 Downes' first experience of conducting the music of Verdi came when Rafael Kubelík withdrew from a Covent Garden "Otello" and Downes led the opera with no rehearsal.He felt on home ground, and then championed Verdi revivals in England.He conducted 25 of Verdi's 28 operas, and devised the idea to perform all of them in time for the 2001 centenary of the composer's death.