Un ballo in maschera

He could have been a showjumper. He could have stuck with the clarinet. Might he be the next Director General of the BBC ?

Hugh Muir, diarist for The Guardian, suggests that one of the mystery candidates is John Berry, 50-year-old artistic director of the English National Opera. From his roots in Sandbach, John studied clarinet at the Royal Northern College of Music, and then at Mannes College, in the Upper West Side of New York, under Gervase De Peyer.  Then followed roughly a decade working as an artist's agent, on his own and for Harrison Parrott.  In 1990, with a little family support, he set up the Brereton Hall International Music Symposium (Sandbach).

In 1995, he joined ENO as casting director, then became head of planning. In 2005, famously without advertisement or interview, he was announced as Artistic Director; at the same time, Loretta Tomasi became Chief Executive.

The ENO runs on roughly £34 million a year - half of that comes from The Arts Council. The BBC's total income in 2010/11 was very close to £5bn, with £3.6bn of that coming from the licence fee.

Antony Fry, chairman of Dairy Crest, Cala Homes, and the UK end of Portguese investment bank Espirito Santo (he was formerly an investment banker for Rothschilds, Credit Suisse, and yes, Lehman Brothers), is on the Board of ENO, and is a Trustee of the BBC.