19th century
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Theatre Royal Haymarket review - inventive rollercoaster of a revampWednesday, 14 February 2024
Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novella The Picture of Dorian Gray has given the world a trope built for flattery, along the lines of: “You look so young, you must have a portrait growing old in your attic”. But how many who use this line have read the text... Read more... |
The King and I, Dominion Theatre review - welcome return for the Rodgers and Hammerstein classicWednesday, 31 January 2024
The giant crinolines are back, and the winsome little royal children with miniature temples on their heads, and the glorious songs. The King and I is at the Dominion for a six-week run: how does its storyline look under a 21st century follow-spot?... Read more... |
Radulović, Hallé, de la Parra, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - fun for the youngThursday, 25 January 2024
Back on home ground, the Hallé begin 2024 in Manchester with a repeated programme. I heard the first of three performances this week. It includes one piece they played only 10 days ago on a tour in Spain with the orchestra’s new principal... Read more... |
Tchaikovsky's Wife review - husband materialSunday, 31 December 2023
The movies haven’t been kind to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The Nutcracker Suite was a highlight of Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) perhaps, but the 1969 Soviet biopic directed by Igor Talankin was tedious and Ken Russell’s The Music Lovers, released... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Ravenna - Riccardo Muti passes on a lifetime's operatic wisdomTuesday, 26 December 2023
Does “the practice of opera singing in Italy” need help from UNESCO, which has newly inscribed it on the “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”? Italian opera is surely immensely popular worldwide. But when it comes to... Read more... |
A Ghost Story for Christmas: Lot No 249, BBC Two review - mummy's boy unleashes hell in the halls of academeSunday, 24 December 2023
Having previously brought us adaptations of M R James’s ghost stories, reviving the BBC tradition inaugurated by Lawrence Gordon Clark in the 1970s, Mark Gatiss has now turned to a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle for his annual Christmas chiller.... Read more... |
The Peasants review - earthbound animationSaturday, 09 December 2023
After a few years of cinema, the wow factor of seeing actual things moving about on a screen wore off a bit and showmen saw that jump cuts and stop-motion – the dawn of animation – could lift audiences some more. The liberation from gravity, in fact... Read more... |
Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - championing the rich and rareFriday, 24 November 2023
Sir Mark Elder’s zest for exploring fresh territory with the forces of the Hallé is unquenched even in his final season as music director. And who better to introduce the Stabat Mater of Rossini – a late flowering of the operatic wizard’s powers –... Read more... |
Napoleon review - Sir Ridley Scott's historical epic is wide but not deepWednesday, 22 November 2023
Sir Ridley Scott has taken umbrage at the French critics who weren’t too impressed with his new movie. Not only do they not like his film, but the French “don’t even like themselves”, according to the dyspeptic auteur.But I feel our French cousins... Read more... |
Accentus, Insula orchestra, Equilbey, Barbican review - radiant French choral masterpiecesTuesday, 21 November 2023
Last night saw two pieces of late 19th century French choral music – one a hugely popular staple of choral societies around the world, the other a complete novelty, lost for a hundred years – brought together in fascinating juxtaposition by the... Read more... |
The Flea, The Yard Theatre review - biting satire fails to stingThursday, 19 October 2023
A flea bites a rat which spooks a horse which kicks a man and… an empire falls?James Fritz has won writing awards already in his developing career, but he has set himself quite the challenge to weave a thread that can bear that narrative weight. Two... Read more... |
Lies We Tell review - fear and gaslighting in 1860s IrelandSaturday, 14 October 2023
It is 1864 and the lush green lawns of Knowl, the stately home in Ireland that Maud Ruthyn (Agnes O’Casey) will inherit when she reaches the age of 21, are beautifully kept. Everything is in its place. Maud expects deference, especially from... Read more... |
