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Theartsdesk
Friday, 31 January 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 13 January 2025
It seems The Osmonds may not have been the worst outrage perpetrated on an unsuspecting public by the Mormons. American Primeval is set in the 1850s, and is based around the real-...
Sebastian Scotney
Sunday, 12 January 2025
Can any line from The Second Act be taken at face value? Not really. “I should never have made this film,” confides Florence (the starry Léa Seydoux) just before the half-way mark...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 12 January 2025
Yeti Lane’s second album The Echo Show was released in March 2012. The Paris-based duo’s LP was stunning: holding together overall, as well as on a track-by-track basis. There...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 11 January 2025
Paavo Järvi: The Complete Erato Recordings (Erato)Big box sets celebrating great conductors are piling up thick and fast, and this one, unusually, features an artist who’s...
Guy Oddy
Saturday, 11 January 2025
Phoebe Lunny and Lilly Macieira are furious. Livid with the rapist cops, sleazy men, gentrifying landlords, nepo babies and, to be fair, a significant chunk of mainstream society....
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 10 January 2025
As Bono once commented about Luciano Pavarotti, “the opera follows him off stage”. Legendary soprano Maria Callas would have...
Gary Naylor
Friday, 10 January 2025
This Celine Dion jukebox musical has been a big hit in New York, but crossing The Atlantic can be perilous for any...
Tom Carr
Friday, 10 January 2025
Travel back in time to the mid 2000s and you would be hard pressed to escape "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand on the air...
Helen Hawkins
Thursday, 09 January 2025
Babygirl starts with the sound of sex, piped in over the credits. There's a lot of it on our screens at the moment, from...
Markie Robson-Scott
Thursday, 09 January 2025
Iris (Laure Calamy) and her husband Stéphane (Vincent Elbaz) haven’t had sex for four years. Waiting at school for the...
Kieron Tyler
Thursday, 09 January 2025
The title Cold Blows The Rain encapsulates it. A mournful, unembellished female voice sings of loss. The musical backing is...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Jesse Eisenberg's first film as writer/director was 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World, which met with modest acclaim....
Kathryn Reilly
Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Sometimes magic really can’t be recreated. However hard it’s strived for. The incendiary magic that was Dr Dre and Snoop...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Czech theatre theorist Ivo Osolsobě’s tick-list for what constitutes an "authentic" musical is quoted in this release’s...
David Nice
Monday, 06 January 2025
There’s nothing like an anodyne new(ish) work to give a masterpiece an even higher profile. Rachel Portman‘s Tipping Points...
Harry Thorfinn-George
Monday, 06 January 2025
A gem for me this year has been the collaborative project between the veteran minimalist composer Chihei Hatakeyama and jazz...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 05 January 2025
The descending refrain opening the song isn’t unusual but attention is instantly attracted as it’s played on a harpsichord....
Nick Hasted
Saturday, 04 January 2025
RaMell Ross’s feature debut follows his poetic documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018) in again observing...
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disc of the day
Album: Lambrini Girls - Who Let the Dogs Out
Politically-savvy hardcore punk rock with a Riot Grrrl flavour
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Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
American Primeval, Netflix review - nightmare on the Wild Frontier
Peter Berg's Western drama is grim but gripping
Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, Sky Atlantic review - Colin Firth stars in gruelling dramatisation of the 1988 terror attack
Will we ever hear the full story of what happened to Pan Am Flight 103?
SAS Rogue Heroes, Series 2, BBC One review - Paddy Mayne's renegade warriors invade Italy
Second helping of Steven Knight's hard-rockin' World War Two drama
film
The Second Act review - absurdist meta comedy about stardom
French A-listers puncture their profession in a hall of mirrors
Maria review - Pablo Larraín's haunting portrait of an opera legend
Angelina Jolie puts body and soul into her portrayal of Maria Callas
Babygirl review - would-be steamy drama that only flirts with transgression
Nicole Kidman gets hot and bothered about a sexy intern’s power plays
new music
Music Reissues Weekly: Celebrate Yourself! The Sonic Cathedral Story 2004-2024
With the help of a sympathetic label, shoegazing once again confirms its resonance
Album: Lambrini Girls - Who Let the Dogs Out
Politically-savvy hardcore punk rock with a Riot Grrrl flavour
Album: Franz Ferdinand - The Human Fear
Indie rockers' sixth album may not live up to their iconic debut but is no less striking
classical
Classical CDs: Antiphons, ale dances and elves
Big box sets, neglected symphonies and Norwegian songs
Liepe, National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, Cottis, NCH, Dublin review - a spirited shot at Shostakovich
All energy devoted to a symphonic epic, played with total commitment
Davis, National Symphony Orchestra, Maloney, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - operetta in excelsis
World-class soprano provides the wow factor in fascinating mostly-Viennese programme
opera
La rondine, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - sumptuous orchestral playing in an underrated score
Puccini's 100th anniversary celebrated in style
theatre
Titanique, Criterion Theatre review - musical parody sinks despite super singing
Affectionate piss-take set for cult status at best
Best of 2024: Theatre
The classics were reclaimed afresh, and the acting more often than not astonished
Twelfth Night, Royal Shakespeare Theatre review - comic energy dissipates in too large a space
Too much thinking; not enough laughing
dance
Nutcracker, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - Tchaikovsky and his sweet tooth rule supreme
New production's music, sweets, and hordes of exuberant children make this a hot ticket
comedy
Jamie Foxx, Netflix Special review - doctors and divine intervention
Comic discusses his recovery from a stroke
Books
Best of 2024: Books
As 2024 comes to an end, we look back at the books that have thrilled and enthralled us
William J. Mann: Bogie & Bacall review - beyond the screen
Why we're still in love with Bogart and Bacall, and their legendary Hollywood romance
visual arts
Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet, Tate Modern review - an exhaustive and exhausting show
Flashing lights, beeps and buzzes are diverting, but quickly pall
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