19th century
Fidelio, Royal Opera review - fitfully vivid singing in a dramatic voidMonday, 02 March 2020
Emblazoned on a drop-curtain in front of a mirror-image of the auditorium, the three great tenets of the French revolution seem to be mocking us right at the start, above all the second of them: equality, really, given the make-up of the Royal Opera... Read more... |
True History of the Kelly Gang review - anarchy in OzMonday, 02 March 2020
“Nothing you’re about to see is true,” this adaptation of Peter Carey’s novel about Australia’s iron-clad Victorian outlaw Ned Kelly declares. Justin Kurzel’s wild investigation of the Kelly myth, Australian manhood and nationhood carves out its own... Read more... |
Hallé, Elder, Gernon, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, review - fiery Beethoven tributeFriday, 28 February 2020
Honouring Beethoven in Manchester is a united enterprise, at least between the Hallé and BBC Philharmonic, two symphony orchestras that have worked out a series of Beethoven specials between them. Last night’s Hallé concert even had two conductors... Read more... |
The Call of the Wild review - how big-hearted Buck became leader of the packFriday, 21 February 2020
Jack London’s original novel was a brutal and Darwinian account of a dog's life in the Klondike during the gold rush at the end of the 19th century. Chris Sanders’s film, on the other hand, with a screenplay by Michael Green, is a family-friendly... Read more... |
Luisa Miller, English National Opera review - Verdi in translation makes a stylish comebackThursday, 13 February 2020
Those who booed the production team last night - there was nothing but generous cheering for singers, conductor and orchestra - might reflect that this was at least regietheater, that singular brand of not-all-bad director's opera in Germany, with... Read more... |
Darren Waterston: Filthy Lucre, V&A review - a timely look at the value of artSaturday, 08 February 2020
It looks as if vandals have ransacked Whistler's Peacock Room. The famous interior was commissioned in the 1870s by shipping magnate, Frederick Richard Leyland to show off his collection of fine porcelain. The specially designed shelves have... Read more... |
The Lighthouse review - shiver me timbersThursday, 30 January 2020
A creepy lighthouse on a remote island, a blistering storm, a mermaid languishing on the shore and two fabulously bewhiskered actors chewing up the scenery like there’s no tomorrow. The Lighthouse feels like it’s been washed up in a bottle... Read more... |
The Personal History of David Copperfield review – top-drawer DickensFriday, 24 January 2020
Armando Iannucci’s move away from the contemporary political satires that made his name, first signalled by his bold, uproariously brilliant Death of Stalin, continues apace with a Dickens adaptation that feels quietly radical. It’s not just... Read more... |
Currie, Jordan, NCO, Stoller Hall, Manchester review - major marimba musicSaturday, 18 January 2020
Finding one piece for marimba soloist and string orchestra would tax the powers of many concert planners, never mind coming up with two, so the Northern Chamber Orchestra is to be congratulated on its first Manchester performance of 2020 –... Read more... |
Nathalie Léger: Exposition review – mysteries, rumours and factsSunday, 12 January 2020
Nathalie Léger’s superbly original Exposition is a biographical novel meditating on the nature of biography itself. Its plot – if indeed its 150 pages of intense reflection bordering continuously on stream of consciousness can be called a plot – is... Read more... |
A Christmas Carol, BBC One review – Dickens classic recast as gruelling horror storyMonday, 23 December 2019
If you came to this expecting to be reminded of such ghosts of Scrooges past as Alastair Sim or Bill Murray, you will have been reaching either for the brandy or the defibrillator. In the hands of screenwriter Steven Peaky Blinders Knight and... Read more... |
Bauer, CBSO, Koenig, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - Christoph pulls it offFriday, 13 December 2019
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla’s programmes in Birmingham are so personal – so utterly bespoke – that in the event of her being indisposed, they present something of a problem. That’s what happened this week. The programme was vintage Gražinytė-Tyla –... Read more... |
