ABSTRACT
In the years preceding the Great War, London's operatic life was dominated more than ever by Covent Garden. The Syndicate's primary objective being to maintain the established grand season, it placed heavy emphasis on recruiting the best singers and bringing new operas to London, especially those that had been successful elsewhere. The English Ring cycles conducted by Richter were dominated by native singers and many British artistes made notable impressions in the grand seasons, including John McCormack, Walter Hyde and Louise Kirkby Lunn. The lack of Wagner generated hostile comment in the press, fuelled by a belief that populism and star singers were exerting a greater influence than artistic probity. With the exception of the war years, opera in central London from 1897, the operatic culture, was dominated by Covent Garden. Its audience may have been elite, elitist, and wholly atypical, as were its performers, but it retained the role of dominant arbiter of taste and repertory.
