theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Demetrios Matheou
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
At a time when the issue over the scarcity of opportunities for female filmmakers is finally winning traction, it’s important not to forget those women who have ...
Ellie Porter
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
“This, quite possibly, could be a really good night,” declared David Crosby. He’s a couple of songs into this show, one of only two UK dates on the tour promoting his current...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Beware the hidden powers of the cellphone. When in Never Here New York conceptual artist Miranda Fall (Mireille Enos) finds a stranger’s phone, she uses it as the basis for her...
David Nice
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Cinderella as opera in French: of late, the palm has always gone to Massenet's adorable (as in a-dor-Ah-bler) confection, and it should again soon when Glyndebourne offers a...
Anil Gupta And Richard Pinto
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Back in June 2017, in the days when English summertime was a lazy idyll rather than an apocalyptic inferno, RSC artistic director Greg Doran met us at his office in Stratford-upon...
Katherine Waters
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
It’s night, and the woman (Leanne Best) is waiting for a phone call. She’s desperate for the voice of her lover – or rather ex-lover: they split three nights ago. Both have...
Katie Colombus
Wednesday, 19 September 2018
Christine has become Chris. The singer has struck out part of her name to gain a part of her identity – a gesture that...
Matthew Wright
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Norwegian-Danish singer Live Foyn Friis (for English-speaking readers, Live is her first name) has released six albums, and...
Gavin Dixon
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Winterreise brings out the best from Ian Bostridge, and the worst. His dedication to understanding and communicating its...
Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
You might consider it odd that a man whose wife spends half the year in Hong Kong without him hasn’t managed to get around...
David Kettle
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Of the Edinburgh International Festival’s three productions by 2018’s resident company, Paris’s Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord...
Gavin Dixon
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
It is a pleasure to report on the continuing success of the Saffron Opera Wagner project. The organisation was formed in...
Tom Birchenough
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Swiss director Marcel Gisler’s film tells a story that is hardly new – but neither, sadly, is it old, as in about a thing of...
Stephen Walsh
Monday, 17 September 2018
What lunatic would ever have the idea of turning War and Peace into an opera? Well, maybe if you, a composer, had found...
Sebastian Scotney
Monday, 17 September 2018
A tradition seems to have been invented. First nights of the LSO’s seasons with Sir Simon Rattle as its Music Director start...
Graham Rickson
Monday, 17 September 2018
Puccini’s Tosca isn’t a subtle work, and this, Opera North’s fourth production since the company’s founding in 1978, is...
Thomas H Green
Monday, 17 September 2018
Bananas is Malcolm Middleton’s first solo album to be built around guitar, bass, drums and all that stuff since 2009’s...
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tv
Strangers, episode 2, ITV review - conspiracy theories multiply
Hong Kong locations may be the real stars of this tortuous thriller
Killing Eve, BBC One review - the dying game
Sisters are doing it for themselves in semi-comic spy caper
Classic Albums: Amy Winehouse - Back to Black, BBC Four review - suffering turned into song
How the singer's second album made musical gold out of the blues
film
Agnès Varda: 'You think I'm finished?!' - interview
Oscar-nominated at 89, the French filmmaking legend talks about her new film
Never Here review - conceptual art may damage your health
Echoes of Hitchcock haunt debut feature about voyeurism and obsession
new music
David Crosby & Friends, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, review - still spine-tingling at 77
The singer-songwriter rifles through a long back catalogue from the Byrds through CSN to his new output
classical
Ian Bostridge, Thomas Adès, Wigmore Hall review - haunting, brutal Schubert
A Winterreise of psychological intensity, but too often taken to ghoulish extremes
LSO, Rattle, Barbican Hall review - a mixed bag of British composers
Birtwistle, Holst, Turnage and Britten in the 2018/19 season opening concert
Elisabeth Leonskaja, Wigmore Hall review - Mozart and Webern, anyone?
Fascinating recital of aesthetic crunches from the Russian master pianist
opera
Isouard's Cendrillon, Bampton Classical Opera review - stepsisters shine in fairy-tale bagatelle
Maltese-French composer's Cinders opera is mostly routine, but performed with esprit
Parsifal, Saffron Opera Group review - drama and focus
Amateur company continues its run of dramatically compelling Wagner
War and Peace, Welsh National Opera review - an Operation Barbarossa that comes off
Not quite a masterpiece but a great aural and visual spectacle
theatre
Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto: 'We figured Molière would have toyed with it too'
The co-adaptors of the RSC's new 'Tartuffe' talk about translating a French classic to our times now
The Human Voice, Gate Theatre review - unrelenting and sad
The end of the line at the the end of a telephone line
dance
'It’s more fun to dance in a tutu': Tory Dobrin of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
The artistic director of the Trocks explains how he keeps his ballet parodists on their toes
theartsdesk in Riga - 43,290 Latvians sing and dance for their country
Individual souls conjoined with a passionate belief in peace and music achieve miracles
Enter theartsdesk / h Club Young Influencer of the Year award
In association with The Hospital Club's h.Club100 Awards, we're looking for the best cultural writers, bloggers and vloggers
comedy
The League of Gentlemen Live Again!, Sunderland Empire review - going local for local people
Sketch group back on the road for the first time since 2005
Edinburgh Fringe 2018: Rose Matafeo review
Edinburgh Comedy Award winner has a wonderfully daft show
Edinburgh Fringe 2018 reviews: Rosie Jones/ Marcus Brigstocke/ Alice Snedden
More from the world's biggest and best arts festival
gaming
Marvel's Spider-Man review - fandom fodder at its finest
Swinging in the city with the arachnid avenger
h Club 100 Awards: Video games - pioneers with heart and soul
High tech meets high calibre in this year’s list of gaming’s brightest sparks
Jurassic World Evolution review - manage a dinosaur theme park and make a killing
A comprehensive management sim where you feed the exhibits, the punters and your bank balance
visual arts
h 100 Awards: Art, Design and Craft - making art public
Showcasing the strength of British visual culture, and the people bringing it to public attention
