True genius -- as opposed to the abundantly present knockoff version of it -- is in short supply, these days: it is with sadness that we salute the passing of a man who had been granted by the Muses generous helpings of true genius (if sadly drenched in booze and cigarettes).
RIP Simon Gray, playwright and diarist of merciless, astonishing gifts (whose life has been inextricably linked to another giant of the postwar era, Alan Bates): Opera Chic has always loved that Gray's most famous character (together with the immortal Butley) has one impossible dream (that makes this commemoration more at home in an opera blog such as this one): to be able to spend an afternoon listening to an opera -- his brand new LP box set of Parsifal -- quietly, in his favorite chair.