Composer: newspaper aims to bankrupt me

Composer Keith Burstein (pictured), little-known except to those readers committed to New Tonalism, claims he is being forced into the bankruptcy courts by London's Evening Standard newspaper. In part, he only has himself to blame. Last year, he sued the paper for libel after one of its critics claimed that his 2005 opera, Manifest Destiny, glorified terrorism. He lost, and was ordered to pay the Standard's legal fees, thought to be about £70,000.

Burstein now claims he has no way of finding that sort of money, but the Standard is unimpressed. According to the Independent, its lawyers are beginning to turn the screw, issuing a bankruptcy petition against him. "The whole belligerent campaign appears to be oppressive and about vindication," says Burstein. "I don't have any money. I don't own a house or a car. It’s just the way I have always lived."

The composer, who intends taking the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, says the Standard will be hard pressed to get any money from him. "I haven't got anything. Unless, of course, they want a blanket or a plate or something like that."