Interview with Daniel Barenboim

There is an interesting Financial Times lunch interview with Daniel Barenboim, for which, click here. He will shortly be conducting three Proms with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra (Wagner, Liszt, and Berlioz; Berg and Mendelssohn; Fidelio), all of which I look forward to hearing - and reviewing. If only the Middle East, or indeed the rest of the world, had a few more sane voices such as his and Edward Said's... And if only the whole world might listen to Beethoven's message in Fidelio, not the plot device of a wife's loyalty to her husband, but the voicing of an inutterably noble idea of freedom. Waltraud Meier will star...