19th century
Ripper Street, BBC OneMonday, 31 December 2012
Perpetually reborn in movies and TV series, Jack the Ripper rides again in Ripper Street, which is set in Whitechapel in 1889, in the aftermath of the much-mythologised murders. Except this time, the subject isn't the Ripper himself so much as the... Read more... |
The Firebird/In the Night/Raymonda, Royal BalletSunday, 30 December 2012
It’s hard to work out why the Royal Ballet has not indulged in more Jerome Robbins, so eminently suited does it seem for their taste for emotional understatement. In the Night had a few outings in the 1970s, and has only now been revived, possibly... Read more... |
DVD: Confession of a Child of the CenturyFriday, 28 December 2012
Not-long into this farrago, Peter – the former Pete - Doherty opines that “nothing is beyond romance, except for the pain that is killing me every day”. Thankfully, the pain here is limited to the close-to two hours that Confession of a Child of the... Read more... |
La Bohème, Royal OperaTuesday, 18 December 2012
Rolando Villazón at 40 is back on reasonably stylish form, as far as the voice will allow him to go – which is not always up and volume-wise only just as far as the Covent Garden Balcony. John Copley’s Royal Opera Bohème is two years younger than... Read more... |
Der Fliegende Holländer, Zurich Opera, Royal Festival HallSunday, 16 December 2012
Much more regularly than the seven years it takes the Flying Dutchman's demon ship to reach dry land, the Zurich Opera steamer moors at the Southbank Centre. None of its more recent concert performances up to now has branded itself on the memory as... Read more... |
Renée Fleming, Barbican HallMonday, 10 December 2012
Say what you like about America, but it certainly knows how to turn out an opera diva. While the Russians and even Italians can be chilly and untouchable in their splendour, there’s a cultivated ease with the likes of Renée Fleming and Joyce... Read more... |
The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society, Traverse Theatre, EdinburghSaturday, 08 December 2012
What is truth? Is it fixed or fluid, personal or universal? Does it require hard evidence or merely faith? These are the areas of interest poked and prodded in this co-production between the Traverse and Peepolykus, the company which previously... Read more... |
Vengerov, London Symphony Orchestra, Ticciati, Barbican HallThursday, 06 December 2012
Her Majesty was making a rare concert-hall appearance to present the Queen’s Medal for Music, and any little Englanders in the audience might have been tempted to link royalty to Elgar’s Enigma Variations. But conductor Robin Ticciati, with a... Read more... |
Great ExpectationsWednesday, 28 November 2012
One has low expectations of Great Expectations. As the Dickens bicentenary draws to a close with yet another version, young Pip must once again come to the aid of the convict Magwitch, once again be raised up from apprentice blacksmith to... Read more... |
The Magistrate, National TheatreThursday, 22 November 2012
You don't see much of Arthur Wing Pinero's considerable output these days. Although he was largely contemporaneous with Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Gilbert and Sullivan, whose works have stayed the course, his plays have not, with just a... Read more... |
Andreas Scholl, Wigmore HallMonday, 19 November 2012
It’s something of a fashion at the moment for countertenors to break out of the baroque, to have a bit of a fling with classical and even romantic repertoire. David Daniels has experimented with Berlioz, Philippe Jaroussky has flirted as only a... Read more... |
L'elisir d'amore, Royal OperaWednesday, 14 November 2012
You can tell a lot about a performance of L’elisir d’amore from the two pizzicato string chords that so neatly take the sheen off the military pomp of the opening phrase. Played well, these subversive little asides can throb with all the wit and... Read more... |
