common, is looki...
Special Needs Teacher in Lewisham South London
£27000 - £55000 per annum: Randstad Education London: Supply special education...
i Editor's Letter: Cheers for fair treats
I almost hesitate to tell you I went to Glyndebourne at the weekend. Mentions of opera are pursued by allegations of elitism as inexorably as Siegfried is pursued by the bear at the start of Wagner's opera of the same name.
This has always seemed to me to be a somewhat specious argument. OK, tickets at Glyndebourne cost a bit more than a seat at a Premier League game, but the food's a lot cheaper (you take your own).
And while the dress code stipulates black tie for men (it's a bit more relaxed for women), a clip-on bowtie and a dress shirt from M&S is not going to set you back much more than a Chelsea home strip.
I'm not aware of any ruling that states you have to travel by Jaguar or Bentley —you can roll up in a Reliant Robin if you like.
I'm slightly allergic to the suggestion that certain branches of the arts are the preserve of one particular class. I think it's patronising.
Are we really expected to believe that only toffs or the middle classes are capable of understanding art or music or drama? Or of grasping the idea that a production involving all three might cost a bit to put on? (There's no BOGOF in the opera world, unfortunately.)
In any case, I was there to see Michael Grandage's witty production of Le Nozze de Figaro – an opera that above all celebrates the wit of the working man and woman, and their ability to outwit an aristocratic employer, who is depicted as a hidebound, lecherous bully.
Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte, may have toned down some of the more radical political points in Pierre Beaumarchais's original play, but the message still comes through loud and clear: everyone deserves to be treated fairly, love — the greatest of all human emotions — should be rewarded, and desire for revenge, or petty jealousy, is the sort of behaviour that merits punishment.
Elitist or not, I'll raise a glass of champagne to that.
Stefano Hatfield is away.
Follow @VBackyard- 1 The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey pays more income tax than big cities of the North
- 2 Tottenham to smash pay scale with £150,000-a-week contract in attempt to tie Gareth Bale to club
- 3 'Revenge porn' is no longer a niche activity which victimises only celebrities - the law must intervene
- 4 The moral case on tax avoidance is overwhelming - and we all know Google wants to do the right thing
- 5 Sam Wallace: The second coming of Jose Mourinho at Chelsea will be a reunion that can only end in tears
Get your summer started with British Military Fitness
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
Visit York
Find out what The Independent's resident travel expert has to say about one of the most beautiful small cities in the world
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
The price of pacifism
Jason Isaacs: Groupies, theatre bores and James Bond
Sealand: 'Micronation' or illegal fortress?
Legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing
Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation'

