By Shirley Apthorp [Financial Times, 14 December 2005]

"There is no swan," says the Australian director Barrie Kosky. That is no surprise. Kosky, at his ease in Vienna's gloomy Café Sperl, sports silver rings, numerous piercings, and dark red nail polish. At his feet sits a cocker spaniel. Neither of them looks the type to take Wagner at face value.