GOODALL joined the Sadler's Wells Opera on 24 September 1944. The company lacked both the vocal and technical resources to stage largescale operas, which few theatres on the touring circuit could have accommodated anyway, but it had in its repertory nine well-contrasted works ranging from Cosi fan tutte to Hansel and Gretel. Maintaining musical standards was a constant struggle: Lawrance Collingwood's two assistant conductors, Muir Mathieson and Boyd Neel, both lacked operatic experience; and because of the depredations of military call-up, he and Joan Cross had to make do in many cases with principal singers who were either unsuitable or inexperienced. Even seasoned artists found it difficult to survive the pressures of constant touring. Cross was the company's most distinguished singer, but because of her administrative duties (she had been running the company since June 1941), her stage appearances were by necessity limited in number. “War conditions have hit the opera of Sadler's Wells harder than the ballet,” wrote a critic on The Times, “and standards of performance have been adversely aff ected by touring more in singing than in dancing. A prima ballerina can sustain a company but one soprano does not make a season – she cannot sing Gilda tonight, the Countess tomorrow, Gretel at Christmas, and Mimi at matinees. Male dancers are not so scarce as tolerable tenors. Yet here is the opera company still in being …”

The company's orchestra, numbering thirty-two players, was workaday (many of the country's best players were in the services), while the chorus contained veterans, particularly among the men, who in more propitious times might have been pensioned off long before. The provincial press tended to praise performances indiscriminately, though sometimes more rigorous critical standards were applied. Eric Blom, reviewing Madam Butterfly in Birmingham, wrote that although the opera was beautiful to look at, and the production first-rate, the “orchestra lacked body, warmth and passion, sometimes even accuracy; and none of the singing came anywhere near greatness.” But there was a positive side to the company's activities. New audiences for opera were being tapped, and they were turning out to be large and appreciative.