The violinist Daniel Hope has pulled out of a pair of US dates, including an all-Lera Auerbach programme, featuring a new sonata. Philippe Quint bravely steps in.

At the Barbican, pianist Yevgeny Sudbin has crocked out of a Friday night Rach 3 due to be broadcast nationwide. Federico Colli was given four hours to prepare for first rehearsal.

That’ll be Federico Express.

Patrons are requested to keep their phones *on* for the duration of the concert. You will receive important updates during the course of the performance, especially in the sleepy bits of the Bruckner adagio.

The app went live last night. Read here.

First Simon Keenlyside crashed out of Rigoletto. Now Ramon Vargas has pulled out of Simon Boccanegra at the end of the month.

His deps are the lesser-known Alfred Kim and Stefano Secco.

First leaks from the soprano’s memoirs, out in the US in a fortnight, focus on her weight issues.

After being fired by the Royal Opera House in 2004 for failing to fit into its little black dress, she used the severance pay to fund stomach surgery that brought her down to size.

More trenchantly, she complains that fatness in opera is a feminist issue. ‘Why is it okay for the male opera stars to be big and not the women?’ she demands.

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