A few weeks ago we predicted that Alberto Vilar's name would be removed from the Floral Hall of Covent Garden, quietly, without comment, in the middle of the night. Well, it appears that we were completely wrong. Rather, Vilar's name will be removed after a humiliating public 60-day "ultimatum." Why, exactly, are we reading about this? That is to say, what would have been so wrong with a very discreet ultimatum given to Vilar......

Of the many pleasures that watching the finals of the Cardiff Singer of The World Competition last week provided (and let us just say, for the record, that Londonist is in favour of sopranos who appear to having epileptic seizures), one of the guiltiest was, whenever the announcer identified one singer or another as a participant in the Vilar Young Artist Program at Covent Garden, scouring the announcer's face for any trace of a......