Madame,

Your continued personal attack on Paul Curran's integrity does you no credit. I'm sorry that you have written an opera that he does not wish to stage. I understand that your are a composer of some repute and standing, but do you not realise that it does your own reputation no good to behave like a spoilt child in the face of this rejection? As the composer of the piece you are clearly of the opinion that it is a masterpiece, but there is a Russian expression: "It doesn't matter how often you say the word sugar, you do not get the taste of it in your mouth."

Norway is a very rich country. I suggest that you have a meeting with the Minister of Culture, Anniken Huitfeldt, and see if she is able to provide you with funding for an organisation that will promote and perform contemporary Norwegian opera, written by you and your colleagues in this field of endeavour. You might like to name it: The Norwegian Contemporary Opera Company. I might also suggest that one opera you might care to write is about a woman who was reviled and abused in her own country after the second World War; Kirsten Flagstad!

It was Paul Curran's vision and desire to put the Norwegian Opera on the international map, with the audience at
Bjørvika made up not only of the Norwegian public, but also with visitors from other countries, and this is already happening, people are coming to Oslo from Holland, Germany, Denmark, France, eastern Europe and Russia as well as from the United Kingdom to see performances at Bjørvika. No mean feat in just two seasons I should say.
You should be proud that this is happening, and not behaving as you are now; criticising Paul Curran with an obsession that is bordering on a vendetta.

Yours sincerely

Tatiana Mikhailovna Rybikova.
[I went to the expense of having this professionally translated from Russian to English so as to be clearly
understood, if I could have found a translator who could make it from Russian to Norwegian I should have done so.]