“Great gig, eh?” says the chap next to me at the bar, his eyes wide and glassily ecstatic as he hoists his foaming beaker. So here is an interim verdict on Tippett: he was musically prodigious, but intellectually shallow. We can firm that up in 50 years, though I shall not be around to do it To Saturday (0141-332 9000). Peter Savidge, as the psychoanalyst Mangus, is a poised and refined singer, but he did not dominate the way that this Prospero lookalike should. As Thea, Jane Irwin deserved praise for fluency and accuracy, though her long aria in Act III failed to gain momentum.The gay couple – Hilton Marlton as the composer Dov, and Derrick Parker as the black writer Mel – had more flair. You didn’t have to be gay to feel their tendernesses and sadnesses, their absurdities, their feelings of loss.

Dov’s aria in Act 2, “Come with me to the warm South”, was sweet, persuasive and touching.There are two hysterical women in this piece. The neurotic Flora, in bobbysox and Alice blue, was pictured by Rachel Nicholls as a squeaking, screaming teenager in a sort of studied panic. Rachel Hynes, lurching on crutches, was the torture-victim Denise, her long solo in Act I showing powerfully how coloratura can be used to suggest derangement.But centenaries are the time for verdicts. In a simple way, the director and designer, Antony McDonald, has evoked the claustrophobic modern household, the empty fuss of modern life, as well as the mystery of Prospero’s island with its symbolic shipwreck.Richard Armstrong, the conductor, is equally serious – too much so, perhaps, in the moments of blues and pop The artists vary from good to excellent. The trivial engagements of the contemporary characters give way to fantasy and colour.All considered, this production by Scottish Opera will count as one of the most important events of Tippett’s centenary year There is nothing routine about it. The scene is even funny, when the marvellous Andrew Shore, as Faber, lapses into stage cockney.

But this composer deserves respect, too; he was genuinely humane and he went to prison for his beliefs.It is not surprising, then, that the most believable part of The Knot Garden is the passage in Act III when the characters act out Shakespeare’s Tempest Suddenly, the opera is generous, timeless, grown-up. Michael Tippett meant to be excitingly contemporary when he wrote The Knot Garden in the late Sixties, but the issues that seemed so lively then – psychoanalysis, gay liberation, the emancipation of African-Americans, political protest – now seem worn out.
The music, too, sounded modern to us at the time. Free atonality, jagged vocal lines, mixed with rock’n'roll and boogie; this was all terribly naughty and relevant Nowadays you try not to cringe Tippett, like Tchaikovsky, was so sincere And sincerity, alas, dates quickest. It is fatal to live to a great age if you are an artist

It is fatal to live to a great age if you are an artist. It means that the junketings of your centenary come at the moment your reputation is sinking.

Davenport broke serve and then wrapped up the match.Fittingly, Molik entered the world top 10 for the first time yesterday. But it is Davenport who advances and she is due to play Nathalie Dechy early today after the Frenchwoman surprisingly beat Patty Schnyder 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 in the quarter-finals.. The American won in 95 minutes yesterday after Nikolay Davydenko – who beat Tim Henman in the third round – retired injured while trailing 6-3, 7-5, 4-1.Molik’s dreams evaporated thanks partly to a contentious line call after she had saved a match point at 4-5 in the third set and then broken Davenport’s serve to level in her first Grand Slam quarter-final.Five games later, at 7-7, an ace by the No 10 seed was called out, although the television replay showed it clearly in. After converting the crucial break point, he served out the match.”I just kept hanging in there, and in the end it paid off again,” said Hewitt. But Roddick would have been heartened by the physical toll on his next opponent. It was a battle of pure will now, and the Australian – a former Wimbledon and US Open champion – never gives up. Both men took an injury time-out, Hewitt for treatment to his left thigh, the Argentinian for a blistered left foot.The final set seemed to go on forever, with the exhausted pair tottering around the court Hewitt was in pain, his movement impeded.

Hewitt kicked the back wall in frustration.The crowd was most un-Australian, cheering errors by the former Wimbledon finalist and booing his winners. Undeterred, Nalbandian broke serve three times in the fourth set, to level the score. The No 9 seed walked away with the set.The atmosphere got nasty. Hewitt brushed shoulders with Nalbandian during one change of ends, and the pair exchanged savage looks several times Both challenged line calls and overrules. Already a break down in the third set, he lost his serve once again And then again, and again.