ALTHOUGH GOODALL had conducted for the last time, his career was not quite over. He spent late September and early October 1987 working with Anne Evans on the role of the Siegfried Brünnhilde, which she was to sing in German for the first time, in Turin. On the night of 15 October the south of England was battered by gales. Window panes at Barham were smashed, the electricity supply was cut off , and eighteen trees in Goodall's garden were uprooted. He spent more than ￡2,000 on clearing away the old trees and planting new ones. He did not begrudge the money. He said that although it was unlikely he would live to see the saplings grow, it was his duty to repair the landscape for those who came aft er him.

Meanwhile the new season at Covent Garden had opened. Bernard Haitink had succeeded Colin Davis as musical director and Goodall hoped for a change in the Opera House's fortunes. He felt it had lost direction: the most worthwhile operatic work in Britain, he said, was being done, not at Covent Garden, but at the Coliseum and in Wales:

Goodall always referred to Haitink as “Hainix”. It seems he misheard the name when he first encountered it and from then on could think of it only as Hainix.

Haitink did send for Goodall, to ask him if he would coach the Flowermaidens for the new production of Parsifal he was to conduct in the New Year. Goodall was excited by the invitation – he felt wanted – and he started work with the singers at the end of October.