He played concertos with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland, Philadelphia and other top orchestras until , in 1998, he underwent gender realignment surgery and became Sara Davis Buechner.

Since then, says Buechner, US orchs have slammed their doors. If it weren’t for Canada, she’d despair.

‘Canada was my salvation in many ways,” she tells the Calgary Herald. ‘The conductors and presenters in Canada were much more open, because they hadn’t really known me. They judged me on the music itself.’

Early on, Buechner won the Gold Medal of the 1984 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in Salt Lake City, Utah, and came third in the 1986 Tchaikowsky International Piano Competition in Moscow.

A Dvorak concerto last month in Victoria shows the pianist at full pitch. Watch.

Canada’s former prime minister Joe Clark got the gift of his life when his wife, Maureen McTeer, announced at a National Arts Centre Orchestra concert in Ottawa that the family had commissioned a work in his name from composer John Estacio.

Clark, who will be 75, was ever a keen supporter of the arts.

Is there any serving PM who would be equally touched and thrilled by such a gift?

Speaking on China television, the opera legend talked of his love of soccer – as a former goalkeeper – and his confidence in the success of the Spanish Succession.

‘I think the king did well because his father paved the way and he will pave the way for his son. The son is very well prepared, he will be an important king as his father has been.’

Restless, ambitious and increasingly international, English National Opera has reached out to Sarah Billinghurst, who retires next month after 20 years as assistant general manager for artistic affairs at the Metropolitan Opera – the company’s number 2 in all but name.

Sarah, who is keen to spends more time with her husband, has agreed to become a board member at English National Opera, advising on talent and artistic development. She has a close working relationship with ENO’s artistic director John Berry, developed over several successful co-productions.

‘It seemed a very good thing to do,’ Sarah told slippedisc.com, ‘because I love what John does and we have worked together on quite a few shows. I’ve never had much to do with boards before, so it’s something new. It involves five or six meetings a year, either in person or by phone.’

That may be an under-estimate. Sarah will get called on often to advise on matters great and small. Her recruitment is a considerable coup for a company whose work tends to be appreciated more on the world stage than in domestic media. She’s a big feather in John Berry’s cap.

Aside from ENO, Sarah is also serving on the boards of risen-from-dead Santa Fe Opera and talent-store Juilliard School.

Frederica Von Stade announced her retirement three years ago. For many opera singers, that is often the prelude to a second career, sometimes in lighter stuff.

Flicka has choses a coffin. A piece called A Coffin in Egypt by Ricky Ian Gordon. Playing in Philadelphia.

Ready for burial by the Classical Review. 

The long-unsettled Liceu opera house in Barcelona is thinking big. Having lost its stabilising chief Joan Matabosch to Madrid, it has swooped in the close season for Christina Scheppelmann, director general of the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman.

Scheppelmann was previously director of artistic operations at the National Opera in Washington DC, effectively artistic director in the perpetual absence of its nominal chief, Placido Domingo. She had held the same job before that in San Francisco. She knows the opera world inside out and, at an early stage, filled a junior job at the Liceu. It’s a homecoming for Christina, and relief for Barcelona.

She will start work full-time in January 2015.