Buzz
Chariots of Fire is coming!Wednesday, 18 April 2012![]() There'll be no avoiding Chariots of Fire this summer. The Olympics being shortly upon us, Hampstead Theatre are soon to launch a stage verison of the Oscar-winning 1981 film. The success of Hugh Hudson's epic account of the British athletes at the... Read more... |
BFI celebrates ‘The Genius of Hitchcock’ in a major new retrospectiveWednesday, 18 April 2012![]() Launched to the press today with an hour-long presentation and Hitchcockian lunch, the British Film Institute proudly unveiled a fittingly hefty programme of screenings, events, exhibitions and publications celebrating the work of Alfred Hitchcock... Read more... |
2012 Olivier Awards: comedy sidelined as Matilda enters the record booksMonday, 16 April 2012![]() Matilda, the Royal Shakespeare Company-spawned musical about an extraordinary young girl, managed the extraordinary feat Sunday of snaring a record seven trophies at last night’s 36th Laurence Olivier Awards. Its rampaging hold over the black-tie... Read more... |
The best and worst national anthems? Time to award the medalsSunday, 15 April 2012![]() The onerous task of recording all 205 national anthems for playing at the Olympics medal ceremonies has fallen on the London Philharmonic Orchestra. An edited group of 36 players has recorded the anthems at the Abbey Road Studios in 60 gruelling... Read more... |
Tamara Rojo, prima ballerina, becomes English National Ballet's directorThursday, 12 April 2012![]() Royal Ballet prima ballerina Tamara Rojo has been appointed the new artistic director of English National Ballet. Though the announcement was officially dated for tomorrow, the press release was issued by the company this morning and the news has... Read more... |
Captain Scott's Desert Island DiscsWednesday, 11 April 2012Centenaries are sizeable business in 2012. It just so happens that the Olympics are coming to the United Kingdom for the third time in a year which finds us thinking very hard if being British still means what it did 100 years. Then, two momentous... Read more... |
YouTube hoaxer makes a very convincing MozartSaturday, 07 April 2012![]() Norman Lebrecht, the seasoned and ever-alert musical commentator, thinks he and his readers may have uncovered someone making a very good stab at being Mozart. Three pieces have been discovered on the internet DIY-video channel being played by a... Read more... |
Cash for arts: should it be bums-per-pound or pounds-per-bum?Saturday, 31 March 2012![]() The organisation that channels public money to generate today's new classical music has been resoundingly condemned this week by all of Britain's most important composers. In an open letter, signed by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Sir Peter Maxwell... Read more... |
Bach Cantatas: celeb seeks crowd-fundingTuesday, 20 March 2012![]() Fancy buying a new recording of Bach’s Cantatas? It’ll cost only slightly more than a regular CD. The only snag is it hasn’t been recorded yet, which is where you come in.Over the last few years Sir John Eliot Gardiner has been steadily releasing a... Read more... |
The Outsiders: The Return of Brit-Punk’s First Do-It-Yourself AlbumMonday, 19 March 2012![]() Manchester’s Buzzcocks were first to hit the seven-inch racks with their Spiral Scratch EP, but south London’s Outsiders were the first punk-era band to make a do-it-yourself album. The Wimbledon trio’s Calling on Youth, released in May 1977, was... Read more... |
2012 Olivier Awards nominations announcedThursday, 15 March 2012![]() In how many categories is it possible for a show to be nominated for this year's Olivier Awards? Answer: 10. The producers of Matilda the Musical will be smiling from ear to ear after the nominations for next month’s awards were revealed, with the... Read more... |
Simone Felice: Video Exclusive part 2Tuesday, 13 March 2012![]() In the final instalment of our exclusive Simone Felice video series, the singer and poet from New York's Catskill mountains takes us on a tour of three further locations that kept him sane, whilst, around him, life seemed like an extract from the... Read more... |
