Article: WHERE VERDI MEETS VILLA; Aston-born conductor Sir Edward Downes tells Arts Editor Terry Grimley about the abiding passions in his life.

Sir Edward Downes, until last year associate music director and principal conductor of the Royal Opera, makes his debut at Symphony Hall tonight, conducting Verdi's Requiem.

It is a chance to hear Verdi's choral masterpiece in the hands of someone who is more than familiar with the same composer in the opera house. Sir Edward, who has conducted the Royal Opera every season for 45 years, since beginning his career there as a prompter to Maria Callas, initiated its current project to perform all of Verdi's operas before the centenary of his death in 2001.

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