No mistaking Callas

SIR – John Copley may have been too “flamboyant” for the Metropolitan Opera (report, February 3), but on one occasion that quality was more appreciated.

In 1964 in London he was assisting in a production of Tosca starring Maria Callas. One morning she was too ill to attend rehearsals, and Mr Copley – a trained counter-tenor – took over the part.

A woman visiting the box office begged the manager, who didn’t know of Callas’s absence, to open a door so she could hear the legendary diva. He did so, just as Copley – lying supine in Tito Gobbi’s arms – let out a loud shriek.

“Ah yes,” sighed the visitor. “That unmistakable voice!” And she left well satisfied. James Dixon

Stanningfield, Suffolk