theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Heather Neill
Wednesday, 24 October 2018
It has been said before: Macbeth's reputation for bad luck has more to do with the difficulty of bringing off a successful production than the supernatural elements in the play....
Boyd Tonkin
Tuesday, 23 October 2018
Think Glastonbury, not Salzburg. It struck me at Milton Court last night that the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s ebullient, rock’n’roll Mozart would go down a storm at the sort of...
David Kettle
Tuesday, 23 October 2018
It’s an undeniably quirky set-up: an elderly Spanish farmer who takes it upon himself to travel to America and walk – alone – the epic, 2,200-mile Trail of Tears, following the...
Bernard Hughes
Tuesday, 23 October 2018
Joseph Phibbs is not the first composer to make an opera out of Strindberg’s Miss Julie, and it is not difficult to see the operatic appeal of this taut, passionate three-handed...
Tom Birchenough
Tuesday, 23 October 2018
Jamil Dehlavi is a filmmaker whose work straddles two worlds. His native Pakistan is certainly the key element in the two early films on this BFI dual-format release – it follows...
David Nice
Monday, 22 October 2018
Supernatural wonders, consciously avoided in Rossini's enlightened tale of goodness rewarded La Cenerentola and unrealised by second-rank composer Isouard in his 1810 Cendrillon,...
Gavin Dixon
Monday, 22 October 2018
Kings Place takes a broad and "curated" approach to season programming, and events often have to fit into very nebulous and...
Guy Oddy
Monday, 22 October 2018
It would seem that Micah P Hinson is a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He also gives the impression of a...
Marina Vaizey
Sunday, 21 October 2018
The intrepid philosopher Julian Baggini has travelled the world, going to academic conferences, interviewing scores of...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 21 October 2018
From 7.30pm on Thursday 19 January 1967, George Martin and The Beatles spent the next seven hours at the Abbey Road’s Studio...
Mark Kidel
Sunday, 21 October 2018
When, as an artist, you live under the power of a quasi-dictatorship, you choose to stay rather than go into exile, and you...
David Nice
Saturday, 20 October 2018
Why are great Wagnerian singers the most down-to-earth and collegial in the world of opera? Perhaps you have to be to master...
Demetrios Matheou
Saturday, 20 October 2018
It’s not for nothing that Alfonso Cuarón’s mercurial CV includes Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, because this...
The Triumph of Time and Truth, Higginbottom, Kings Place review – time well spent, despite the words
Boyd Tonkin
Saturday, 20 October 2018
You can always depend on Handel to turn verbal dross into musical gold. The chasm between lumbering doggerel and soaring...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 20 October 2018
Olivia Colman will in due course be appearing as Elizabeth II in The Crown, surely a role of a very different hue to her...
Matt Wolf
Saturday, 20 October 2018
"What could possibly go wrong?" The question ends the first act of Wise Children, the debut venture from the new company...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 20 October 2018
Bernstein: The Complete Naxos Recordings Marin Alsop (conductor) (Naxos)One of the best reasons for investing in this...
disc of the day
DVD/Blu-ray: The Blood of Hussain
Remarkable early films from Pakistan's Jamil Dehlavi bridge the political and the mystic
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tv
There She Goes, BBC Four review - mining disability for family comedy?
Writer Shaun Pye's family experience makes for less than parental paradise
Informer, BBC One review - keeping tabs on terror
Going underground with the Confidential Informant Programme
Barneys, Books and Bust Ups, BBC Four review - the Booker Prize at 50
The award's half-century has brought scandals aplenty, welcome publicity pay-offs, too
film
DVD/Blu-ray: The Blood of Hussain
Remarkable early films from Pakistan's Jamil Dehlavi bridge the political and the mystic
Donkeyote review - a quiet revelation
Poignant documentary examining determination, resilience and the inevitability of ageing
LFF 2018: Roma review – Alfonso Cuarón’s triumphant return to Mexico
The Gravity director comes back down to Earth with a ravishing love letter to the women in his childhood
new music
CD: Micah P Hinson & The Musicians of the Apocalypse - When I Shoot At You With Arrows, I Will Shoot To Destroy You
Micah lays down some fine gothic country blues for the wee small hours
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Action
‘Shadows and Reflections’: classy box set celebration of the great, George Martin-supported Sixties band
classical
Australian Chamber Orchestra, Tognetti, Milton Court review - brilliantly hyper-active Mozart
The dynamic Aussies thrill with precision as well as power
Lawson, London Sinfonietta, Kings Place Review – diverse explorations of time
A surprise late addition from Birtwistle is the highlight of wide-ranging programme
The Triumph of Time and Truth, Higginbottom, Kings Place review – time well spent, despite the words
Handel's music defeats plodding lyrics in a gem-studded rarity
opera
Juliana, Nova Music Opera, St John's Smith Square review - new version of a classic drama
Strindberg recast in the modern day is a showcase for young singing talent
Cendrillon, Glyndebourne Tour review - too many ingredients in the magic soup
Young singers risk getting lost in the clutter of Fiona Shaw's over-loaded production
theartsdesk in Stockholm: the Birgit Nilsson Prize unites two great Wagnerian sopranos
Nina Stemme does honour to her compatriot, who would have been 100 this year
theatre
Macbeth, RSC, Barbican review - tense but flawed take on Shakespeare's blood-boltered tragedy
Horror flick echoes fail to meet all the play's challenges
Wise Children, Old Vic review - Emma Rice in fun if not quite top-flight form
Angela Carter adaptation strains to sustain its high spirits
A Guide For The Homesick, Trafalgar Studios review - warmly funny and deeply moving
Ken Urban's play is a psychological thriller crossed with a love story
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
comedy
Ivo Graham, Soho Theatre review - the perils of growing up
Going deep into personal material unearths lots of laughs
Nish Kumar, Soho Theatre review - the state we're in
He's angry – but he has a lot to be angry about
gaming
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 review – less is more
Solo rations have been relegated from this benchmark war series
Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt, V&A review - gaming for all
A comprehensive look at gaming present and future has surprisingly broad appeal
visual arts
Modern Couples, Barbican review - an absurdly ambitious survey of artist lovers
Exhibition revises the notion of the artist as lone genius, but reveals little else
The Best Exhibitions in London
From the Turner Prize shortlist to the future of gaming: our guide to what to see in the city
Mantegna and Bellini, National Gallery review - curated for curators
An intriguing tale undone by loose ends