ENO’s one-off presentation of Britten’s coronation opera – originally programmed as a platinum jubilee-year special – was destined to become a powerfully significant evening. A double tribute: not only to the late monarch herself, but to the ENO company itself – still very much alive, defying its would-be executioners by putting its heart and soul…
Noisenight 12 at Signature Brew, Haggerston
Guest review by David Lake If you haven’t come across the ‘noisenights,’ you really should. Two enterprising musicians, Jack Crozier and Jack Bazalgette started these classical/not-classical nights around London during the pandemic and this is the first I’ve had the chance to attend. The idea is simple enough: get top-notch classical musicians playing in the…
Henry Moore’s Collection of Coalmining drawings go on show at St Alban’s Museum+Gallery
Image: Pit Boys at Pit Head, 1942, Wakefield Permanent Art Collection. Image Courtesy of The Hepworth Wakefield. When we think of Henry Moore we think of his sculptures of women, of his sleek abstract forms – also of his 1940 blitz drawings. What is less well known is that Moore was the son of a miner…
Motion captures: William Kentridge at the Royal Academy of Arts, London
As I write, there is just under a fortnight left – including two weekends – to see the Royal Academy’s retrospective of South African artist William Kentridge. I urge you to go if you can. Kentridge also directs and stages opera, and it’s thanks to English National Opera (‘ENO’) that I first encountered his work….
Paul Newman The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man. A Memoir
Paul Newman – The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man is not a straight memoir as the title suggests, focusing principally on the man rather than the movie actor, whose star shone for many a decade over Hollywood till his death in 2008. Though his career was long, to some, his most enigmatic and most interesting…
Picture This : Mireille Vautier Sewing Stories
The line of a pen or pencil is like a thread that you pull which unravels. With this idea came the desire to embroider. Without really knowing how to embroider, I wanted to simply draw with thread. I’ve chosen to embroider this book and by doing so I preserve its identity. It’s almost as if…
Interview with French Conductor Christophe Rousset, musical director of period ensemble ‘Les Talens Lyriques’.
Armide opens tomorrow at L’Opéra Comique in Paris. The opera house has been restored to its former glory – how does it feel to be performing in such a space? It’s a place which holds many fond memories for me. I have worked here often and I had my first conducting experience at L’Opéra Comique…
An Enlightened Staging of Gluck’s ‘Armide’, a Tale of a Tough Woman Scorned at L’Opéra Comique Paris.
This weekend I travelled to Paris to the newly restored Opéra Comique where a new production of Gluck’s Armide has opened. You could be forgiven for not ever having heard of Armide. It was conceived in the 17th century with a score by Lully before Gluck came up with a new musical setting in the late 18th century. Taken…
Ifs and cuts
It’s not often I start a piece for ArtMuseLondon in a state of anger. Or shock. Or bewilderment. Today it’s all three. I could wait for my ire to subside, but see no reason to. In a situation where it seems impossible to do something, at least I can demonstrate I feel something. Arts Council…
“Inspired programming; exceptional playing” – Shostakovich String Quartet Cycle at Kings Place with the Brodsky Quartet
Guest review by David Lake The Brodsky Quartet – sometimes called ‘the British Kronos’ – have been around for 50 years, but, as Paul Cassidy tells us, “have only played the complete Shostakovich cycle three times”, his soft, lightly-lilting Derry accent lulling us into the belief that we’re in for a relaxed weekend of ever-so-soft…
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