sat 11/01/2025

theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews

Theartsdesk
Friday, 31 January 2025
It all started on 09/09/09. That memorable date, September 9 2009, marked the debut of theartsdesk.com.It followed some hectic and intensive months when a disparate and eclectic...
Graham Rickson
Saturday, 11 January 2025
 Paavo Järvi: The Complete Erato Recordings (Erato)Big box sets celebrating great conductors are piling up thick and fast, and this one, unusually, features an artist who’s...
Guy Oddy
Saturday, 11 January 2025
Phoebe Lunny and Lilly Macieira are furious. Livid with the rapist cops, sleazy men, gentrifying landlords, nepo babies and, to be fair, a significant chunk of mainstream society....
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 10 January 2025
As Bono once commented about Luciano Pavarotti, “the opera follows him off stage”. Legendary soprano Maria Callas would have known exactly what he meant, and she herself said “an...
Gary Naylor
Friday, 10 January 2025
This Celine Dion jukebox musical has been a big hit in New York, but crossing The Atlantic can be perilous for any production, so, docked now at the Criterion Theatre, does it...
Tom Carr
Friday, 10 January 2025
Travel back in time to the mid 2000s and you would be hard pressed to escape "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand on the air waves. On the radio, music channels, in discos and clubs,...
Helen Hawkins
Thursday, 09 January 2025
Babygirl starts with the sound of sex, piped in over the credits. There's a lot of it on our screens at the moment, from...
Markie Robson-Scott
Thursday, 09 January 2025
Iris (Laure Calamy) and her husband Stéphane (Vincent Elbaz) haven’t had sex for four years. Waiting at school for the...
Kieron Tyler
Thursday, 09 January 2025
The title Cold Blows The Rain encapsulates it. A mournful, unembellished female voice sings of loss. The musical backing is...
Adam Sweeting
Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Jesse Eisenberg's first film as writer/director was 2022’s When You Finish Saving the World, which met with modest acclaim....
Kathryn Reilly
Wednesday, 08 January 2025
Sometimes magic really can’t be recreated. However hard it’s strived for. The incendiary magic that was Dr Dre and Snoop...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Czech theatre theorist Ivo Osolsobě’s tick-list for what constitutes an "authentic" musical is quoted in this release’s...
David Nice
Monday, 06 January 2025
There’s nothing like an anodyne new(ish) work to give a masterpiece an even higher profile. Rachel Portman‘s Tipping Points...
Harry Thorfinn-George
Monday, 06 January 2025
A gem for me this year has been the collaborative project between the veteran minimalist composer Chihei Hatakeyama and jazz...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 05 January 2025
The descending refrain opening the song isn’t unusual but attention is instantly attracted as it’s played on a harpsichord....
Nick Hasted
Saturday, 04 January 2025
RaMell Ross’s feature debut follows his poetic documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018) in again observing...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 03 January 2025
The destruction of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 was one of the ghastliest events in what would...
Kathryn Reilly
Friday, 03 January 2025
Does absolutely everything have to get more difficult with each passing year? Apparently so. The amount of time I’ve spent...
David Nice
Thursday, 02 January 2025
In one sense it was a New Year’s Day “nearly”, just stopping short of giving us the already great Irish lyric-dramatic...

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★★★★★ BLU-RAY: THE HOP-PICKERS Ground-breaking and colourful Czech musical

★★★ LOCKERBIE: A SEARCH FOR TRUTH, SKY ATLANTIC A gruelling dramatisation

★★★ BABYGIRL Nicole Kidman gets hot and bothered about a sexy intern’s power plays

★★★★ NICKEL BOYS An immersive elegy to black teenage crime and punishment

★★★ LIEPE, NYOI, COTTIS, DUBLIN A spirited shot at Shostakovich

★★★★ SAS ROGUE HEROES, SERIES 2, BBC ONE Paddy Mayne's renegade warriors invade Italy

disc of the day

Album: Lambrini Girls - Who Let the Dogs Out

Politically-savvy hardcore punk rock with a Riot Grrrl flavour

The future of Arts Journalism

 

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Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

tv

SAS Rogue Heroes, Series 2, BBC One review - Paddy Mayne's renegade warriors invade Italy

Second helping of Steven Knight's hard-rockin' World War Two drama

The Split: Barcelona, BBC One review - a soapy special with seasonally adjusted sentimentality

Abi Morgan's fine legal drama loses its sting on foreign soil

film

Maria review - Pablo Larraín's haunting portrait of an opera legend

Angelina Jolie puts body and soul into her portrayal of Maria Callas

Babygirl review - would-be steamy drama that only flirts with transgression

Nicole Kidman gets hot and bothered about a sexy intern’s power plays

It's Raining Men review - frothy French comedy avoids dating-app reality

Laure Calamy shines as a dentist whose marriage is in trouble

new music

Album: Lambrini Girls - Who Let the Dogs Out

Politically-savvy hardcore punk rock with a Riot Grrrl flavour

Album: Franz Ferdinand - The Human Fear

Indie rockers' sixth album may not live up to their iconic debut but is no less striking

Album: Bridget Hayden and The Apparitions - Cold Blows The Rain

Classic folk songs are given a desolate new setting

classical

Liepe, National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, Cottis, NCH, Dublin review - a spirited shot at Shostakovich

All energy devoted to a symphonic epic, played with total commitment

Davis, National Symphony Orchestra, Maloney, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - operetta in excelsis

World-class soprano provides the wow factor in fascinating mostly-Viennese programme

Best of 2024: Classical music concerts

Young and old in excelsis, and competition finales turned into winning programmes

opera

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Best of 2024: Opera

Comedy takes gold over a year rich in standout performance

theatre

Best of 2024: Theatre
The classics were reclaimed afresh, and the acting more often than not astonished

dance

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Best of 2024: Dance

It was a year for visiting past glories, but not for new ones

Nutcracker, English National Ballet, Coliseum review - Tchaikovsky and his sweet tooth rule supreme

New production's music, sweets, and hordes of exuberant children make this a hot ticket

comedy

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Best of 2024: Comedy

Authentically good memories of the year

Books

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Best of 2024: Books

As 2024 comes to an end, we look back at the books that have thrilled and enthralled us

William J. Mann: Bogie & Bacall review - beyond the screen

Why we're still in love with Bogart and Bacall, and their legendary Hollywood romance

visual arts

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Best of 2024: Visual Arts

A great year for women artists

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