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Peter Culshaw
Thursday, 21 June 2018
Forgive the sports metaphor, but David Byrne knocked this one out of the park. Coming out of the concert at the Eventim Apollo, you felt that the presentation of popular music had...
Katherine Waters
Thursday, 21 June 2018
It’s not as immersive as New York’s The Gates, 2005, nor as magnificent as Floating Piers, 2016, in Italy’s Lake Iseo – it has also, according to Hyde Park regular...
Ellie Porter
Thursday, 21 June 2018
Concluding a trilogy of releases that began with the EPs Not the Actual Events (2016) and Add Violence (2017) – Bad Witch is being called an LP despite its six tracks clocking in...
Tim Cumming
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
Eel Pie, the tiny eyot in the Thames, is not too a long walk from Twickenham stadium – within hollering distance, almost, if you had that kind of voice. And if anywhere could lay...
David Nice
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
Have you ever wondered why the Steinway grand piano is invariably the instrument of choice in every hall you visit, great or small? Why do the halls in question not offer a choice...
Katherine Waters
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
Squirrels are a breed as diverse as they are ubiquitous: they inhabit environments as extreme as desert and tundra, and all the lush greenery, rainforest and urban jungle...
Bernard Hughes
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
From an early age, Barbara Strozzi would have entertained the guests of her father’s Venetian academy with songs, including...
Matthew Wright
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
It would always be difficult to follow The Epic, the 2015 release which turned LA saxophonist Kamasi Washington from leader...
Theartsdesk
Tuesday, 19 June 2018
Are you a young blogger, vlogger or writer in the field of the arts, books and culture? If so, we've a competition for you...
Peter Culshaw
Tuesday, 19 June 2018
Many of us recognise that rather striking modernist building in Cromwell Gardens near South Kensington tube, having seen it...
Gavin Dixon
Tuesday, 19 June 2018
John Eliot Gardiner was 75 in April, and to celebrate, the Barbican Centre staged a weekend devoted to his favourite...
Mark Kidel
Tuesday, 19 June 2018
Force of Evil is much more than a stunning film noir classic: it’s first and foremost a film about money and power and their...
David Nice
Monday, 18 June 2018
Who would have thought, when Phyllida Lloyd's Donmar Julius Caesar opened to justified fanfare, that two more Shakespeare...
Sebastian Scotney
Monday, 18 June 2018
All those pranks, set-ups, fake letters and disguises, they just keep coming thick and fast in Verdi’s Falstaff. The score...
Owen Richards
Monday, 18 June 2018
Despite the Welsh repute for singing, the Festival of Voice in Cardiff has always been more than just music. Indeed, on the...
Russ Coffey
Monday, 18 June 2018
Scorpions stepped on stage wearing leather jackets and shades, and launched straight into "Going Out With a Bang". For a...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 18 June 2018
Perfectly timed, in theory, for the advent of #MeToo and Hollywood’s post-Weinstein era, this girl-power redesign of the...
Graham Rickson
Monday, 18 June 2018
Peer at the small print and it’s clear that Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill is actually a spruced-up repackaging of a...
Katie Colombus
Monday, 18 June 2018
There is a real festival ambience to this quintessentially English field-gig, set amidst the stunning forests of Bedgebury...
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tv
Natural World: The Super Squirrels, BBC Two review - silliness and facts
Gleeful take on overlooked rodent family
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Julius Caesar, BBC Four review - electrifying TV launch of all-women Shakespeare trilogy
Harriet Walter and Jade Anouka are the superlative opposite poles in a perfect ensemble
film
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new music
The Rolling Stones, Twickenham Stadium review - until the next goodbye?
Their first UK tour in 11 years comes to an end where they began, in South West London
classical
theartsdesk at Leipzig's Blüthner Piano Factory - a perfect family business
From the wood to the polished final article, a living lesson in piano-making
The Courtesan’s Gaze, Fieri Consort, Handel House review – historical female composers in context
A fascinating insight into the work of Barbara Strozzi and Francesca Caccini
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opera
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Falstaff, Garsington Opera review - Sir John under pressure
Musically strong, but updating the action has consequences
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill, Opera North, City Varieties Music Hall review - life as a cabaret
Informative, entertaining trot through a composer's life and work
theatre
The Best Plays in London
From Hogwarts to that brief encounter at Milford station : theartsdesk's stage tips
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Julius Caesar, BBC Four review - electrifying TV launch of all-women Shakespeare trilogy
Harriet Walter and Jade Anouka are the superlative opposite poles in a perfect ensemble
dance
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The Sleeping Beauty, London Coliseum review - a triumph for English National Ballet
Kenneth MacMillan's timeless staging brings out the best in ENB
Michael Chance on continuing opera in Hampshire: 'good people like to work with good people'
The countertenor turned impresario launches a second season of The Grange Festival
comedy
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Bridget Christie, Brighton Festival review - politics through a domestic lens
Brexit and its fallout still an obsession
Sarah Kendall, Soho Theatre review - a superb storyteller
Australian stand-up muses on the lottery of life
gaming
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Detroit: Become Human review – a robot story with real heart
A big budget interactive story where your decisions can flip the script
Win a Luxury Weekend for Two to celebrate Brighton Festival!
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visual arts
The London Mastaba, Serpentine Galleries review - good news for ducks?
Rockstar artist’s floating oil drums provoke questions around the purpose of public art
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'That brick red frock with flowers everywhere': painting Katherine Mansfield
Anne Estelle Rice painted the New Zealand writer 100 years ago, spinning a tale of love, friendship and artistic kinship
latest comments
This performance was powerful, declarative and...
Sorry, too many bum notes and failed intros now.
Prerfectly reviewed - very well writen. I salute...
For me the best thing I have heard in years was...
'shameless petulance, self-regard and cruelty of...
Russia invaded Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. which...
There is indeed no formula; 'opera', 'music...
The way to refresh the genre is to write "Vivid...