“Booing at the end of opera performances has long been common in Germany, but was virtually unheard of in Britain until the late 1980s. But for the past 10 years, during which ENO has traced a shaky artistic path, audiences have reverted to docility. Which prompts the question of whether audiences conform to national stereotypes – and what makes continental Europeans apparently more discerning, and certainly more partisan, than their counterparts in the English-speaking world.”