theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Femi Elufowoju Jr
Thursday, 20 January 2022
I find that my experience of living as a Black man in the UK cannot help but inform the way I approach my work and never more so than with Verdi’s Rigoletto. It was because Verdi’...
Veronica Lee
Thursday, 20 January 2022
In 2019 Russell Howard was all set to celebrate his 20th year in comedy by going on a world tour. Covid put paid to that, so it was with some genuine celebration that he was able...
Gary Naylor
Wednesday, 19 January 2022
There's a lot of True Crime stuff about, so it's hardly a surprise to see Stephen Dolginoff's 2003 off-Broadway musical back on the London stage, a West End venue for the Hope...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 19 January 2022
Virtual “mixtapes” are not proper albums. Their purpose is often to whet the appetite. Nowhere is this more so than in US hip hop and right now Lady London’s new teaser is much-...
Sebastian Scotney
Tuesday, 18 January 2022
“It mustn’t be a surface thing. You have to put in the work,” Janet Baker once said. Sandrine Piau’s Wigmore recital of German song followed by French song was the perfect...
Adam Sweeting
Tuesday, 18 January 2022
The name of Neville Chamberlain and the term “appeasement” have become indelibly linked, thanks to his efforts to accommodate Adolf Hitler’s bellicose ambitions in the run-up to...
Mark Kidel
Tuesday, 18 January 2022
In my teens, I was one of the budding cinephiles who ran the Film Club at my boarding school. Once a month, we’d rent an...
Ian Julier
Monday, 17 January 2022
Having conducted two Discovery programmes with the LSO after being a finalist in the 2016 Donatella Flick competition,...
Veronica Lee
Monday, 17 January 2022
There was a time when UK pantomime was heavily populated by Australian soap stars; rather late in the day Jason Donovan –...
Aleks Sierz
Monday, 17 January 2022
History is a prison. Often, you can’t escape. It imprints its mark on people, environments and language. And nowhere is this...
Joe Muggs
Monday, 17 January 2022
This is just boggling. The Japanese rock trio Boris have been together in the same lineup for over a quarter of a century –...
Music Reissues Weekly: Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds - Stormy Monday And The Eagles Fly On Friday
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 16 January 2022
TV-watching pop fans in many of the British regions were served a treat on 16 September 1966. A whole episode of Ready...
Gavin Dixon
Saturday, 15 January 2022
This latest revival of the Royal Opera’s Nabucco production has suffered more than most from COVID disruptions. At the first...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 15 January 2022
Gidon Kremer: The Warner Collection (Warner Classics)The words of dedication in Gidon Kremer’s autobiography, Between...
Mark Kidel
Saturday, 15 January 2022
There is a sense in which Elvis Costello emerged as a recording artist fully grown, with that unique vocal mix of...
David Nice
Friday, 14 January 2022
After a too-much-too-soon debut disc, Lisa Davidsen has just rolled out the gold on CD with her great fellow Norwegian Leif...
David Nice
Thursday, 13 January 2022
Most dystopian satires are located in a nightmarish future, but their scripts build on the worst of our world today. Adam...
Adam Sweeting
Thursday, 13 January 2022
The BBC have billed this as a “four-part thriller about sexual politics in the modern workplace”, which is slightly...
Tim Cumming
Thursday, 13 January 2022
The first set of Spell Songs, The Lost Words, was inspired by nature writer Robert Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris’s...
disc of the day
Album: Lady London - Lady Like: The Boss Tape
Multi-talented rising US MC gives a teasing taste of her skills
tv
Rules of the Game, BBC One review - feminist workplace drama topples into farce
Screenwriter Ruth Fowler's characters turn into caricatures
The Apprentice, Series 16, BBC One review - will they never learn?
Welcome return of Lord Sugar and his gang of hopefuls
film
Munich: The Edge of War review - Jeremy Irons excels in a revisionist portrait of Neville Chamberlain
Persuasive screen treatment of Robert Harris's historical novel
Don't Look Up, Netflix review - hitting most targets in high style
Brilliant satire, not preachy lecture, on the way we live now
new music
Album: Lady London - Lady Like: The Boss Tape
Multi-talented rising US MC gives a teasing taste of her skills
Music Reissues Weekly: Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds - Stormy Monday And The Eagles Fly On Friday
Proof there was more to the blues-soul stylist than oldies radio staple ‘Out of Time’
classical
Sandrine Piau, David Kadouch, Wigmore Hall review - the joy is in the detail
Superb pianist and programme-builder in perfect partnership with the great soprano
Liebeck, Bournemouth SO, Hasan, Lighthouse, Poole review - evergreen gifts of melody
Popular classics freshly minted in the hands of young talent
Classical CDs: Violins, timpani thwacks and a symphony of iron and steel
A birthday tribute for celebrated violinist Gidon Kremer, plus symphonies, operetta and a great 20th century piano concerto
opera
First Person: Femi Elufowoju jr. on directing Verdi's 'Rigoletto'
A theatre director's take on his first opera as he rehearses in Leeds
Nabucco, Royal Opera review - high passion but low drama
Atmospheric but ambiguous production, given extra weight by cast of rich voices
Le nozze di Figaro, Royal Opera review - New Year champagne
Perfect ensembles and recits with Antonio Pappano's return as conductor and fortepianist
theatre
Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story, Jermyn Street Theatre review - True Crime musical gets West End showcase
Child killers seduce us with charisma and song
Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Birmingham Hippodrome review - Jason Donovan makes his panto debut
Australian soap veteran plays against type as the baddie
The 4th Country, Park Theatre review – sympathetic and intriguing
Northern Ireland’s contemporary problems get the meta treatment
dance
Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!, Sadler's Wells Theatre review - new candy, but the nuts are off
This is designer Anthony Ward’s Nutcracker! with multiple exclamation marks
Starstruck, Scottish Ballet review - smart, sassy and cinematic
A ballet by Gene Kelly from 1960 gets new wings
comedy
Russell Howard, Netflix special review - joyous return to live performance
Stand-up with accompanying documentary
Books
The Holiness of Sex: Leonard Cohen's Biblical Theology
Harry Freedman, author of a new book about Leonard Cohen's spirituality, considers the singer's attitude to gettin' it on
Peter Robison: Flying Blind review – a story of decline and crawl
The galling account of the 737 MAX Boeing tragedies
visual arts
Paula Rego: The Forgotten, Victoria Miro review - relentless focus
A selection of later work is more than a coda to Tate's recent retrospective
Anselm Kiefer Pour Paul Celan, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris review - an installation of rare profundity
Anselm Kiefer's spectacular homage to the poet Paul Celan
latest comments
The Dutch press is reporting that there is a Klem...
we went to the performance on 17th and confirm...
I found the series very thought provoking and...
Ha ha - I fail to see how people can't understand...
She doesn't know when to retire. Mary Wilson...
As background for this excellent review I suggest...
The film was completely biased against Kaiser...
I note that it is easier to describe what the...