Richard Armstrong has resigned as director of the Scottish Opera. “James MacMillan, the country’s leading composer, reacted angrily and accused the Scottish Executive and Arts Council of ‘making Scotland into a laughing stock the world over’. Mr MacMillan said the executive and SAC’s lack of support for the opera company, which is to have 88 jobs cut in a money saving move, was down to “a misguided anti-elitism. They see high arts as not really Scottish – which is an insult to the people who want the highest level of opera, theatre and music provision.”