16th century
A Midsummer Night's Dream, BarbicanTuesday, 11 February 2014
An insider once told me that you get a grant for including puppets in a production. Which may account for the amount of crap puppetry haphazardly applied in the theatre. That certainly can't be said about the work of husband-and-husband team Adrian... Read more... |
The Duchess of Malfi, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseThursday, 16 January 2014
A candlelit theatre is one thing. A theatre when those candles are so close you could lean in and blow them out, where a good line sets them flickering in gusts of audience laughter is quite another. We’ve been spoilt by the Globe for almost 20... Read more... |
Yuletide Scenes 7: Madonna and Child EnthronedWednesday, 25 December 2013
What better way to celebrate Christmas than by contemplating this sublime altarpiece by the celebrated Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini? It hangs above a sidechapel in the church of San Zaccaria in Venice offering blissful relief from the noise and... Read more... |
Stile Antico, Cadogan HallWednesday, 20 November 2013
Earlier this year early music ensemble Stile Antico released a really fabulous disc. The Phoenix Rising is a collage of the Tudor church-music classics that all gained their status and familiarity thanks to the work of the Carnegie Trust and their... Read more... |
The Killing Flower, Linbury Studio TheatreFriday, 25 October 2013
In this classical anniversary year we’ve had masses of Wagner and Verdi, plenty of Britten (and still more Britten) but not much has been heard of 2013’s other birthday-boy, the notorious Carlo Gesualdo – prince, priest, composer and murderer. Best... Read more... |
Elizabeth I and Her People, National Portrait GallerySaturday, 19 October 2013
At the beginning of the 17th century an anonymous Anglo-Netherlandish artist produced an elaborate procession portrait of the septuagenarian Virgin Queen, tactfully portrayed as though several decades younger, when she had succeeded to the throne in... Read more... |
Art Under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm, Tate BritainFriday, 18 October 2013
Seeing the statue of Saddam Hussein toppled in Baghdad in April 2003, I felt a rush of euphoria despite deep reservations about the American invasion. My (misplaced) optimism was shared by the Iraqi student, Ayass Mohammed. ’“Suddenly I felt freedom... Read more... |
L'Arpeggiata, Wigmore HallFriday, 11 October 2013
L’Arpeggiata are everything that crossover should be and everything that this arranged marriage of genres so often isn’t. The work of lutenist Christina Pluhar and her band of period musicians is organic and authentic, a blend of musics that amplify... Read more... |
Much Ado About Nothing, Old VicFriday, 20 September 2013
“What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?” Surely never before has Benedick’s opening quip cut so close to the literal, nor drawn such a laugh from its audience. With a combined age of 158, the romantic leads in Mark Rylance’s Much Ado About... Read more... |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Noël Coward TheatreWednesday, 18 September 2013
It’s a nothing of a line – “Hail mortal” – spoken by nobody important, but in Michael Grandage’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream it becomes the basis for an entire concept. A trivial bit of linguistic sleight of hand turns it into “Inhale mortal” and... Read more... |
Maria Stuarda, Welsh National OperaSaturday, 14 September 2013
Last week Anne Boleyn, this week Mary Queen of Scots. Donizetti’s trawl through the Tudor monarchs and their victims was more a recurrent obsession than a systematic exploration. WNO, on the other hand, seem to be implying some Ring-like continuity.... Read more... |
Anna Bolena, Welsh National OperaSunday, 08 September 2013
“Let the florid music praise,” sing Britten and Auden in their On This Island cycle; and I suppose we must do as we’re told, though aesthetic duty can be a hard taskmaster. For me it cracks its whip in the three Donizetti operas that, inexplicably,... Read more... |
