Norman Platt was seized by music at the age of five as a boy in industrial Lancashire, played professionally at the age of nine and made music in one form or another until his death in 2004. He sang in the choirs of King's College Cambridge and St Paul's Cathedral, was a founder member of the legendary Deller Consort and toured with Britten's English Opera Group. He was a principal at Sadler's Wells and broadcast regularly with the BBC. Yet, as the Times obituarist wrote, -Norman Platt was probably as famous for his battles to save Kent Opera in the 1980's as he was founding the company in...