Gubbay Plans Year-Round Savoy Opera???

London's opera lovers may soon have another alternative to the Royal Opera House and the English National Opera. According to the Guardian, impresario Raymond Gubbay is advancing plans to turn the West End's Savoy Theatre into a third permanent opera house, with year-round productions, running for up to 11 weeks a piece and starting in April 2004 with new stagings of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Rossini's Barber of Seville. Gubbay has previously backed numerous D'Oyly Carte seasons of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas at the Savoy, while this Christmas, he's presenting a pair of productions, The Pirates of Penzance and Peter Pan, starring Anthony Head, at the theatre. Elsewhere, Gubbay has had success with his in-the-round opera presentations at the Royal Albert Hall as well as high-profile musical revivals like Follies and this summer's On Your Toes, starring Adam Cooper, at the Royal Festival Hall. All of which is in addition to the 600-plus classical concerts he mounts across the country each year.

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