theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Stephen Walsh
Saturday, 16 February 2019
I last saw this Magic Flute, directed by Dominic Cooke, when it was new, some fourteen years ago, and I remember it mainly, I’m afraid, for its lack of visual charm. Nothing much...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 16 February 2019
Mahler: Symphony No 6 Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle (Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings)This lavish box set documents Sir Simon Rattle’s final appearance as...
Mark Kidel
Saturday, 16 February 2019
Abdellatif Kechiche, the Tunisian-French director, is perhaps best known for the lengthy and explicit sex-scenes in La vie d’Adèle (Blue is the Warmest Colour). His latest film...
Katie Colombus
Saturday, 16 February 2019
Avril Lavigne was the original Punk Pop Queen. Fearless, feisty and perfectly fitting for the early noughties as the manufactured antithesis of Britney and Christina, she was the...
Rachel Halliburton
Friday, 15 February 2019
Two men called "Massimo" face the audience, one very tall, one very, well, minimo. The tall Massimo (Tom Espiner, pictured below) sports wavy shoulder length blond hair and an...
Nick Hasted
Friday, 15 February 2019
The Arthurian legend’s tight fit as a Brexit allegory perhaps proves how timeless it is as, buried and bound in the earth by Merlin, Morgana (Rebecca Ferguson) senses the land...
Marina Vaizey
Friday, 15 February 2019
The power of seeing was the bedrock of John Ruskin’s philosophy. In the bicentenary of his birth, a revelatory exhibition at...
Graham Fuller
Friday, 15 February 2019
Tides tells of fortysomething angst and camaraderie, though “tells” might be an exaggeration. In a concerted attempt to make...
Marianka Swain
Thursday, 14 February 2019
This year’s unofficial Arthur Miller season – following The Price and ahead of All My Sons at the Old Vic and Death of a...
Sebastian Scotney
Thursday, 14 February 2019
“My first recital in about a gazillion years in London!” wrote Sarah Chang a week ago for her 140,000 Twitter followers. “I...
Matt Wolf
Thursday, 14 February 2019
Women spend a lot of time gazing at themselves in the mirror in the Belgian auteur director Ivo van Hove's latest stage-to-...
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 14 February 2019
Chaka Khan’s last album, 2007’s Funk This was billed as the Queen of Funk’s comeback after her 80s and 90s purple patch. But...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
The striking cover for the Brighton Festival 2019 programme shouts out loud who this year’s Guest Director is. Silhouetted...
Gavin Dixon
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
The Monteverdi Vespers are usually a grand affair, but Harry Christophers showed they can work just as well on a smaller...
Jasper Rees
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
When the third series ended with a car crash, I did wonder whether Catastrophe (Channel 4) should maybe think about calling...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
And so back to the windswept landscapes of the Shetland archipelago, where stoical DI Jimmy Perez is still keeping the bad...
Owen Richards
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside – well perhaps not, if Jellyfish is anything to go by. Set in Margate, this...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Let’s cut straight to the chase. Here are reviews of 48 records, running riot across genre boundaries and categorizations,...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
When Ladytron appeared in 1999, at a time when electronic music was glutted with pop-trance, Mitsubishis and superclubs,...
disc of the day
CD: Avril Lavigne - Head Above Water
One strong song, but elsewhere the sound doesn't seem to have evolved
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tv
Catastrophe, Channel 4, series 4 finale review - sitcom saves the best till last
Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney go out on a grief-stricken, hope-filled cliffhanger
Shetland, Series 5, BBC One review - uneven start to new season
Dismembered bodies, drugs and sex-trafficking... in Shetland?
Endeavour, Series 6, ITV review - reassuringly accomplished return of the brainy copper
Dexterous detection and psychological insights in satisfying season opener
film
Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno review - cold carnal overdose from Kechiche
Eroticism does best when less is more
The Kid Who Would Be King review - a timeless charmer
Old-fashioned values animate Joe Cornish's yearning Arthurian parable
new music
CD: Avril Lavigne - Head Above Water
One strong song, but elsewhere the sound doesn't seem to have evolved
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia Traoré
The south-coast's arts extravaganza reveals its 2019 line-up
classical
Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, Saint-Saëns, Danish National Vocal Ensemble
Romantic orchestral music and Danish songs
Sarah Chang, Ashley Wass, Cadogan Hall review – a virtuoso's disturbing 'inner game'
A short yet uneven concert
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia Traoré
The south-coast's arts extravaganza reveals its 2019 line-up
opera
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia Traoré
The south-coast's arts extravaganza reveals its 2019 line-up
Akhnaten, English National Opera review - still a mesmerising spectacle
ENO's most successful contemporary opera ever makes a triumphant return
Un ballo in maschera, Welsh National Opera review - opera as brilliant self-parody
Middle-period Verdi watchable, listenable and sometimes laughable
theatre
Berberian Sound Studio, Donmar Warehouse review – improves the original
This dark comedy raises disturbing questions about sound and intimacy
The American Clock, Old Vic review - Arthur Miller's musical history lesson drags
Rachel Chavkin's creative revival can't quite tame this sprawling epic
All About Eve, Noel Coward Theatre review - less a bumpy night than an erratically arresting one
Gillian Anderson and a superb Lily James headline Ivo van Hove's latest celluloid deconstruction
dance
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia Traoré
The south-coast's arts extravaganza reveals its 2019 line-up
Swan Lake, English National Ballet, London Coliseum review - a solid, go-to production
Traditional stagings don't come much more satisfying than Derek Deane's for ENB
Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, Sadler's Wells - vivid, enchanting
Refreshed classic production delights with energy, storytelling and live Tchaikovsky
comedy
Brighton Festival 2019 launches with Guest Director Rokia Traoré
The south-coast's arts extravaganza reveals its 2019 line-up
Adam Riches Is The Guy Who..., Drink, Shop & Do review - super-suave Lothario on the prowl
Immersive show examines male-female engagement in the #MeToo era
Lost Voice Guy, Soho Theatre review - Britain's Got Talent winner finds the funny in disability
Material moves easily between the political and the personal
gaming
Battlefield V review - WWII on an epic scale
The veteran series returns for another ambitious tour of duty
Fallout 76 review - how to wreck a perfectly good legacy with one messy game
When home runs go horribly wrong
Red Dead Redemption 2 review - the cowboy drama makes a triumphant return
An ambitious Wild West odyssey that matches epic scale with benchmark skill
visual arts
Don McCullin, Tate Britain review - beastliness made beautiful
The darkest, most compelling exhibition you are ever likely to see
Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory review, Tate Modern - plenty but empty
A major retrospective of the French post-impressionist is huge, but unilluminating
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, Victoria & Albert Museum - sumptuous
Daring, flair and elegance over 80 years
latest comments
Another British show ruined by it's rush to...
Throughout, I was worried about the moustache -...
And why was Dan the man, on a mission to Shetland...
Wobbly camera work, poor direction, editing and...
On what grounds is Akhnaten ENO's most successful...
Glad I didn't read this before watching the...
Endeavour...please get rid of that moustache
Bettany Huges, You claim to be a Historian, but...