theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
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 leads several different ensembles, scattered...
Gavin Dixon
Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Winterreise brings out the best from Ian Bostridge, and the worst. His dedication to understanding and communicating its complex and harrowing text is everywhere apparent, and...
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 to catching a plane from Heathrow to visit her in the...
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, The Prisoner is the most gnomic, the most...
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 2013, and since then has presented concert performances of...
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 the past. That professional football continues to be...
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...
Adam Sweeting
Sunday, 16 September 2018
It may be a sign of the times that the two lead performances in Killing Eve are female, with Jodie Comer fizzing...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 16 September 2018
During their original 1980 to 1984 lifespan as a recording unit, Soft Cell issued three albums, a mini-album, eleven singles...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 16 September 2018
Although he’s regularly performed it live, hearing the studio version of Glen Matlock’s take on Scott Walker’s “Montague...
Ismene Brown
Saturday, 15 September 2018
“What is it about Mozart?” wondered the legendary pianist Sviatoslav Richter, pointing out the composer's frightening...
Tom Birchenough
Saturday, 15 September 2018
Annemarie Jacir’s third feature may have picked up a subtitle, “The Wedding Invitation”, for international distribution, but...
Mark Kidel
Saturday, 15 September 2018
Formats are second nature to TV: the BBC and Eagle Rock’s Classic Albums will run and run. Like all formats, there’s always...
Peter Culshaw
Saturday, 15 September 2018
The latest in Peter Culshaw’s occasional updates in the best of new global music features unreleased tracks from forthcoming...
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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
Wajib review - poignant, profound humanism
Annemarie Jacir’s father-and-son drama speaks widely of its Palestinian world
Lucky review - fabled character actor stars in his own obituary
Harry Dean Stanton's valedictory performance isn't enough to save this movie
new music
Reissue CDs Weekly: Soft Cell
‘Keychains & Snowstorms’ is a benchmark box-set reconfiguration of Messrs Almond and Ball’s hit-making years
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
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
Tosca, Opera North review - exciting update, strong on sonic thrills
40th anniversary production of Puccini's 'shabby little shocker'
theatre
The Prisoner, National Theatre review - Peter Brook's latest falls sadly flat
The British master-director settles for vaguely Beckett-inflected bafflement
An Adventure, Bush Theatre review - epic but flawed
Deeply felt show about love, marriage and migration doesn’t quite work
Foxfinder, Ambassadors Theatre review - too ponderous by half
One time fringe success flounders in West End upgrade
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
