MusicWeb International is pleased to be able to draw attention to  the Canadian music web site La Scena Musicale established by Wah Keung Chan. Permission has kindly been granted for MusicWeb International to link to their weekly column by  Norman Lebrecht.

See also Lebrech.live on Radio 3

Book review Covent Garden: The Untold Story by Norman Lebrecht

Norman Lebrecht in Interview with Marc Bridle

Contents that may be read on Lebrecht weekly:

Since September 2000 you are visitor number

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2008/04/16. And this man is a classical hero?

2008/04/16. Virtuoso Vengerov Gets Bored, Retreats

2008/04/16. Bayreuth isn't safe with the Wagner sisters

2008/04/10. I can't bear the synthetic sound of this fuhrer with a baton

2008/04/09. This Arts Council farce has lost the plot

2008/04/09. An opera house by any other name

2008/04/05. The clapped-out legacy of Karajan that impoverished classical music

2008/04/04. Trisexual? Tell It to England's Arts Council

2008/04/02. Is a Strad a sound investment?

2008/04/02. China's new star on the guitar

2008/03/26. Why talent is forced to go it alone

2008/03/26. Chasing a music that didn’t exist

2008/03/05. Kennedy's hit and miss

2008/03/05. A new view of Mahler

2008/03/05. Kennedy's hit and miss

2008/02/27. Atonement's Oscar strikes the right note

2008/02/27. Gordon gets it right with culture

2008/02/22. Maazel's Troops Bumble Into Korean Ambush

2008/02/20. La Scala Goes to the Movies, too

2008/02/20. Is pop music bad for your health?

2008/02/19. Barenboim's Beethoven Will Resound for Decades

2008/02/13. Classical music goes clubbing

2008/02/13. Barenboim's piano prodigy

2008/02/06. Gabriela Montero - The pianist who plays My Way

2008/02/06. Don't bank on your sponsors

2008/01/30. Don't put more fans on boards

2008/01/30. The monster and his myth

2008/01/23. The future of music is free

2008/01/09. When a movie outshines the oustanding original

Who cares where conductors come from? / January 9, 2008

When a movie outshines the oustanding original / January 9, 2008

Now the Arts Council really has lost the plot / December 21, 2007

Last love of a piano legend / December 19, 2007

Stockhausen gets a second wind / December 12, 2007

Rattle's net gains / December 5, 2007

Glyndebourne gets in groove / November 21, 2007

The arts are coloured brown / November 21, 2007

New hot rod in the podium / November 14, 2007

Tales of the recording angel / October 31, 2007

The missing link in the reel / October 24, 2007

Heavy reading / October 17, 2007

We’re going to make a classical star / October 17, 2007

Kennedy’s classical comeback / October 10, 2007

Singing in the last chance saloon / October 3, 2007

London needs to form its own arts council / October 3, 2007

A round of applause for Riccardo Muti / September 26, 2007

How Nureyev played the fame game / September 26, 2007

Master of no Musick / September 19, 2007

Is Natalie the new du Pre? / September 19, 2007

Dressed to impress / September 12, 2007

Why Bryn walked out of Wagner’s Ring / September 12, 2007

He made the world smile / September 6, 2007

How the classical record industry is fighting back / August 30, 2007

The joy of Solti's last concert / August 30, 2007

In bed with the Fuhrer / August 22, 2007

Why the stars aren’t out in Salzburg / August 15, 2007

Best sound man in the business / August 15, 2007

The man who put opera on the front page / August 8, 2007

How to ruin a Prom / August 1, 2007

Can the young blades cut the big stuff? / August 1, 2007

The first musicians of Auschwitz / July 27, 2007

Kurt Masur: The survivor’s tale / July 11, 2007

Uncalculated disaster / July 5, 2007

The best pianist you've never heard / July 5, 2007

Catching up with the rising Juro / June 27, 2007

Urban disaster: the opera / June 20, 2007

Much improved, and much to prove / June 13, 2007

Opera makes its next media move / June 6, 2007

Shut that noise / June 6, 2007

Sounding better on the south Bank / May 30, 2007

The boy who would be Wagner / May 30, 2007

Max and the missing half a million / May 24, 2007

All they needed was love / May 24, 2007

Piano genius with mass appeal / May 16, 2007

Odd couple returns to Broadway / May 9, 2007

Classic choice for the iPod generation / May 9, 2007

Classical honours for Sting and McCartney / May 2, 2007

Slava, the naive and sentimental / May 2, 2007

China's musical revolution / April 18, 2007

Why Alagna walked out - he says / April 11, 2007

Who says he's Elgar the Great? / April 11, 2007

How do you solve a problem called laryngitis? / March 28, 2007

Save our People’s Opera / March 28, 2007

The Classic Million-sellers / March 21, 2007

British Museum Steals a March on China / March 14, 2007

ENO’s death by 1,000 cuts / February 28, 2007

How Gorecki makes his music – an exclusive interview Norman Lebrecht / February 28, 2007

Tusa’s shoes / February 21, 2007

How to make a classical fake / February 21, 2007

 End of the road for opera's lovers / February 7, 2007

 No more downloads from the BBC / February 7, 2007

 It's a blogger's world / January 31, 2007

 Waiting for the axe to fall / January 31, 2007

 Clearing Prime Time for Tchaikovsky / January 24, 2007

 We need a national instrument fund / January 18, 2007

 Where Kylie met Akram / January 18, 2007

 Get those pants off my stage / January 10, 2007

 Love’s laments lost / January 10, 2007

 A Tale of Two Women / January 3, 2007

 The future is Latin / January 3, 2007

 How to avoid anniversary fatigue / December 27, 2006

 Don't be shy - sing in the streets / December 22, 2006

 Brought to book, one last time / December 20, 2006

 Stop the opera, I want to get off / December 13, 2006

 Onto the sub-continent / December 7, 2006

 Brought to their knees / December 7, 2006

 How Wayne will change the Royal Ballet / December 5, 2006

 Vandalising a Beatles shrine / November 29, 2006

  The best of British to Covent Garden / November 29, 2006

 Wanted: a new vision to rescue the BBC / November 28, 2006

 Opera finds a new world / November 22, 2006

 Radio 3 is not out of tune / November 17, 2006

 A walk on the web side / November 8, 2006

 Berlin's Perfume doesn't smell so sweet / November 1, 2006

 The elephant in the Arts Council room / October 25, 2006

 ABBA Sung by Mezzo-Soprano Still Sounds Crass: Norman Lebrecht / October 5, 2006

Sting switches strings / September 27, 2006

The Barbican means business / September 20, 2006

Musicians must come down to earth / September 13, 2006

Why there’s a hole in the Proms / September 6, 2006

A Game of Haydn Seek / August 30, 2006

Rattle has a battle on his hands / August 23, 2006

More cracks opening in the Shostakovich code / August 18, 2006

A subtext for deepening confusions: Steve Reich at 70 / August 9, 2006

How would you like to be locked in the quiet room? / August 2, 2006

The Piano Man / July 26, 2006

Is the South Bank safe in these hands? / July 24, 2006

The future lies in the past / July 12, 2006

The man who is changing the sound of the BBC / July 5, 2006

South Bank 'vision' falls short of expectations / June 29, 2006

The old composer, his wife and his lovers / June 28, 2006

Tosca scores again / June 14, 2006

Another record crash / June 12, 2006

There's no boating like show boating / May 31, 2006

How I dread the sound of silence / May 26, 2006

Fear and loathing at the opera / May 17, 2006

The trouble with boys / May 10, 2006

And he shall build Jerusalem / May 3, 2006

Put out more flags for English music / April 26, 2006

Life and death without the hocus-pocus / April 25, 2006

Watch out for the lightning conductor / April 19, 2006

An art that silences women / April 12, 2006

Ban this freak show / April 11, 2006

Ring-and-ring-a-download / April 5, 2006

Vandals at the museum door / March 29, 2006

Battles over Bolshoi / March 22, 2006

Time to break the stranglehold of state funding / March 8, 2006

ENO's new music director / March 7, 2006

How the festival floundered / March 1, 2006

The Shame of La Belle France / March 1, 2006

How Domingo Killed the Three Tenors / February 22, 2006

An introduction to chamber musicals / February 15, 2006

Are we scared of going mad? / February 8, 2006

Letting the streets in / February 1, 2006

Finding his inner Mozart / January 25, 2006

Where are ENO's angels? / January 11, 2006

An art is born / January 11, 2006

ENO drops music director / December 28, 2005

How The Producers went sour on me / December 28, 2005

English National Opera Chairman Resigns / December 21, 2005

Will music be safe in their hands? / December 21, 2005

Too much Mozart makes you sick / December 14, 2005

Reliving the Munich massacre / December 13, 2005

A fright at the opera / December 7, 2005

Bitter tears over operatic blunder / November 30, 2005

Fresh turmoil at ENO / November 29, 2005

Who can save Edinburgh? / November 23, 2005

Have an enjoyable Holocaust trip / November 21, 2005

Making an opera out of a crisis / November 16, 2005

Hallelujah - it's Messiah in miniature / November 9, 2005

Scenes from a Revolution / November 2, 2005

Watch out for the Pavamingo / October 27, 2005

Counting the Freeloaders / October 19, 2005

A cry for help / October 12, 2005

The fiddler who should be banned / October 5, 2005

How racist is Oliver Twist? / September 29, 2005

The Koestler Conundrum / September 27, 2005

Meet the MyWaymen / September 21, 2005

Why Music Doesn't Pay / September 14, 2005

Why give a day to the mad scientist of music? / September 7, 2005

Why do they do it? / August 31, 2005

Playing the Survivor / August 24, 2005

Death of the Library? / August 22, 2005

The little label musicians love / August 10, 2005

Jude and the Obscure / August 3, 2005

The loneliest job on earth / July 27, 2005

In love and despair / July 25, 2005

Another slice of heritage? / July 20, 2005

Why are the Aussies running our arts? / July 6, 2005

The buzz about Beethoven / June 29, 2005

Sex, drugs and symphony orchestras / June 22, 2005

Those wicked old Wagners / June 15, 2005

The New Designer Label / June 8, 2005

Prisoner of the Opera / June 1, 2005

Show me some ID / May 29, 2005

Time to change tune / May 19, 2005

Makers of the modern world / May 13, 2005

Free Beethoven Now / May 5, 2005

English Composers Lost at the Proms / April 27, 2005

see also Marc Bridle reports on the forthcoming Proms Festival

Big Brother Goes to the Opera / April 21, 2005

Whose music is it anyway? / April 13, 2005

The Mystery of Margot Fonteyn / April 7, 2005

Tomorrow's hall today / March 30, 2005

Toppling the tyrant at La Scala / March 23, 2005

Musical numbers that don't add up / March 17, 2005

Sounding off on the South Bank / February 24, 2005

A chorus of approval / February 16, 2005

Who's afraid of classical concerts? / February 10, 2005

And the bands play on / February 2, 2005

Karl Amadeus Hartmann - One Good German / January 27, 2005

Going off the rails / January 20, 2005

Getting Rattled / January 12, 2005

On the fiddle / January 5, 2005

Another record year / December 30, 2004

Michael Tippett - A composer to Forget / December 22, 2004

Banned by the Met / December 15, 2004

British Opera's Ring of woes / December 8, 2004

The House is rocking / November 17, 2004

Springtime for the Musical / November 15, 2004

How the Met was fixed / November 11, 2004

Valery Gergiev: 'I don't want us to be remembered for Beslan' / November 3, 2004

Herbert Breslin – The man behind Pavarotti / October 28, 2004

Anne-Sofie von Otter - The baroque diva who has turned to pop / October 21, 2004

Notes of caution will kill orchestras / October 14, 2004

Bela Bartok - There's a composer at the next station / September 30, 2004

Lloyd Webber's latest - a ghost of an opera / September 24, 2004

CD2: Abbado's Brahms First / September 18, 2004

How biopics lost the plot / September 18, 2004

The Definitive CDs / September 1, 2004

Two Classes of Orchestra / August 20, 2004

Star spangled manner / August 11, 2004

Classic Follies on British Concert Halls / August 4, 2004

Carlos Kleiber: Not a great conductor / July 30, 2004

Sony Walkman - Music to whose ears? / July 26, 2004

Simon and Garfunkel - The Mother and child of reunions / July 18, 2004

A Funny Thing Happened to Stephen Sondheim / July 14, 2004

The novel of the opera / July 8, 2004

How British opera is killing itself / June 23, 2004

Conductors who score / June 15, 2004

Mikko Franck - The beat generation / May 27, 2004

A Tale of Two Writers / May 24, 2004

The Two BBCs / May 20, 2004

Mahler's Going for a song / May 13, 2004

Master Marriner / May 5, 2004

The band won't play on / April 28, 2004

The Philadelphia Story / April 21, 2004

A Revolution in the Stalls / April 16, 2004

Samuel Taylor-Coleridge: One Hit Wonder / April 7, 2004

A critical gap / March 31, 2004

The Fight for Shostakovich / March 24, 2004

According to Mel Gibson / March 17, 2004

Outsized talents / March 10, 2004

It's not about love, darling / March 3, 2004

Land of Max and Harry / February 25, 2004

Why the big music jobs are no-go arias / February 18, 2004

The Music of Mel Brooks / February 4, 2004

Fit for the future? / January 29, 2004

Power of Song / January 21, 2004

Stretching the band / January 7, 2004

Look who's been dumped / December 31, 2003 but see Dave Hurwitz's reposte

Hector Berlioz - The unloved genius / December 10, 2003

Daniel Barenboim - Playing Politics / December 3, 2003

Music's Missing Faces / November 26, 2003

Sounding a revolution / November 5, 2003

Mariss Jansons - Rattle gets a rival / October 29, 2003

Arnold Schoenberg's Second string quartet - The day music went mad / October 22, 2003

Dvorak - Best thing since sliced bread / October 15, 2003

How the PC brigade is destroying our orchestras / October 8, 2003

What Makes a great critic / October 2, 2003

How money men stole our brands / September 25, 2003

Changing Hands / September 17, 2003

Funding is for fools / September 11, 2003

No Strings Attached / September 3, 2003

The Lost Art / August 13, 2003

Prommers ruin the Proms / August 6, 2003

Otto Klemperer - Behind every great conductor / July 30, 2003

Gambling with the lottery / July 9, 2003

Off the record / July 2, 2003

A Wizard Lesson for All / June 25, 2003

Down on the South Bank / June 18, 2003

The death of Luciano Berio - And then there were none / June 11, 2003

Valery Gergiev - Conducting History / May 28, 2003

Famous Last Notes / May 21, 2003

Buying Munich / May 14, 2003

When Moutrage Catches the Buzz / May 8, 2003

Bong go the classics / May 1, 2003

Way to go, LSO / April 23, 2003

Rachmaninov - Shrinking the Score / April 16, 2003

Show's coming off the road / April 11, 2003

Leos' Janac'ek - Animal magic / April 2, 2003

The ultimate orchestral sensation / March 26, 2003

Striking a false note / March 19, 2003

The new disorder / March 12, 2003

Stalin: his final victim / February 26, 2003

Hyperion's Ted Perry - Patron Saint of Independents / February 19, 2003

Tale of two opera companies / February 12, 2003

When greatness grates / January 29, 2003

Monica Mason - I like the idea of risk / January 22, 2003

Berthold Goldschmidt - Stirrings af a Lost Composer / January 15, 2003

The Unsung Sondheim / January 8, 2003

Mahler comes Second at last / December 19, 2002

The Real Szpilman Revealed / December 4, 2002

A Classical Dilemma / November 27, 2002

John Williams - The Magpie Maestro / November 20, 2002

Tomorrow, the World / November 13, 2002

Daniel Barenboim - The Paradox of the Peacemaker / November 6, 2002

The Tragedy and the Truth / November 3, 2002

Stravinsky: Missing from His Music / October 30, 2002

Drawing the Classical Line / October 23, 2002

Can ENO Win Again? / October 16, 2002

The next big thing? / October 14, 2002

Whose Music Is It Anyway? / October 10, 2002

Payback time for Vilar / October 2, 2002

The poison in the opera house split / October 2, 2002

William Lyne Retires - Sunset on a golden era / September 25, 2002

Classical music plays away / September 19, 2002

Leonard Slatkin - Last Night of the Proms / September 11, 2002

Dispelling the Scotch myth / September 7, 2002

Entering the realm of fiction / September 4, 2002

Death becomes them / August 29, 2002

Alberto Vilar - The benefactor and his bride / August 14, 2002

Still all white on the night / August 7, 2002

Too popular by half / August 6, 2002

Haitink's Legacy / July 17, 2002

RSC could crown wrong head / July 10, 2002

Where has the competition gone? / July 3, 2002

Composers fall off the radar / June 26, 2002

Conductors drop their batons / June 19, 2002

Why I'm sick of Mozart / June 12, 2002

This age of unenlightenment / June 5, 2002

The Classical Brit - It's one big classical charade / May 22, 2002

Stuck in a digital radio daze / May 14, 2002 see receiver on sale I have one and it is every bit as good as Norman says it is

Stop messing with our Mahler / May 9, 2002

Why they're all losing their heads / May 2, 2002

Orchestral manoeuvres on the air / April 25, 2002

Why conductors have great sex / April 17, 2002

Let Chopin's dirge rest in peace / April 10, 2002

The Wagners and the rabbi / April 3, 2002

London needs Russell Johnson / March 27, 2002

Record industry goes into terminal phase / March 20, 2002

A rarely seen grandeur / March 7, 2002

After a decade on the cultural front line, it's time to say goodbye / March 7, 2002

Probably the worst time in recorded history / February 20, 2002

Classical music makes great strides / February 13, 2002

Uri Caine - Musician who breaks all the boundaries / February 6, 2002

Culture slips through the net / January 31, 2002

Exit the maestro / January 23, 2002

Only one man can save the South Bank - and that's Mandelson / January 16, 2002

How Walton killed his own talent / January 9, 2002

Kurt Sanderling - At last, a maestro departs with dignity / January 3, 2002

Online Musicians' Diaries Superficial / December 27, 2001

Throw away the Christmas rapping / December 19, 2001

We can handle more than Messiahs / December 12, 2001

Cheap crossovers are doing nothing for the integrity of an art on the wane./ December 5, 2001

Can these youngsters beat time? / November 28, 2001

Unwelcome echoes from beyond / November 21, 2001

Faint-hearts are doing us a favour / November 14, 2001

A crescendo of cash crises / November 7, 2001

Ghetto blasting / October 31, 2001

Discordant saga / October 24, 2001

Michael Kaiser - Can he see off the gremlins? / October 17, 2001

A time to show courage / October 10, 2001

Musicians on the corporate scrapheap / October 3, 2001

Who was Mahler? / September 26, 2001

Responding to tragedy / September 19, 2001

The marriage of mobiles and music / September 12, 2001

Digital dos and don'ts / September 5, 2001

Disgrace of a South Bank Show That's Going Nowhere / August 30, 2001

Cultural perversity / August 22, 2001

Temple to concert hall, via Vatican / August 15, 2001

Beware music's healing power / August 9, 2001

The appointment of Andre Previn - How not to choose a music director / July 18, 2001

Sweating it out in the House / July 11, 2001

Why We're Still Afraid of Schoenberg / July 8, 2001

Requiem for the classical record / July 4, 2001

Tessa Blackstone - The Red Baroness swoops in / June 27, 2001

Only heroes could save Berlin and the Bolshoi / June 20, 2001

The Problem with Chris Smith, Former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport / June 14, 2001

We stand for excellence says Tony Hall / June 6, 2001

Lorin Maazel - Older and More Mellow / May 30, 2001

A new future for opera? / May 23, 2001

The Kirov cure / May 16, 2001

Nigel Kennedy - Practice makes perfect / May 9, 2001

The chamber revolution / May 2, 2001

Why conducting is a health hazard / April 25, 2001

Cyberspace spawns a Mahler legend / April 18, 2001 (read all about us)

Royal Festival Hall at 50 - A hollow-sounding birthday bash / April 11, 2001

Why we're awash with sorry soaps / April 4, 2001

Banging the drum for art / March 28, 2001

Set the arts free and see what can happen / March 21, 2001

Leaders of a lost generation / March 14, 2001

PC in the Arts / March 11, 2001

They think it's all overpriced / Marsh 7, 2001

Propaganda Wars / February 28, 2001

Bands play on as crisis looms / February 21, 2001

Viktoria Mullova - Ice Queen melts to the blues / February 14, 2001

Time to take stock / January 31, 2001

Could Silver Fox, the manager of maestros, be losing his grip? / January 24, 2001

Baton handover / January 17, 2001

Grove has grown too fat / January 10, 2001

My manifesto for a richer life / January 3, 2001

Conductors of the New Century / December 31, 2000

Little