This is an important year for Maria Callas fans – this being the centenary year of her birth. Artistic tributes to La Divina, (Callas’s nickname), kicked off with Serbian performance artist, Marina Abramović, who used the English National Opera to explore her obsession with Callas. 7 Deaths of Maria Callas is no ordinary opera as you…
Category: review
Dying inside: ‘7 Deaths of Maria Callas’, English National Opera, London
‘7 Deaths of Maria Callas’ is described as an “opera project”, the brainchild of performance artist Marina Abramović. The timing is ideal – English National Opera (ENO) describes the piece as “celebratory”, as we approach the centenary of Callas’s birth on 2 December; while Abramović is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the…
‘Letter(s) to Erik Satie’ – Pianist Bertrand Chamayou explores the Cage Satie Connection
In Letter(s) to Erik Satie, Bertrand Chamayou celebrates the works of Erik Satie (1866-1925) and John Cage (1912-1992). Satie and Cage might seem an unusual pairing, yet both were idiosyncratic composers, separated by time and geography. The cabarets of 19th century Paris were Satie’s training ground, whereas Cage a conceptual artist from California was blooming…
Astral peaks: Raf and O, ‘We are Stars’
This is the most exquisite album yet from Raf and O, who I believe belong to that select group of artists who create not only great music, but also a universe in which that music can live and breathe. Open and upfront about their key influences – chiefly David Bowie and Kate Bush, more of…
Elizabeth Sombart on the “hope” in Mozart in conversation with ArtMuseLondon
ArtMuseLondon : Elizabeth, you have a double album out in which you play Mozart’s greatest piano concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Why have you chosen Mozart, and why these concertos? Elizabeth : Following the difficult times we have gone through, I feel that Mozart can bring us joy, hope, and some much needed magic to…
ETO’s new touring opera season opens with ‘The Coronation of Poppea’ at the Hackney Empire
September 30th was an important date in the English Touring Opera diary, with its new production of Coronation of Poppea opening at the splendorous Hackney Empire. Monteverdi’s seventeenth century opera is considered by many to be a masterpiece. It is easy to see why it endures, as it contains a host of fascinating historic figures…
Sea change: ‘Peter Grimes’, English National Opera, London
I was already excited about this evening before a note had even been sung or played. The start of a new ENO season: a happy occasion in itself. But I was also new to this acclaimed David Alden production, which was last given in 2014, only a few months before I went to my very…
Moving images: ‘Yevonde – Life and Colour’, National Portrait Gallery, London
‘Madame Yevonde’ (born Yevonde Philone Cumbers) was a professional photographer whose versatile, pioneering career – lasting some 60 years until her death in 1975 at the age of 82 – reflected the relentless pace of change during the twentieth century. When visiting this major exhibition devoted to her work, it feels like walking through several…
András Keller, conductor of Concerto Budapest, in conversation with ArtMuseLondon
Karine Hetherington of ArtMuseLondon caught up with busy conductor András Keller, ahead of his 6-concert UK and Ireland tour with the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra. András – you have forged a brilliant career in music, first as a solo violinist, a concertmaster and chamber musician – and you are now touring the UK with the Concerto Budapest Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra…
Forward thinking: ‘Science Fiction’, Science Museum, London
With a lack of planning that would probably rule me out of any responsible position in the building of a future society, I have only just made it to this captivating exhibition – which has a single week left to run. Worth catching if you’re in the area, but as ever, I’ve tried to give…
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