Features
The Seckerson Tapes: Edward Gardner InterviewSunday, 20 June 2010
Edward Gardner is no longer English National Opera's best kept secret. The former choral scholar and repetiteur goes from strength to strength helming ENO through productive and interesting times. The world's stages are now beckoning. During a break... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Toronto: Luminato Hosts Wainwright and MalkovichSunday, 20 June 2010
To get a feel for whether an arts festival has truly penetrated a city’s psyche, it helps to strike up a conversation with local Starbucks baristas. That’s why I was grateful to be asked one recent evening in Toronto, “So what exactly is Luminato... Read more... |
Dinner with Caetano VelosoWednesday, 16 June 2010
You forget how fast the night descends in the tropics, in half an hour the light goes, the sun disappearing with a grand melodramatic finality. You understand the Mexican tribe who believe without their prayers it will never rise again. But it... Read more... |
All Das Jazz: the Berlin Phil swing with Wynton MarsalisTuesday, 15 June 2010
"It was only on Monday afternoon that the final scores of three of the movements were put into my hands," says Sir Simon Rattle, chuckling at the memory and casting a mock glance of disapproval at the composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis who is... Read more... |
Nigel Kennedy's Polish AdventureMonday, 14 June 2010
Brilliant though it was to be shooting an Imagine film for BBC One, we did experience the occasional tremor of foreboding about making a programme with Nigel Kennedy. We (that's me and director Frank Hanly) had a bit of previous with Nigel - I'd... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Rome: Orchestral Manoeuvres on the Dark SideSaturday, 12 June 2010
One of the downsides of the international media’s obsession with the crimes and misdemeanours of Silvio Berlusconi and his make-it-up-as-you-go-along style of government is that anything that doesn’t fit in with the overall narrative of the crazed,... Read more... |
The Epic of England: Adapting Morte d'ArthurFriday, 11 June 2010
The RSC’s Morte d’Arthur is not what you’d call a rushed job. John Barton, the company’s advisory director, has been on a mission to see the work performed for at least 50 years. The director Greg Doran had also been wanting to stage Malory’s epic... Read more... |
Interview: Michael Winner on collecting Donald McGillTuesday, 08 June 2010
This week a new exhibition with no pretence to seriousness opens at Tate Britain. Rude Britannia: British Comic Art is a comprehensive tour of a great national tradition: having a laugh in a line drawing. The show covers the boardwalk from Gilray... Read more... |
The Seckerson Tapes: Finishing Mozart's Unfinished OperaMonday, 07 June 2010
The Classical Opera Company does exactly what it says on the tin and over the last few years has refreshed parts of the repertoire and corners of the nation that their bigger and more illustrious counterparts never reach. Conductor and artistic... Read more... |
European Festivals 2010 Round-UpSunday, 06 June 2010
Istanbul, Turkey, 3-30 JuneThe 38th annual music festival in the jewelled city of culture-clash continues its strong classical showing with Radu Lupu and Lang Lang, the Borodin Quartet and Riccardo Muti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Equally... Read more... |
Mick Gordon on directing The TempestFriday, 04 June 2010
The central character in Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest, is a betrayed Duke called Prospero. Prospero means omniscient panic: an apt name for an all-powerful creator of tempests and general wreaker of revenge. However, the profound appeal of... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Istanbul: Salzburg, Here We ComeMonday, 31 May 2010
At a sprawling car plant in the suburbs of north-eastern Istanbul mechanics are busy repairing camshafts and dynamos, applying blow torches to the undercarriages of a range of luxury cars and retouching paintwork. Visitors to the building are met by... Read more... |
