Reviews
Giulio Cesare, The English Concert, Bicket, Barbican review - 10s across the board in perfect HandelMonday, 12 May 2025
Is Giulio Cesare in Egitto, to give the full title, Handel’s best and shapeliest opera? Glyndebourne’s revival of the legendary David McVicar production last year made it seem so, not least thanks to the presence of two of last night’s soloists,... Read more... |
Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - premiere of new Huw Watkins workMonday, 12 May 2025
Huw Watkins’ Concerto for Orchestra, the fourth new work of his to be commissioned and premiered by the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder, is another beautifully crafted and highly appealing construction.It’s also intriguing in its game-playing with genre,... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Roots Rocking ZimbabweSunday, 11 May 2025
“Soul Scene,” by Echoes Limited, is built from elements of the James Brown sound. But it’s put together in such a way that the result is unfamiliar. The angular drum groove edges towards a 5/8 shuffle. The circularity of the guitar suggests... Read more... |
Supergrass, Barrowland, Glasgow review - nostalgia played with youthful energySaturday, 10 May 2025
It is a family affair at Supergrass shows these days. There were plenty of parents and offspring filing onto the Barrowland’s famous old dancefloor, and during the encore a pair of excitable, bouncing teenagers turned around and started bellowing... Read more... |
Louis Cole, Roundhouse review - nothing is everythingSaturday, 10 May 2025
London's iconic Roundhouse, packed to the rafters, provided the perfect setting for the UK premiere of Louis Cole's groundbreaking album nothing – his fifth album and third on Brainfeeder. This one-night-only performance, featuring Cole on drums and... Read more... |
Here We Are, National Theatre review - Sondheim's sensational swan songFriday, 09 May 2025
You don't have to be greeting the modern day with a smile unsupported by events in the wider world to have a field day at Here We Are. The last musical from the venerated Stephen Sondheim has only grown in import and meaning since I caught its New... Read more... |
Riefenstahl review - fascinating fascism? Portrait of the Nazis' favourite film-makerFriday, 09 May 2025
There used to be an unwritten rule among BBC commissioners about how long an interval had to pass before greenlighting a new documentary on a familiar subject – Shakespeare, Ancient Egypt, Andy Warhol – they all came round again with a decent... Read more... |
Giant, Harold Pinter Theatre review - incendiary Roald Dahl drama with topical biteFriday, 09 May 2025
When Mark Rosenblatt was preparing his debut play, the miseries of the assault on Gaza were still over the horizon. Now they are here, another terrible moment in human history that resonates all through Giant. Since the play opened at the Royal... Read more... |
The Surfer review - Nicolas Cage is relentlessly down and out in western AustraliaFriday, 09 May 2025
“Don’t live here, don’t surf here,” is the menacing motto (sounds more scary with an Australian accent) of the tanned, muscular denizens of Luna Bay beach. But the unnamed hero known as The Surfer, played by Nicolas Cage, isn’t listening.The Surfer... Read more... |
Einkvan, Det Norske Teatret, The Coronet Theatre review - alienation times sixFriday, 09 May 2025
Watching the stricken faces on the split screen, I felt at times like callow Farfrae in Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge: when faced with Henchard’s account of his blackest misery, the young man replies “Ah, now, I never feel like it”. Well,... Read more... |
Desire: The Carl Craig Story review - a worthy, brand-conscious encomium for a techno starFriday, 09 May 2025
Carl Craig (b.1969) is a leading Detroit electronic music producer and DJ whose Planet E Communications label has existed for over three decades. This 90-minute documentary, which was directed by Jean-Cosme Delaloye and features over thirty... Read more... |
The Trunk, Netflix review - stylish, noir-ish Korean drama wrapped around a beguiling love storyThursday, 08 May 2025
The trunk in the title is a luxury item, worth 50 million won – just north of £27,000 – shown sinking in deep water in the opening credits. It weaves through one of the classiest recent collaborations between Netflix and Korean TV, a haunting... Read more... |
