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Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 27 June 2023
Not to be confused with the matchless French policier Spiral, Spiral of Lies (or J’ai Menti in its native tongue) is a twisty tale of murder, guilt and deceit, playing out over a...
Miranda Heggie
Tuesday, 27 June 2023
A joint venture between Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera and intersectional feminist opera company Hera, Out of Her Mouth is a semi-staged version of three short baroque...
Graham Fuller
Tuesday, 27 June 2023
It’s an odalisque to arouse envy in Titian, Boucher, Ingres, or Manet.Filtered amber, white, and blue lights successively bathe Brigitte Bardot, crowned by that golden cloud, as...
Stephen Walsh
Monday, 26 June 2023
If you read the synopsis of Candide - which I strongly advise if you plan a visit to this new WNO production - you may well wonder how it will be possible to get through so much...
Sarah Kent
Monday, 26 June 2023
Carrie Mae Weems is the first live black artist to have a solo show at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, yet she is hardly known here at all. So the Barbican’s retrospective is timely...
David Nice
Monday, 26 June 2023
To give the first performance of a dazzling fantasia in the context of a rangy sunny-evening-to-night concert, as pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy did in glorious...
Sebastian Scotney
Monday, 26 June 2023
Grange Park Opera has been setting a high standard in French opera ever since the company's first proper season in 1999....
Gary Naylor
Monday, 26 June 2023
After the pantos, the movies (epic, camp and animated) and the television series, is there anything new to be mined in the...
Liz Thomson
Monday, 26 June 2023
2020 was a cruel year for everybody but in addition to the horrors of Covid which included the loss of her compadre John...
David Nice
Sunday, 25 June 2023
When tears well up during stretches of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s curious hybrid which you never expected to move you,...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 25 June 2023
Had Blossom Dearie overtly embraced pop, her vocal style could be characterised as along the lines of Priscilla Paris, Jane...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 24 June 2023
When we consider the storied history of Portuguese television, we naturally think of… er… well, perhaps we'll get back to...
Jonathan Geddes
Saturday, 24 June 2023
Even when Peter Gabriel is bleak, he has reasons to be cheerful. Early on in his set he opined that soon enough “none of us...
Helen Hawkins
Saturday, 24 June 2023
The French auto-fiction writer Annie Ernaux, now 82, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature last year; now a fascinating...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 24 June 2023
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1, Florence Price: Violin Concertos 1 and 2, Adoration Randall Goosby (violin),...
Alexandra Coghlan
Saturday, 24 June 2023
Schubert gave us a winter’s journey for the 19th century: a wandering lover brooding, remembering, fantasising, maybe even...
Kieron Tyler
Saturday, 24 June 2023
The cover versions on Dream From The Deep Well include “I Know Who is Sick,” most familiar from the Clancy Brothers and...
Nick Hasted
Friday, 23 June 2023
Multi-media meta-layers land fast in Wes Anderson’s 11th film, overriding reality. Here’s Bryan Cranston’s portentous...
Lukas Ligeti
Friday, 23 June 2023
The music of various African regions and cultures has played a significant role in shaping my own music. My exposure to...
disc of the day
Blu-ray: Le Mépris (Contempt)
Jean-Luc Godard's masterpiece about the deaths of love and classic Hollywood
tv
Spiral of Lies, Channel 4 review - bodies, fibs and bad karma in Biarritz
The past returns to haunt the not-always-truthful Audrey
Turn of the Tide, Netflix review - cocaine madness comes to the Azores
Could this be Portugal's answer to 'Breaking Bad'?
The Change, Channel 4 review - beguiling feminist comedy with a stellar cast
Bridget Christie creates a menopausal heroine for women of all ages
film
Blu-ray: Le Mépris (Contempt)
Jean-Luc Godard's masterpiece about the deaths of love and classic Hollywood
The Super 8 Years review - Nobel laureate’s meditative self-portrait from home movies
French novelist Annie Ernaux fashions a new kind of auto-fiction
Asteroid City review - desert dreams
Scarlett Johansson leads Wes Anderson's latest, a Fifties-set mixture of fetish and feeling
new music
Music Reissues Weekly: Blossom Dearie - Discover Who I Am
Intriguing box set dedicated to the jazz auteur’s brush with Swinging Sixties-era Britain
Peter Gabriel, OVO Hydro, Glasgow review - beaming with optimism and creativity
The 73-year-old shunned nostalgia in favour of the future
classical
Ligeti Day; Kolesnikov/Tsoy, Aldeburgh Festival review - 14 musicians, 16 premieres and 100 metronomes
More boundaries dissolved in Snape and Blythburgh
Classical CDs: Glass harmonicas, summerhouses and snap pizzicati
Rediscovered violin concertos, plus new music from Latvian and Puerto Rican composers
First Person: composer Lukas Ligeti on how his father György inspired a new approach
As the Aldeburgh Festival celebrates Ligeti Senior's 100th anniversary, his son reflects
opera
Out of Her Mouth, Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera, Hera, Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh review - she carried a watermelon
Superb storytelling in three semi-staged cantatas by and about women
Candide, Welsh National Opera review - vaut le voyage, just for the visual side
Spectacular staging of a work that doesn't quite measure up musically
Werther, Grange Park Opera review - Italian-American principal singers with strong chemistry
Containment and explosion well balanced in a strong show
theatre
Robin Hood. The Legend. Re-written, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre review - no bullseye for new take on familiar characters
New version of old story wastes talent and resources in a shambolic show
The Pillowman, Duke of York’s Theatre review - starry but slack
West End revival of Martin McDonagh’s storytelling classic is fun but unconvincing
Mrs Doubtfire, Shaftesbury Theatre review - bold musical makeover of the hit comic film
A star turn from Gabriel Vick powers a lively but loud adaptation
dance
Untitled, 2023 / Corybantic Games / Anastasia Act III, Royal Ballet review - a magnificent end to the season
There's grist and glory in this triple bill, and a career-high for Wayne McGregor
Requiem, Opera North review - partnership and diversity
Choral-orchestral performance meets contemporary dance in cross-cultural fusion
Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT1), Sadler's Wells review - an extinction rebellion in dance
A rare visit from Europe's No.1 contemporary troupe makes a powerful eco-protest
comedy
John Kearns, Brighton Komedia review - Van Gogh, joining the circus and pooey nappies
Reflections on fatherhood and creating art
Dear Billy, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh review - powerful tribute to Scottish pride
Celebration of Scotland's iconic comedy legend Billy Connolly is a moving portrait of a nation
Books
Jacqueline Rose: The Plague review - tracing our response to tragedy
War and pandemic combine with new potency in this sharp work of plague writing
Caleb Azumah Nelson: Small Worlds review - Ghana and London dance together
Music forms the beating heart of this lyrical novel or beauty and hardship
Andrey Kurkov: Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv review - a city speaks its multitudes
A middling work from Ukraine's most famous contemporary novelist still hits home
visual arts
Carrie Mae Weems: Reflections for Now, Barbican review - going from strength to strength on an epic journey
Photographs and videos that take inequality in America to task
Dear Earth: Art and Hope in a Time of Crisis, Hayward Gallery review - hope is what we need, but inspiration is a rarity
Making good art about climate change proves difficult
Life is More Important than Art, Whitechapel Gallery review - themes of arrival, belonging and departure unite fascinating mixed show
The first show curated by the Whitechapel's new director Gilane Tawadros bodes well
latest comments
Disappointing show. Great scenery but the plot is...
I was a little surprised by the ending. I...
Why then does every performance conclude with a...
One of my favourite concerts this year - thanks...
Disagree. Best new stuff ive heard in a long time...
She was on tour with ENB in Bristol dancing...
I've read three of the reviews, and every single...
This article is terrifying and depressing in...