Shakespeare
Classical CDs Weekly: Boyle, Martin, RachmaninovFriday, 27 May 2011
This Saturday we’ve a new recording of a famous Russian symphony played by an Italian orchestra under their London-based principal conductor. There’s a rare Shakespearean opera written in the 1950s by a Swiss master using a German text. And a... Read more... |
Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare's GlobeThursday, 26 May 2011
Everybody’s talking about Much Ado About Nothing. At dinner tables, the pub and on the Bakerloo Line the only cultural conversation to be overheard having is whether David Tennant and Catherine Tate will be as wonderful as we all want them to be as... Read more... |
Macbeth, Royal OperaTuesday, 24 May 2011
The staging smacks of Covent Garden's familiar Verdi-by-numbers - surprising since it's the often inventive Phyllida Lloyd's concept, revived by Harry Fehr, but it might as well be the inert pageantry of Elijah Moshinsky - while the necessary... Read more... |
A Midsummer Night's Dream, English National OperaFriday, 20 May 2011
Just think, said a veteran enthusiast of Britten's operas when I showed him the earliest publicity designs for Christopher Alden's production, you could set them all in a school, even Gloriana - what about headmistress Bess and head prefect Essex?... Read more... |
Interview: Timothy Sheader, Artistic Director of Regent's Park Open Air TheatreSaturday, 14 May 2011
The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre has always been one of London’s theatrical success stories, attracting luminaries from Flora Robson to Judi Dench, but over the past few years under the stewardship of artistic director Timothy Sheader, it has... Read more... |
Macbeth, Everyman Theatre, LiverpoolFriday, 13 May 2011
Has the King of Knotty Ash been usurped? I saw him embrace Shakespeare and play Malvolio here just 40 years ago. I’m talking about Ken Dodd, more used to playing the fool. Now, another upstart from Knotty Ash is even more ambitiously playing the... Read more... |
Precocity of Vice: 'Tis Pity She's a Whore returnsMonday, 09 May 2011
John Ford’s tragedy‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, set in the Italian city of Parma, tells the story of a young brother and sister, Giovanni and Annabella, who discover a mutual love for each other and embark on a passionate sexual relationship. The... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: De Sabata, Scarlatti, Violin/Viola DuetsFriday, 06 May 2011
This week we’ve offbeat violin and viola duets played by a renowned husband-and-wife duo, Scarlatti keyboard sonatas played on piano, and a very Italian take on Shakespeare from one of the 20th century’s fieriest conductors.Victor de Sabata: The... Read more... |
All's Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare's GlobeThursday, 05 May 2011
Trust the "wooden O" to set the Shakespearean record straighter than usual. In John Dove's production, this is no problem play but a bright comedy where the immaculate plotting proves more admirable than its questionable characters. Its low... Read more... |
The Tempest, Little Angel Theatre/ Royal Shakespeare CompanySaturday, 23 April 2011
Puppetry has come a long way in this country. Once considered the domain of children’s theatre only, you’ll now be hard pushed to find a classical production where puppets are not used in some way. For this sea change we have to thank, amongst... Read more... |
In the Beginning Was the Word: The King James Bible 400thSunday, 17 April 2011
The King James Bible, that great monument in the biography of the English language, is 400 years old this year. To use its own wording, it is as old as the hills, as old as Methuselah. Contemporaneous with Shakespeare, it has given us as many of the... Read more... |
The Tempest, Cheek By Jowl, Barbican TheatreSaturday, 09 April 2011
Tradition, in the form of Victorian performance, conferred on The Tempest the VC of Highest Shakespearean Poetry, though it probably wasn't Shakespeare's final play. John Gielgud was in an important sense the last great Victorian English thesp and,... Read more... |
