Handel
Jamila Gavin: Writing Coram BoySaturday, 17 December 2011
Someone told me that the highways and byways of England were littered with the bones of little children. It was a shocking statement and of course I asked, “What do you mean?” I was told that abandoned children were a common feature of the past, but... Read more... |
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, 229 ClubSaturday, 05 November 2011
Where’s the African car? Seun Kuti wanted to know. There are German cars, Chinese cars (he grimaced) even Brazilian cars. At least, anyway, there is “original African music”, not traditional but something new. Actually, not entirely new, as some of... Read more... |
Xerxes, Britten Theatre, Royal College of MusicSaturday, 08 October 2011
“Morning at the airfield: King Xerxes admires the new Spitfire, which he hopes will transform his continental campaign.” If the title – emphatically Xerxes rather than Serse – hadn’t already given the game away, the synopsis for English Touring... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Rinaldo, Glyndebourne Festival OperaFriday, 26 August 2011
What was the audience on? They tittered when the bicycles came on, nearly cried when the whip was unleashed and virtually pissed themselves when the warring sides in Handel's crusader fantasy Rinaldo started fighting it out with hockey and lacrosse... Read more... |
Carlos Acosta, Premieres Plus, London ColiseumWednesday, 27 July 2011
For most dancers the first base is to get principal roles. For a star like Carlos Acosta, second base becomes urgent: to find the career path beyond classical ballet. Like Sylvie Guillem he seeks out a new contemporary dance path to fulfil, being... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Buxton Festival: An Opera a DayTuesday, 19 July 2011
An opera a day keeps boredom at bay. There’s no danger of boredom in Buxton in mid-July. Set 1,000ft up in the Derbyshire hills, on the edge of the Peak District, and blessed with an Edwardian gem of an opera house, the old spa town is now well... Read more... |
Rinaldo, Glyndebourne Festival OperaSunday, 03 July 2011
Each Handel opera (or the good ones at any rate) has its own musical colour and character. The woody husk of viola d’amore and low oboes bring pastoral calm to the frenzies of Orlando, bassoons lurk with doubt under the glossy strings of Ariodante.... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Göttingen: Handel With an UmlautSunday, 12 June 2011
Georg Friedrich Händel of Halle probably never came here. Other great men certainly did: long after the official foundation of Göttingen's Georg August University in 1734 - the year in which the composer wrote a masterpiece, Ariodante, in another... Read more... |
Ariodante, Barbican HallWednesday, 25 May 2011
Handel spread dazzle and desolation evenly enough through the lead roles of Ariodante. A suitably stellar line-up for last night's concert performance at the Barbican was, therefore, awaiting us. Yet, as so often with Handel, the packed ship... Read more... |
James Bowman, Mahan Esfahani, Wigmore HallSaturday, 21 May 2011
The Wigmore Hall was full to capacity last night, its crowd gathered to pay homage to a great musician at the end of his career, and to discover the talents of a great musician at the very beginning of his. While Alfred Deller might have been the... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Handel, Russians, Labèques, SackbutsFriday, 08 April 2011
There is a change to our coverage of classical CD releases. Since theartsdesk began in September 2009, we have been reviewing on a monthly basis. As of today we're switching to weekly and our round-up of the new classical albums will now appear... Read more... |
Rodelinda, Britten Theatre, Royal College of MusicMonday, 14 March 2011
A highlight of the London Handel Festival’s annual season is the opera, generally chosen from one of the dustier, more spidery corners of the composer’s repertoire. What a surprise then to see Rodelinda taking its turn this year. An undisputed... Read more... |
