Spain
Flamenco Sin Fronteras, Paco Peña Dance Company, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 30 June 2010
Spain and Venezuela are two countries divided by a common language - in dance and music, as well as in culture. Hence the hook for Paco Peña’s latest production, Flamenco sin fronteras, which while wearing a faintly anthropological air also packs a... Read more... |
theartsdesk at Sónar festival, BarcelonaMonday, 21 June 2010
In retrospect, deciding on a quick in-and-out trip to the Sónar festival was a slightly silly idea. Not because there was any problem with the event, or with getting there, or because I had any difficulty chucking an all-nighter then making it to my... Read more... |
HierroWednesday, 16 June 2010
What is it with horror films and water? Think back through all the watery episodes in the horror canon, not the grandiose creature-from-the-deep type but the more domestic scenarios – beaches, showers, baths, bathrooms. From Hitchcock’s originary... Read more... |
Picasso Special - Picasso: Peace and Freedom, Tate LiverpoolMonday, 24 May 2010
Picasso the genius, the sensualist, the womaniser, the priapic beast. This much we think we know of the great Spanish artist. But how about Picasso the political activist? Picasso the supporter of women’s causes? Picasso the… feminist? Oh, yes, that... Read more... |
Mathilde Monnier and La Ribot, Queen Elizabeth HallSunday, 09 May 2010
These past five days in May have seen some fairly oddball goings-on labelled as "New Dance at the Southbank Centre". Accidentally coinciding with other oddball goings-on on the national scene, since it was booked up long ago before elections were... Read more... |
Angela de la Cruz/ Anna Maria Maiolino, Camden Arts CentreFriday, 02 April 2010
Acts of wanton destruction appear to have taken place at Camden Arts Centre, as canvases lie crushed, ripped, crumpled and broken. Monochrome and minimalist works have had their stretchers, their very backbones, ripped and cracked in two, and their... Read more... |
Art 2009: Best and WorstWednesday, 30 December 2009
2009 hasn’t been a vintage year for art, exactly - no queue-round-the-block showstoppers, if that’s your type of thing. Nonetheless the year was nicely topped and tailed by some memorable, and quietly seductive shows. My top five are Picasso, Mark... Read more... |
Imagine: Placido Domingo - The Time of My Life, BBC OneTuesday, 15 December 2009
How old Placido Domingo? Old Placido Domingo in not bad vocal health, to paraphrase Cary Grant's celebrated telegram reply. The other answer depends on your source of reference. Domingo is 68 in the eyes of last night's rather lazy, over-... Read more... |
Art Gallery: The Sacred Made RealMonday, 02 November 2009
Mark Hudson reviews on another page the National Gallery's exhibition of 17th-century Spanish sculpture and art, The Sacred Made Real, which he describes as "in some ways the most contemporary exhibition in London". Here are some of the artworks on... Read more... |
Le Grand Macabre, ENOFriday, 18 September 2009Door-sized detachable nipples, an angel of death with a dick to die for (literally), a cave of an arse housing a disco-dancing unit of storm troopers and an all-singing all-dancing couple of randy cadavers. Ever wondered what the Europeans might... Read more... |
Don Carlo, Royal OperaTuesday, 15 September 2009
It finally came just over three hours in. Ferruccio Furlanetto’s gouty Philip II leans his elbow on his chair and begins to grind his head into his right-hand like he's a human pestle and mortar. He first castigates himself for ever having thought... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Tamara Rojo's DiarySunday, 13 September 2009
The Royal Ballet's leading ballerina Tamara Rojo was holding a large and not old but already battered diary when we met, pages and dried flowers falling out of it, along with notes and photographs. It’s barely a book, more a pile of loose... Read more... |
