Words fly as opera gets that Commons touch

With its braying chorus and rapid dialogue, the House of Commons can resemble an opera at times. Playing the lead roles recently were Angela Rayner and Dominic Raab, as the Labour and Tory deputy leaders clashed over the subject of opera itself. Citing Rayner’s visit to see Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro at Glyndebourne, Raab winked that ‘Champagne socialism is back in the Labour party’, to which his counterpart reflected that Figaro is about ‘a working-class woman who gets the better of a privileged but dim-witted villain’. There’s clearly a new opera plot in waiting here. Now we just need a composer…