More significantly, the Foundation contributed lavishly to the Development Appeal itself, to the tune of £100,000. Sir Leonard Wolfson’s personal intervention to ensure that the Royal Opera received the best quality art paper for its 1978 fundraising appeal shows quite how detailed he was prepared to be. The relationship between the Wolfson Foundation and the Opera House continued beyond what was to be Solti’s final conducting role at Covent Garden and the production’s radio broadcast by the BBC. One eminent lobbyist was Lord Justice Leslie Scarman (1911-2004), “a dedicated opera goer” who took time out from his tribunal of inquiry into Violence and Civil Disturbances in Northern Ireland in 1969 to register his interest. £15,000 was set aside to assist with a new version of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, conducted by Sir Georg Solti (1912-1997) and with artistic direction by Sir Peter Hall.
The Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London approached the Wolfson Foundation for sponsorship in late 1970 and it was quickly agreed by the Foundation that a new opera production would be supported.
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