★★★★☆
The sum of £30 million, all privately raised, has secured the Royal Academy of Music a superbly rebuilt and enlarged theatre, beautifully finished in cherry wood, not unlike Glyndebourne inside and blessed with excellent acoustics. What’s more, the architect, Ian Ritchie, has ingeniously squeezed an elegant new recital room (doubling as recording studio) on top, next to the fly-tower.
How this raised roofline got past the ferocious heritage watchdogs guarding the grade I mansions around Regent’s Park is a mystery, but thank goodness it did. The RAM, which celebrates its 200th birthday in four years, may be Britain’s senior conservatoire, but there’s fierce global competition to woo top-class students and teachers. Without a decent opera theatre it was in danger of falling behind its