If you’re interested in how words work with music, the collected lyrics of Stephen Sondheim are an investment you’ll never regret. But Sondheim isn’t infallible, and when he writes about his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II he’s often plain wrong. Sondheim mocks one particular lyric from The Sound of Music: ‘Like a lark that is learning to pray.’ ‘Wait a minute – a lark praying?’ he snarks. But the character who sings those words is a devout young Austrian woman with a head full of Schubert and folksongs. Hammerstein is writing as Maria, not himself. It’s an art that Sondheim never quite mastered, which is why his characters – whether Swedish aristocrats or East End cannibals – all sound like New Yorkers in therapy.

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The audience was one of the most enthusiastic (as well as one of the youngest) that I’ve seen in Leeds

The audience was one of the most enthusiastic (as well as one of the youngest) that I’ve seen in Leeds

Opera North’s new production of The Sound of Music takes the piece seriously. Clearly, they’re hoping to capitalise on the popularity of the 1965 film: they’d be insane not to, and there’s glitter on the souvenir programme. But the director Nikolai........

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