19th century
The 'self-experimenter': Howard Brenton on Strindberg in crisisMonday, 04 September 2017
I wrote The Blinding Light to try to understand the mental and spiritual crisis that August Strindberg suffered in February 1896. Deeply disturbed, plagued by hallucinations, he holed up in various hotel rooms in Paris, most famously in the Hotel... Read more... |
Prom 63 review: Gerstein, BBCSO, Bychkov - total mastery of orchestral soundFriday, 01 September 2017
No-one, least of all the players, will forget Semyon Bychkov’s 2009 Proms appearance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a poleaxing interpretation of Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony. They had already made the history books this Proms season with a... Read more... |
Princess Ida, National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company review - sparkling comedy, wobbly setsFriday, 01 September 2017
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you have to be pretty silly to take Gilbert and Sullivan seriously. But even sillier not to. And positively heroic to revive the pair’s 1884 three-acter Princess Ida: the show which – updated to a... Read more... |
The Limehouse Golem review - horrible history with a twistWednesday, 30 August 2017
How many more throats must be slit in 19th-century London before the river of blood starts to clot? The Limehouse Golem follows the gory footprints of Sweeney Todd and various riffs on the Ripper legend. Based on Peter Ackroyd’s 1994 novel Dan Leno... Read more... |
Proms at...Cadogan Hall review: Pavel Kolesnikov - Chopin takes flightTuesday, 29 August 2017
If individual greatness is to be found in the way an artist begins and ends a phrase, or finds magical transitions both within and between pieces, then Pavel Kolesnikov is already up there with the top pianists. Listeners tuning in midway through... Read more... |
La Bayadère, Mariinsky Ballet review - a parade of delightsSaturday, 12 August 2017
There are half as many performances of La Bayadère in this Mariinsky tour as performances of Swan Lake (four vs eight). The preponderance of Swan Lake is driven by audience demand, but if audiences knew what was good for them, they'd demand more... Read more... |
Prom 31 review: La Damnation de Faust, Gardiner - Berlioz tumbles out in rainbow coloursWednesday, 09 August 2017
The road to hell is paved with brilliant ideas in Berlioz's idiosyncratic take on the Faust legend. John Eliot Gardiner proved better than anyone in last night's Prom that this splendidly lopsided "dramatic legend" can only be weakened by its many... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: The Tree of Wooden ClogsTuesday, 08 August 2017
Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1978, Ermanno Olmi’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs (L’albero deli zoccoli) is a glorious fresco that reveals, over the course of an unhurried three hours and with a pronounced documentary element that virtually... Read more... |
Swan Lake, Mariinsky Ballet review - Xander Parish lacks the spark of wildfireFriday, 28 July 2017
It's a Cinderella story: Xander Parish was plucked from obscurity in the Royal Ballet corps and trained by the Mariinsky to dance the greatest roles in the repertoire. Now, not only is he the first Briton to join the historic Russian company, he has... Read more... |
Don Quixote, Mariinsky Ballet review - gentle charm, impressive principalsTuesday, 25 July 2017
One of the most Russian things you can do in ballet is dance Don Quixote, which is 100 percent set in Spain. Don't think too hard about it, and definitely don't think too hard about the plot (which is barely there). The point is, the Mariinsky -... Read more... |
Prom 10 review: Aurora Orchestra, Collon – a revolution taken to heartMonday, 24 July 2017
When a trail-blazing orchestra takes on a world-transforming work, it would be pointless to leave the staid old rules of concert etiquette intact. Not only did the Aurora Orchestra under Nicholas Collon stretch their repertoire of symphonies... Read more... |
Prom 9 review: Fidelio, BBCPO, Mena - classy prison drama rarely blazesSaturday, 22 July 2017
What a pity Beethoven never composed an appendage to Fidelio called The Sorrows of Young Marzelline. One crucial moment apart, the music he gives to his second soprano in his only opera isn't his best, but Louise Alder so lived the role of the... Read more... |
