Buzz
The wonders of DelibesFriday, 25 June 2010
Before Covent Garden's performance of Manon the other day, I had always presumed I'd rather have my eyes out than listen to an entire opera by Massenet. How wrong I was. This Saturday I hope to be proved wrong again, when my colleague on theartsdesk... Read more... |
George Osborne vs young musiciansThursday, 24 June 2010Last night, I went to a concert by an orchestra which can wholeheartedly say that the steep cuts coming to the budget of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport won't affect it at all - because it receives no Government money, despite being one... Read more... |
'Sale of the Century' falls flatThursday, 24 June 2010
This time, the hype was perhaps deserved: Christie's did have a claim to be putting on, last night, the sale of the century.The Impressionist and Modern works were of a distinctly high calibre: Picasso's high Blue Period Portrait of Angel Fernandez... Read more... |
Diary of a Strumpette, Part Three: Ready, set, go!Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Miss Kitty Kowalski is the stage name of a writer on The Arts Desk - read her earlier diaries here and hereCheck out theartsdesk’s guide to UK Festivals 2010 Read more... |
Death Becomes... What?Thursday, 17 June 2010
A couple of very different publications have lately had me thinking about those 21st-century inescapables: death and celebrity. A new magazine called Eulogy hits the news stands for the first time today. It is an attempt – one that is on first sight... Read more... |
Rinse and repeatThursday, 17 June 2010
Today Rinse FM, London's leading pirate radio station, announced it has been granted a legal broadcast licence after 16 years of illicit transmissions. It's almost impossible to overstate how potentially momentous this event is for the UK's most... Read more... |
Diary of a Strumpette, Part Two: How the call came to GlastoWednesday, 16 June 2010
Well, folks, only 10 days to go til The Strumpettes hit Glastonbury and let me tell ya, we’re gettin’ a little hot under the collar. It turns out this ain’t some big practical joke that Velma cooked up to give us all a fit o' the vapours. We’re goin... Read more... |
The song remains the same?Friday, 11 June 2010The wind instrument in everyone's ears at the moment is the vuvuzela (pictured) a South African horn which comes in various lengths and pitches but is of unvarying volume: very loud. You'll be hearing a lot more of it during the World Cup, as it is... Read more... |
A starlet no longer - now Sergei is to be Covent Garden's new starThursday, 10 June 2010A new male star will be leading the Royal Ballet next season - a prodigious in-house talent of just 20. Sergei Polunin, Ukrainian-born and Royal Ballet School-trained, has been elevated to top rank in the Royal Ballet’s end-of-year promotions after... Read more... |
Swan Queen delayed by visa troubleWednesday, 09 June 2010Visa red tape has dashed English National Ballet’s plans to open its gigantic arena Swan Lake with the scheduled Russian star Polina Semionova. The 26-year-old ballerina from Berlin Ballet was much acclaimed on her debut with ENB in the production... Read more... |
Diary of a Strumpette, Part One: Three ukes on the road to GlastoWednesday, 09 June 2010
theartsdesk has an insider at Glastonbury this year - one of our writers is performing in the festival. Here we present the diary of Miss Kitty Kowalski, ukulele diva, and her cohorts in The Strumpettes."Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce... Read more... |
Boris tweets about 'draft culture strategy'Tuesday, 08 June 2010A man who recently boasted of having read little but Latin and Greek for the past 25 years might not, you'd think, be the most active tweeter. But the Mayor of London has just used Twitter to ask his followers - that's 80,595 of them - to contribute... Read more... |
