Sir, – Michael Dervan (“The dark side of the concert hall”, Arts & Ideas, July 17th) asks readers to name a composer who described his own music as “horrid”.
Verdi declared his early, Voltaire-inspired opera Alzira to be "really ugly", yet his operas are performed more often than those of any other composer.
Alzira is plainly not among the worst of them but is, perhaps, an illustration of the principle of natural justice: Nemo iudex in sua causa (no-one should be a judge in his own case). – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
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Operngasse,
Vienna.