In July 2008 a live broadcast of Reggie Goodall conducting The Mastersingers of Nuremberg at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1968 was made available on CD for the first time, released on Chandos Records’ “Opera in English” label. The impact of hearing Goodall's legendary performance, forty years on, was a knock-out, not only among those who, like me, were lucky enough to have witnessed the original production, but also among younger generations. No wonder that aft er his magisterial account of The Mastersingers Goodall was invited to conduct an “English” Ring at the London Coliseum in the 1970s. This in turn had inspired me to go knocking on doors to ensure that his Ring performances were preserved on record. So, the fortieth anniversary year of the seminal Mastersingers seemed to me the right moment to hold a public event that would celebrate Goodall's musical legacy, something that would reflect why his influence continues to reverberate through generations of British musicians.

This event, The Genius of Valhalla, took place at the London Coliseum on 23 November 2008, bringing together his biographer John Lucas, a panel of artists and administrators closely associated with Goodall – Dame Anne Evans, Norman Bailey, Margaret Curphey, Sir Brian McMaster, Anthony Negus and Nicholas Payne – and a large audience of Goodall fans. The discussion was chaired by Humphrey Burton, whose 1984 BBC-TV profile, The Quest for Reginald Goodall, completed a moving and memorable testament to an extraordinary figure in British musical life. But such events are ephemeral and what had become very evident, from both the reception of The Mastersingers recording and the enthusiastic response to The Genius of Valhalla, was that a new edition of John Lucas's biography of Goodall would not only feed renewed interest in this remarkable musician, but also restore an important strand in the history of operatic development in Britain during the latter half of the twentieth century.