I finally saw the film Tár, directed by Todd Field and starring Cate Blanchett as conductor Lydia Tár, as it is now available via streaming. The small screen is perfect for a film where the narrative and drama is intense and concentrated. It also allows one loo/refreshment breaks, as it’s a slow-moving film – nearly…
Artist Collishaw creates ‘Heterosis’ a horticultural metaverse
Mat Collishaw is known for his unsettling, startlingly elegant photographs of burning butterflies and flowers. In his latest artistic project however, Collishaw has changed his focus favouring growth over death. Heterosis is a horticultural metaverse which he has created with designer, Danil Krivoruchko. The two have built a phenomenal website, created a digital environment, in…
The Golden Road to Samarkand – Joseph Tawadros, Zeb Soames and Britten Sinfonia
Joseph Tawadros Constellation Three Stages of Hindsight [world premiere; arranged Tawadros and orchestrated Alex Palmer] Constantinople Delius Hassan What a joy of a concert! Superb venue – the wonderful Milton Court concert hall which is the Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s new performance venue – fabulous soloists (of which more in a minute) and…
Narrative threads: ‘Africa Fashion’, V&A, London
This was one of the most purely exciting exhibitions I’ve seen in a long time. So vibrant and visually assured, it stimulates one’s sight in the same way a complex gourmet meal explodes in multiple flavours across the taste buds. Seasoned visitors to the V&A might not be surprised by this. Quick note for those…
A riveting Rhinegold at ENO
The Rhinegold at English National Opera and the auditorium is buzzing with high-energy. Not a spare seat in view. Wagner may be one of opera’s most controversial figures but interest in his music dramas shows no sign of abating. And for good reason, there is much to admire in his musical theatre. Wagner revolutionised opera, created masterpieces of…
Fauré with a film: We meet innovative French Conductor Laurence Equilbey
Laurence Equilbey is the Musical Director and founder of Insula Orchestra, resident orchestra of La Seine Musicale, a state-of-the-art concert space in the west of Paris, opened in 2017. We interviewed Equilbey on the evening she was conducting Fauré’s Requiem and Gounod’s St Francis of Assisi. A video installation by British artist Mat Collishaw entitled Sky Burial, was to animate both…
Fauré’s Requiem and Collishaw’s ‘Sky Burial’ at the Seine Musicale Paris – A heavenly meeting of the minds.
No one likes to think about death. In Western society we bury our dead as soon as we can. There they remain, out of sight, but not out of mind. In Turkey and Tibet however, where the ground is too hard to break up, Zoroastrian burial rites survive. The dead are left out on stone slabs…
Fright wing: ‘The Horror Show’, Somerset House, London
Emergency! Emergency! I made it to this show unforgivably late in the run, and at the time of writing it only has a week remaining. If you’re in or near London and can find the time, I would recommend it purely for the heady, intense experience it offers. Failing that, I hope you find the…
Scenes from Childhood – ‘Enough’ by Stephen Hough
The title of this memoir is a clue to just how much, or how little, the author, the celebrated concert pianist and polymath Sir Stephen Hough, is prepared to reveal. Anyone looking for an account of “how I became a concert pianist” will not find it in this frank, witty and entertaining account of the…
Seeing red: ‘Carmen’, English National Opera
This is a stunning production of an opera you might think you know – until this version starts stripping it down, peeling away the layers until you’re left with just a man, a woman… and darkness. English National Opera (ENO)’s current ‘Carmen’ is director Jamie Manton’s revival of Calixto Bieito’s 1999 staging, which updates the…
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