Roman Totenberg’s missing Strad, unseen since it was stolen from his college office in 1980,  was recognised by a quiet Pittsburgh luthier when it was offered to him for sale.

‘Every day I get phone calls, emails about ‘Oh, I found the Stradivarius in the attic,’ and of course it normally turns out to be a fake, says Phillip Injean. ‘I’ve had probably over 100, 150 [genuine Strads] in my hands. So when I see a Stradivarius, I know it.’

Full story here.

The man thought to have stolen the Strad was an orchestral violinist who was seen hanging suspiciously around Totenberg’s office. He is no longer alive. A stand partner tells us: ‘ I found him really annoying. He talked all the time and was a real know-all.’

All’s well that ends well.

The faltering regime of artistic director Lyndon Terracini has reached for its most desperate gambit yet.

To mark a jubilee production of My Fair Lady in August 2016, Terracini has announced the singing actress Julie Andrews as next season’s limelight director.

Andrews played Liza Doolittle in 1956 on Broadway opposite Rex Harrison. She has enjoyed a rich and productive career as a stage and screen actor. Her experience as a director is confined to a 2003 production of The Boy Friend, and a dramatisation of of her children’s book The Great American Mousical.

It took a genius in Sydney to spot her untapped potential as an opera house director.

That’s what we call creative.