Woke Glyndebourne

SIR – You report (November 17) that Glyndebourne plans to adapt the operas it stages to avoid offending modern sensibilities.

This arrogantly assumes that audience members are unable to differentiate between modern concepts of equality and diversity, and the mores of Verdi and Puccini’s times, and are therefore unreformed, racist misogynists who need to be lectured about their shortcomings.

We have already been tried by recent productions of La clemenza di Tito and Alcina, and I suspect that I will not be the only patron relieving Glyndebourne of my offensive presence.

Janet Whiteway

Middlesbrough

SIR – Susie Gilbert (Letters, November 15) fears that cutting opera funding will fuel “the ongoing erosion of the creative, humane soul of the nation”. However, I would argue that “the creative, humane soul of the nation” is primarily upheld by English literature, not foreign imports such as opera.

It should also be noted that the support that literature gets from Arts Council England is miniscule compared with even the reduced support that opera gets. Yet it is in literature that England excels internationally. The soul is nourished by reflective private reading, not by expensive, flamboyant recreations on the stage, however entertaining. Nicholas Bielby

Bradford, West Yorkshire