royalty
Ivona, Princess of Burgundia, Network TheatreSunday, 09 January 2011
I suspect there is a different production waiting to be unveiled for Witold Gombrowicz’s 1938 black comedy Ivona, Princess of Burgundia. Under the arches at Waterloo, tucked beside the station down a dark and dank service road is the Network... Read more... |
The King's SpeechTuesday, 04 January 2011
"Only project!" That's not quite what EM Forster famously wrote, but it serves as the leitmotif of The King's Speech, as ripe a piece of Oscar bait as you are likely to see this year. Neither as visceral as The Fighter nor as resonantly and fully... Read more... |
Relics of Richard II, National Portrait GalleryThursday, 18 November 2010
The National Portrait Gallery is a national treasure. Not because it has nice pictures (although it does have that too), but because it has the most amazing archive. An archive that is, almost literally, a treasure trove. It is, of course, out of... Read more... |
The Genius of British Art, David Starkey, Channel 4Monday, 04 October 2010
“Henry VIII is the only king whose shape we remember,” David Starkey tells us in the first of a new series of “polemical essays” on British art. To demonstrate, he reduces the king’s form to its bare Cubist geometry. He sketches a trapezoid for the... Read more... |
Art Gallery: Fourth Plinth CommissionFriday, 20 August 2010
A playful, subversive mood dominates the shortlist for Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth. Most of the six proposals, in what is a very strong shortlist, play on notions of British identity, probing themes of heroism, heritage and conquest. The models... Read more... |
Royal Wedding, BBC TwoTuesday, 18 May 2010
Where were you? For those of us too young to experience Kennedy’s assassination, which realistically is anyone under the age of 55, the Royal Wedding is the next event along the chain of history that simultaneously impinged on much of the globe’s... Read more... |
The Seckerson Tapes: Sarah Connolly InterviewSaturday, 15 May 2010
Acclaimed British mezzo Sarah Connolly prepares for the title role in Donizetti's battle royal of rival queens Maria Stuarda. Her return to Opera North in the bel cantorole of her choice will be one of the highlights of the UK opera season and in... Read more... |
Girls on the Frontline, BBC Three/ News at Ten, BBC OneFriday, 26 March 2010
Let’s be honest, you never expect much sense from BBC Three. You don’t count on it for, say, depth of perspective. The channel which each week spews fresh torrents of hectic DayGlo entertainment in the specific direction of a desensitised... Read more... |
Birmingham Royal Ballet 1990-2010, Birmingham HippodromeTuesday, 09 March 2010
What should a choreographer set before a Prince for a Royal Gala performance when his finest hour is a portrayal of Royal buggery with a hot poker? Well, possibly (sotto voce) clogdancing cobblers and pegleg pirates might be found more suitable, and... Read more... |
Royals at Birmingham Royal BalletTuesday, 09 March 2010
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall will attend Birmingham Royal Ballet’s 20th anniversary gala tomorrow night celebrating two decades in Birmingham for the company which was once Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet. The Prince of Wales is... Read more... |
Princes William and Harry Portrait, National Portrait GalleryFriday, 08 January 2010
The latest official royal portrait, and the first painted portrait featuring the Princes William and Harry, hangs in a small room at the National Portrait Gallery among a selection of royal portraits of the Windsors. There’s the rather quirky one of... Read more... |
Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, Sadler's WellsFriday, 18 December 2009
For a choreographer the moment your work becomes a classic is when the audience tells you that you’re casting it wrong. I’ve seen Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake more than a dozen times for professional reasons since it first took off from Sadler’s Wells... Read more... |
