Timbre

Salaries at The Royal Opera House provide a welcome distraction for BBC executives this morning.  The Telegraph reveals that one of their alumni, former Director of News, Tony Hall, is taking home £390k p.a. as Director of the country's upmarket palace of varieties.   And, as Director, he's presumably sanctioned the salary of the house conductor and musical director, Antonio Pappano, at £630k.  The ROH says the salaries are justified after making international comparisons.   (Tony tells the Wall Street Journal he sticks to a takeaway curry on Fridays and grows his own vegetables).

Figures in the ROH annual report show 76 staff earning over £60,000. 950 employees produce an annual paybill of £45 million.   The overall annual cost of the house is estimated at £100m; £28m of that comes from an Arts Council grant.

• Stephen Dando, who ran HR at the BBC from 2001 to 2006 seems to be doing well in a similar role at Thomson Reuters.   However, I'm confused by this feature from Forbes, which suggests a total compensation package of more than $4m in 2008. Most grateful if anyone can help me make sense of it....