We’re delighted to hear that Dr Alejandro Martínez of Codalario magazine spoke to the great tenor this morning and found him in good spirits.

We erroneously reported Nicolai Gedda’s death yesterday, based on independent messages from two usually reliable sources and on his altered Wikipedia entry.

We took down the post as soon as the error became apparent and have tightened our procedures for the future. We apologise without reservation to Mr Gedda and to our readers.