According to the historian Sir Denis Brogan it was an Italian immigrant who, when asked what he had learned from his thirty years shining shoes on Fifth Avenue, was the first to declare that “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”. Whether this attribution is true or false, the judgement remains one that everyone in Sport should remember. When the money-men come calling, a warning bell should sound. No such thing as a free lunch or, alternatively, remember Virgil’s line “timeo Danaos et dona ferentes” – I fear the Greeks when they are bearing gifts, perhaps even especially when promising investment.
The success of the International Opera Awards is intellectual rigour
At the awards ceremony in Munich this year, a jury dug deep into the purpose of opera and its impact on society.