Opera mourns popular staff director

Dafydd Burne-Jones, a staff director at Scottish Opera for 37 years, has died of cancer, the company has announced.

Known to everyone as Robert, he said the highlight of his career was working with Leonard Bernstein on Candide in 1988.

Asked what he loved best about the job, he said: ‘Every day I am surrounded by people who are passionate about what they do and are at the very top of their game. I spend most days listening to beautiful music played and sung by highly talented artists, and seeing that work coming to fruition through the efforts of enormously skilled and enthusiastic craftspeople. No one could fail to be uplifted working among such extraordinary colleagues.’