His Master's Voice and staff pensions

Dear pension fund member,

EMI Group Pension Fund

As you are probably aware, EMI Group plc has been taken over by Maltby Limited, a company set up by the Terra Firma group. The takeover was completed on 17 August 2007 and EMI Group plc has subsequently been delisted from the London Stock Exchange.

Despite its best efforts over a period of months, both preceding and immediately following the takeover, the Trustee Board of the EMI Group Pension Fund has not been able to reach agreement with the new owner regarding the funding of, and security available to, the Fund from 1 April 2006 (31 March 2006 is the date of the last funding valuation). Accordingly the Trustee has referred the matter to The Pensions Regulator who will initiate proper process for resolution under UK legislation. This is the normal procedure when a sponsoring company and trustees of a pension fund cannot agree the valuation basis and the contributions required.

We shall keep you informed as to developments and, in the meantime, please be assured that the Company is continuing to contribute to the Fund on the basis agreed with the Trustee at the previous valuation. This letter is for information only and no action is required on your part.

Yours sincerely
EMI Group Pension Trustees Ltd
3 October 2007

Photo taken in Vaison la Romaine market by Pliable, (c) On An Overgrown Path 2007. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

The audience of course loved it

Country house opera is one of the few areas of classical music where audiences are growing. It tends to attract those lovely people who broker private equity deals, and holds little attraction for me. A view that seems to be confirmed by Anthony Holden's review in today's Observer:

La donna del lago, Garsington, Oxfordshire, Thurs to 7 July - Like his twin brother Christopher and all too many other globally renowned opera directors, David Alden can be maddeningly inconsistent. For every award-winning Jenufa or Ariodante at ENO, there are two or three eccentric turkeys gobbling their way round provincial houses. Now he has elected to head into rural England and immediately, infuriatingly, disastrously caught the country-house bug.

Rossini may be best known for his comedies, but the mature composer also wrote ornate, high-romantic dramas. One such is La donna del lago, the first Italian opera to be based on a Walter Scott novel, inspiring 25 more in the two decades after its 1819 premiere, not least Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. We might never have enjoyed such riches if Alden had directed La donna's premiere. At Garsington (above) he reduces this noble work to a shambolic panto. Perhaps it is because he's American that Alden signs up to the general belief that black-tied, champagne-quaffing English country-house audiences must be made to laugh, and have a jolly evening out, whatever the work on offer.

So the rebel Scottish army becomes a bunch of can-swilling lager louts, staggering around the stage in a parody of music-hall insobriety. The trouser-role romantic lead, Malcolm, is a punk in Sex Pistols T-shirt and Doc Martens. Mustachioed deer smoke cigars and read Country Life, pickpocketing their drunken hunters. The baddie, Rodrigo, does a Ricky Gervais stand-up routine in horns and leather jacket; when he gets angry he starts, guess what, overturning tables and chairs. Yes, just about every available stage cliche is on view.

Only the heroine, Elena, manages to maintain some semblance of dignity amid this puerile chaos, though the vocal range of Carmen Giannattasio is severely stretched by Rossini's coloratura demands. The same proves true of the tenors Colin Lee, Michael Colvin and all other principals. David Parry conducts with more enthusiasm than finesse, while Alden makes a Monty Python mockery of high Rossini. The audience, of course, loved it.

As Anthony Holden goes on to say, thank goodness for Aldeburgh
Garsington image credit Corydora. Review credit Observer. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk