Alfred Miceli has written authoritatively on opera in Malta, and Tony Cutajar (November 8) has published a number of popular books, but I fear that Mr Miceli and Mr Cutajar are greatly mistaken if they think that the book they are planning about the operas most popular with our audiences is going to do anything impressive to attract the young.

Few young people would get interested in opera simply by reading a fairly unambitious book about it, and in any case there is no lack of inexpensive foreign books about opera.

The only way to attract a young audience is to expose them, much more than they are now exposed to live performances, with special prices for young students, of operas and extracts from operas, as well as to broadcast programmes of a popular nature about opera on TVM2.

Also to ask teachers and parents to recommend to children that they watch the frequent opera productions (many of them quite stunning) on the Mezzo TV channel (Melita 510). No doubt, educators can suggest more ideas.