Sir, - Now that Messiah XXI has proved to be the travesty which I was convinced it would be, I would like to add my protest at the gross misuse of £700,000 of taxpayers' money to sponsor it.
Eric Sweeney (December 6th) has mentioned a number of ways in which this money might have been used to better effect. I would like to suggest another: it might have done something to offset the appalling lack of funds and time devoted to music education in the schools. This might ensure that the next generation will be capable of appreciating great music as it was written, rather than in the dumbed-down form to which the audience at the RDS was subjected.
May I suggest that, as an act of contrition, the Government immediately allocate the same amount of money, to be repeated annually for the next 10 years, to music education in schools? - Yours, etc.,
Janet R. Ashe, Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow.