Manchester
Prey, ITVTuesday, 29 April 2014
"Policeman wrongly accused of murder" is possibly not history's most original story idea, but in Prey, writer (and TV debutant) Chris Lunt has turned it into a platform for a skilfully-controlled thriller that keeps your brow sweaty and your breath... Read more... |
Rancourt, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSaturday, 12 April 2014
Soccer-mad Shostakovich’s score for a ballet about a Soviet football team visiting Western Europe, the world premiere of an oboe concerto by John Casken marking the 1914 centenary, and a rare semi-staged performance of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly... Read more... |
Much Ado About Nothing, Royal Exchange, ManchesterWednesday, 02 April 2014
Swedish director Maria Aberg, making her Royal Exchange debut, sets Shakespeare's comedy in 1945 post-war Britain and strives to play in the effects of war on the home front, where women are in charge and have taken on men’s roles. The same goes for... Read more... |
Martinpelto, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSunday, 09 March 2014
No one could accuse Manchester’s musical forces of short-changing Richard Strauss on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth. Under the title Strauss’s Voice, over two months three orchestras, eight conductors and a dozen soloists have... Read more... |
Davislim, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSunday, 02 March 2014
It’s the thought that counts. That’s what we say about presents. But when the gift is a song by Richard Strauss it is that and more. He made a habit of gifting songs, particularly to his wife Pauline. Several of the Six Orchestral Songs on... Read more... |
Orlando, Royal Exchange, ManchesterWednesday, 26 February 2014
“It’s all about you and the lusts of your flesh and the lure of your mind,” advised Virginia Woolf to Vita Sackville-West when writing the spoof biography Orlando as a “love letter” to her. When she had finished the novel, depicting Vita as an... Read more... |
Final curtain for the Library TheatreWednesday, 19 February 2014
We are witnessing the end of an era in the long history of Manchester’s theatreland: the disappearance, after more than 60 years, of the treasured Library Theatre. Coming full circle, it is ending as it began, with a production of The Seagull.... Read more... |
A Taste of Honey, National TheatreWednesday, 19 February 2014
Another week, another postwar classic. Hot on the heels of last week’s revival of Oh What a Lovely War comes another legendary play from the Joan Littlewood museum of great one-offs. This time it’s a restaging of Shelagh Delaney’s 1958 play about... Read more... |
Schwanewilms, Hallé, Stenz, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterThursday, 06 February 2014
“How tired we are of travelling,” the soprano sings, underscored by a solo horn. The end is near: “Is this perhaps death?” No fuss, no drama, but weariness and a calm acceptance. Since Strauss and his wife Pauline were in their eighties and living... Read more... |
Blindsided, Royal Exchange, ManchesterWednesday, 29 January 2014
There’s no place like home – and home for writer Simon Stephens is Stockport. He doesn’t live there any more, but he was born there in 1971 and still finds the place, particularly its seedier side, a rich source of emotionally charged material. So,... Read more... |
Williams, BBCPO, Hallé, Mena, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSaturday, 25 January 2014
There are occasions when just one band isn’t enough. Hence the rare experience of the Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic joining forces for a performance, in the Strauss’s Voice series celebrating the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, of An... Read more... |
Sherratt, Hallé, Znaider, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterFriday, 10 January 2014
It’s all about the voice – Strauss’s Voice, which is the title of the series of concerts being given by the musical forces of Manchester to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth. It is becoming a happy custom these days for the Hallé, the BBC... Read more... |
