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Rachel Halliburton
Saturday, 27 July 2024
What is Englishness? Over the last century the answer has changed substantially. Yet last night’s Prom, which – according to the programme – set itself the task of celebrating “...
Adam Sweeting
Saturday, 27 July 2024
Laura Lippman’s source novel for Apple’s new drama became a New York Times bestseller when it was published in 2019, and director Alma Har’el’s screen realisation has fashioned it...
Peter Quinn
Saturday, 27 July 2024
Meshell Ndegeocello's groundbreaking new album No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin takes you on a musical journey which defies categorisation.Eight years in the making and...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 26 July 2024
“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!” urged King Lear, accompanied by the Fool, on the blasted heath. But that’s not quite snappy enough for the storm-chasers of Twisters as they...
Sarah Kent
Friday, 26 July 2024
El Eco (The Echo) is a small village in Mexico’s central highlands, about two hours drive from Mexico City. But it might as well be thousands of miles away since it feels cut off...
Joe Muggs
Friday, 26 July 2024
In a discussion recently a friend compared generative AI to self-driving cars back in 2017: the makers were convinced, perhaps rightly, that they had solved 99.9% of the problem,...
Helen Hawkins
Thursday, 25 July 2024
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest is a test of stamina: a 3hr 15min study of a man paralysed by negative thinking. It also...
Mark Kidel
Thursday, 25 July 2024
Something of a jazz supergroup this one: with drum virtuoso, the ubiquitous Seb Rochford, Jim Bar of Get the Blessing,...
David Nice
Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Returning after ten months to the unique vasts of Albert’s colosseum, especially for a Verdi Requiem as powerful as this and...
Thomas H Green
Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Dave Clarke (b. 1968) is, arguably, Britain’s greatest techno DJ. Although, in fact, he has lived in Amsterdam since 2009....
Robert Beale
Wednesday, 24 July 2024
For 50 years Clonter Opera, the song-on-the-farm project in rural Cheshire, has been encouraging would-be opera stars by...
Guy Oddy
Wednesday, 24 July 2024
Back in the mid-80s, a group of lads from Worcestershire, who’d previously been known as the Cravats, were putting an...
Boyd Tonkin
Tuesday, 23 July 2024
This looked like a classic Prom in the grand old BBC tradition: two big but lesser-known pieces by pivotal figures (...
Liz Thomson
Tuesday, 23 July 2024
You can take the woman out of the Left Bank, but you can’t take the Left Bank out of the woman. Madeleine Peyroux would be...
Helen Hawkins
Monday, 22 July 2024
Before Lucas Hnath wrote Red Speedo, he had heard a 2004 speech at a hearing investigating baseball doping that declared the...
Kieron Tyler
Monday, 22 July 2024
“Ne pleure pas, Jeannette” is a version of the 15th-century French song "La pernette se lève." It tells the story of...
Harry Thorfinn-George
Sunday, 21 July 2024
A group of young people rent a cabin in the woods. A masked killer lingers nearby. Surely you know how the rest unfolds. The...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 21 July 2024
In April 1985, The Damned’s Dave Vanian was speaking with Janice Long on her BBC Radio 1 show. He said “Barry Ryan and Paul...
Helen Hawkins
Saturday, 20 July 2024
The Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour is many things, some seemingly contradictory: a) a clever, poetic playwright who...
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disc of the day
Album: Meshell Ndegeocello - No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin
The Grammy-winning Blue Note artist's tribute to a Harlem icon
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
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.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
tv
Lady in the Lake, Apple TV+ review - a multi-layered Baltimore murder mystery
Natalie Portman stars in screen adaptation of Laura Lippman's novel
The Jetty, BBC One review - lowlife in a Northern town
Jenna Coleman stars in a dark tale of abuse and exploitation
The Turkish Detective, BBC Two review - a bad business in the Bosphorus
Barbara Nadel's Inspector Ikmen novels reach the screen
film
Twisters review - satisfyingly cataclysmic storm-chaser saga
It's like 1996's 'Twister', except it goes up to 11
The Echo review - a beautiful but confusing look at life in a Mexican village
A docufiction captures the prescribed lives of rural Mexican girls and women
About Dry Grasses review - warts and all portrait of an unhappy man
Nuri Bilge Ceylan delivers a compelling chamber piece on an epic scale
new music
Album: Meshell Ndegeocello - No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin
The Grammy-winning Blue Note artist's tribute to a Harlem icon
Album: Isabell Gustafsson-Ny - Rosenhagtorn
Deeply personal sounds from the increasingly rare real world
classical
Prom 10, Van der Heijden, BBCSSO, Ryan Wigglesworth review - an engaging and esoteric delight
Celebratng 'all things English' with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Prom 6, Verdi's Requiem, BBCNOW, Bancroft review - running the emotional gamut
A masterfully paced and very human ritual goes deep
Prom 5, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bancroft review - a luxury orchestral cruise
Two lavish fin-de-siécle fantasias return to life
opera
The Butterfly House, Clonter Opera review - Puccini in biographical briefs
The life and many loves of the composer told with his own music
ll Segreto di Susanna/Pagliacci, Opera Holland Park review - on with the motley, out with the fags
An intriguing comic partner for the great backstage melodrama
First Person: trans opera singer Lucia Lucas on Tippett’s 'New Year' and her life in music
The baritone’s success with Birmingham Opera Company has led to further reflections
theatre
Red Speedo, Orange Tree Theatre review - two versions of American values slug it out
Timely arrival for Lucas Hnath's play about the cost of winning
ECHO, LIFT 2024, Royal Court review - enriching journey into the mind of an exile
Nassim Soleimanpour's latest 'cold read' work is a unique experience
The Hot Wing King, National Theatre review - high kitchen-stove comedy, with sides of drama
Katori Hall is back in her native Memphis with an exuberant ensemble piece
dance
Ashton Celebrated, Royal Ballet review - peerless delights from the master step-smith
A delicious triple bill kicks off a worldwide Fred-fest
Rocio Molina, Sadler's Wells Flamenco Festival review - mystery and dark magic, with a giggle
Annual Spanish showcase opens with a dancer intent on subversion by edgy games
The Winter's Tale, Royal Ballet review - what a story, and what a way to tell it!
A compelling case for ROH's ballet-friendly rebrand
comedy
Hannah Berner, Netflix Special - sex, politics and relationships
First stand-up special for American social media star
Rachel Parris, Leicester Square Theatre review - smart observations and satirical songs
Late Night Mash host on tour
Books
Ellen McWilliams: Resting Places - On Wounds, War and the Irish Revolution review - finding art in the inarticulable
A violent history finds a home in this impressionistic blend of literary criticism and memoir
Claire Messud: This Strange Eventful History review - home is where the heart was
A brutally honest and epic narrative follows a family doomed to wander the earth
Paul Alexander: Bitter Crop - The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday's Last Year review - setting the record straight
Busting myths in this sensitive appraisal of a jazz legend
visual arts
In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine 1900-1930s, Royal Academy review - famous avant-garde Russian artists who weren't Russian after all
A glimpse of important Ukrainian artists
Francis Alÿs: Ricochets, Barbican review - fun for the kids, yet I was moved to tears
How to be serious and light hearted at the same time
latest comments
I've explaned why - much as I dislike the star...
How can you say that this performance merits five...
Great review! After watching this pathetic...
Interesting that the reviewer was not sure what...
its a five idiot
Fla76, you are right that I should have mentioned...
a bit of a hasty review....apart from the fact...
The Bach motif ends in a B natural, not a B#.