Letter: Fright at the opera

Sir: The prejudices against opera that Roy Harper expresses ("Out of Tune", The Independent Magazine, 15 May) are so widespread that they even extend to theatrical circles. Why else would directors feel the need to stage productions in modern dress and so on if not to try to convince the likes of Roy Harper that the form is somehow "relevant" to the modern world? Opera is an art form so sublime that it does not need to be made relevant. It exists in its own world of suspended disbelief and wonderful artifice.

G W MOFFAT

Newcastle upon Tyne