Features & Interviews
theartsdesk Q&A: Hedvig Mollestad, Norway's bridge between heavy metal and jazz
Saturday, 19 January 2019
Norway’s Hedvig Mollestad Trio reset the dial to what jazz fusion sought to do when it emerged, and do so in such a way that it’s initially unclear whether they are a jazz-influenced heavy metal outfit or jazzers plunging feet-first
'Bringing things to life is what opera is all about': Robert Howarth on a 'Magic Flute' with a difference
Friday, 18 January 2019
I’m here in Leeds at the end of five weeks of quite intense rehearsals for Opera North's new production of Mozart's The Magic Flute.
Best of 2018: Classical concerts
Monday, 31 December 2018
Starry times with the big spectaculars really paid off this year, even if the works performed weren't unusual for London. Pappano's latest Verdi...
Best of 2018: Opera
Wednesday, 26 December 2018
Outnumbered by four to one: out of the classical/opera team, Alexandra Coghlan, Jessica Duchen, David Benedict and Boyd Tonkin all chose English...
Global fiction: the pick of 2018
Sunday, 09 December 2018
If you believe the bulk of the “books of the year” features that drift like stray tinsel across the media at this time of year, Britain’s literary...
theartsdesk in Brno: Czech 100th feted through Janáček and Smetana
Rarities in a festival featuring an entire operatic canon, plus heartfelt celebrations |
'I’ve told everyone that it’s a comedy – but will anyone laugh?' Jonathan Dove on his new Marx opera
Top British composer awaits Bonn premiere of his new work about a German in London |
theartsdesk in Gothenburg - Wagner's gold turns green
Stephen Langridge talks about his eco-friendly Swedish 'Ring' |
10 Questions for DJ / producer Rob Smith of Smith & Mighty
Bristol bass movers and shakers rightly getting their due |
Robert Hastie: 'a seam of love runs through the play' - interview
The director talks about Macbeth in the candle-lit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, cross-gender casting and the director's role |
Don Quixote rides again, and again
The RSC's stage version reaches the West End, while Terry Gilliam's film is stuck in a legal vortex |
First Person Plural: the Calidore String Quartet on music for their torn nation
How Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Janáček and Golijov speak for our troubled times |
Refreshing the sonic spectrum: disability and excellence in British orchestras
A musical evolution for the 21st Century |
More Blood, More Tracks review - Bob Dylan opens up
The fourteenth volume in the Bootleg Series is a keeper |
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 |
Montserrat Caballé (1933-2018): from Bellini to 'Barcelona'
Glimpses of the Spanish soprano who could float a line like no other |
James Graham: 'the country of Shakespeare no longer recognises arts as a core subject'
Full transcript of the playwright's passionate speech about the importance of the arts at the Hospital Club's h100 Awards |
Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto: 'We figured Molière would have toyed with it too'
The co-adaptors of the RSC's new 'Tartuffe' talk about translating a French classic to our times now |
10 Questions for singer Live Foyn Friis
Charismatic Norwegian singer on her journey through genre |
'I read French from left to right and Arabic from right to left': remembering Algerian rebel rocker Rachid Taha
Recalling a night out drinking in Paris with the Algerian rocker who died this week |
Jeanie O'Hare: 'The play taught me how European we really are'
The playwright introduces 'Queen Margaret', her new play for the Royal Exchange, Manchester |
Sir Peter Hall: a day of thanksgiving and celebration for a colossus of culture
A year after his death, the great director was honoured by the stars at Westminster Abbey and the National Theatre |
'You won't be able to handle this lady': remembering Fenella Fielding
The vampish comic actress has died at 90 not long after receiving an OBE |
Like a baton out of hell: Conductors at the 2018 Proms
Chris Christodoulou snaps mostly men at work, but the women are coming |
'I saw that death is beautiful, unspeakable and strange': on filming 'Island'
Filmmaker Steven Eastwood introduces his documentary about the last moments of life |
theartsdesk in Cologne: urban boutique on the Rhine
c/o Pop festival clouded by uncertainties about Britain’s departure from the EU |
theartsdesk at the Suoni dal Golfo Festival - romantics shine in the Bay of Poets
A Liszt novelty proves worth revealing, while a fine pianist takes a castle by storm |
theartsdesk at the Lucerne Festival - all-Beethoven and all-Ravel concerts from the greatest
Haitink conducts an unearthly 'Pastoral' while Chailly ignites symphonic dances |
h 100 Awards: Art, Design and Craft - making art public
Showcasing the strength of British visual culture, and the people bringing it to public attention |
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