17th century
Monteverdi Vespers, The Sixteen, Christophers, Winchester CathedralFriday, 07 November 2014
It has to be the ultimate cornucopia of choral and early-instrumental invention. So long as the musicians immerse themselves in the beauty of a strange adventure, it doesn’t matter where you hear Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610: however selective the... Read more... |
Witches and Wicked Bodies, British MuseumTuesday, 21 October 2014
Wicked women have always sold well, but more than that, they have fired the artistic imagination in a quite exceptional way. Exploring the depiction of the witch from the 15th to the 19th century, this exhibition is packed with images that must... Read more... |
Schama on Rembrandt: Masterpieces of the Late Years, BBC TwoSunday, 19 October 2014
The chatty, loquacious, exuberant Simon Schama, whose seminal 1987 book on Holland in the 17th century, The Embarrassment of Riches, transformed the anglophone’s understanding of the Dutch Republic, describes himself as historian, writer, art critic... Read more... |
Rembrandt: The Late Works, National GalleryTuesday, 14 October 2014
All human life, as they say, is here: we witness displays of warmth and tenderness in virtuous matrimony; reflection and contemplation in quiet solitude. We respond to the soft seductions of the flesh in its yielding ripeness, and we feel the pathos... Read more... |
L'Incoronazione di Poppea, The Academy of Ancient Music, Howarth, Barbican HallSunday, 05 October 2014
Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea is an opera with a one-track mind. The music throbs and pulses with dancing desire, suspensions and elaborate embellishments defer gratification, while recitative is poised constantly on the edge of melodic... Read more... |
What Lies Beneath: The Secret Life of PaintingsWednesday, 30 July 2014
The doctoring of political images became something of a tradition in the last century, with Stalin, Hitler and Mao all airbrushing their enemies from photographs. The latest infrared technology has revealed that something similar may have happened... Read more... |
Jordi Savall, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseTuesday, 24 June 2014
Jordi Savall has spent half a century combining instrumental performance on the viola da gamba with being the leader of ensembles of pioneering scholarship. Now in his early 70s, he has certainly had the recognition he deserves: a Grammy (he has... Read more... |
La Calisto, Hampstead Garden OperaMonday, 28 April 2014
Baroque operas are like buses. You wait years for some Cavalli to come along, and then three of his operas arrive almost at once. It all started with English Touring Opera’s Jason last October – a witty and endlessly shape-shifting work – followed... Read more... |
New Worlds, Channel 4Wednesday, 02 April 2014
It's been six years since Peter Flannery's lurid Civil War series The Devil's Whore, which ended shortly after the death of Oliver Cromwell. This sequel, co-written by Flannery and Martine Brant, speeds us forward to 1680, which means Charles II is... Read more... |
L’Ormindo, Royal Opera, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseWednesday, 26 March 2014
The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the new indoor Jacobean theatre at The Globe, is an absolute jewel of painstaking historical research and craftsmanship. It is small, seating around 350, and with its thrust stage lit by around 100 candles (with electric... Read more... |
L'Arpeggiata, Wigmore HallSaturday, 22 March 2014
Turning every concert into a party, baroque ensemble L’Arpeggiata are performers in the truest sense. Too often early musicians get away with being shy or downright awkward, visibly uncomfortable when forced to introduce an encore. Not so with these... Read more... |
The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Sam Wanamaker PlayhouseFriday, 28 February 2014
If it's possible to have rather too much of a frolicsome thing, consider by way of example The Knight of the Burning Pestle, a giddily self-conscious 1607 romp from Francis Beaumont that would be more fun if it were at least a full scene or two... Read more... |
