theartsdesk com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Jasper Rees
Sunday, 05 December 2021
The energy of Antony Sher, who has died at the age of 72, was prodigious. He not only acted like a fizzing firecracker. He wrote books about his most celebrated roles, and several...
Kieron Tyler
Sunday, 05 December 2021
The picture seen above doesn’t have quite the same resonance as Art Kane’s 1958 shot A Great Day in Harlem which brought 57 American jazz musicians in front of his lens, but it is...
Sebastian Scotney
Sunday, 05 December 2021
Jef Costello, the lone contract killer in Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967), carries out the murder of the boss of a night club. We see how meticulously he has prepared for...
David Nice
Saturday, 04 December 2021
Two major composers took Pushkin’s narrative poem The Gypsies as the subject for two very different operas. The 19 year old Rachmaninov in 1892 had inspiration but not much sense...
Guy Oddy
Saturday, 04 December 2021
Madmess are a Portuguese power trio who are based in London. Muscular and (mostly) instrumental stoner rock is their thing, which may not be particularly original but with the...
Rachel Halliburton
Friday, 03 December 2021
When the Canadian Yann Martel went to India as a young adult backpacker he fell in love – not with one person but with the rich imaginative landscape opened up by its religions...
Jenny Gilbert
Friday, 03 December 2021
How do you picture Gene Kelly? Most likely in his effervescent screen persona, either as the burly ex-GI of An American in...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 03 December 2021
Netflix is sometimes criticised for bringing too much of everything to its online feast, but the way it’s opening up...
India Lewis
Friday, 03 December 2021
Perhaps appropriately, when I called Pete Tong for his 10 questions I was hungover, on the phone in a park after a night at...
Barney Harsent
Thursday, 02 December 2021
It’s a far cry from his beginnings in a tight, no-frills power-pop-post-punk three piece, that’s for sure. Last May,...
Demetrios Matheou
Thursday, 02 December 2021
Film festival chiefs the world over have been having a tricky time navigating the pandemic, juggling ever-changing Covid...
Florence Hallett
Thursday, 02 December 2021
The Courtauld Gallery’s dark corners have gone, and with them a certain apt melancholy, that effortlessly summoned the...
Kieron Tyler
Thursday, 02 December 2021
The opening moments don’t suggest what’s coming. A solo flute is followed by a few spoken phrases from a treated voice. What...
Richard Bratby
Thursday, 02 December 2021
As the conductor of English National Opera’s 2018 production of Porgy and Bess, there can’t be many maestros in the UK...
Miranda Heggie
Thursday, 02 December 2021
After a two year hiatus (imposed for obvious reasons) Edinburgh-born Liverpool-based singer-songwriter Ross Wilson - AKA...
Joe Muggs
Thursday, 02 December 2021
The Californian label Stones Throw has long specialised in inseparably folding together the most profound and most wilfully...
Graham Fuller
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
The archetypal fascinating male in Jane Campion’s films – whether his allure for a woman owes to his earthy virility or...
Paul Weller, Barrowland, Glasgow review - Modfather holding back father time with old and new tricks
Jonathan Geddes
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
There was a brief lapse in this lengthy set when Paul Weller stood up from the piano, walked towards centre stage and then...
Graham Fuller
Wednesday, 01 December 2021
Though sexual hypocrisy in modern-day Romania is the ostensible target of Bad Lack Banging or Loony Porn – a satirical drama...
tv
Hellbound, Netflix review - supernatural assassins usher in an age of terror
Nightmare alternative reality from director Yeon Sang-ho
The Beatles: Get Back, Disney+ review - 1969 revisited in Peter Jackson's three-part documentary
Eight hours of vintage Fab Four footage may be a trifle excessive
Death of England: Face to Face, National Theatre at Home review - anti-racist trilogy ends with a bang
Roy Williams and Clint Dyer bring their monologue sequence to a triumphant conclusion
film
theartsdesk at Tallinn's Black Nights Film Festival - still crazy after all these years
With its black carpet and audiences referred to as ‘wolves’, Black Nights is 25
The Power of the Dog review - of rawhide and roses
Jane Campion's 1920s Western nails the lid on rugged masculinity
new music
classical
Feng, CBSO, Wilson, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - effortless expression
Big emotions and unexpected connections, played with matchless style
Tchetuev, LPO, Larsen-Maguire, Congress Theatre, Eastbourne review - sunshine by the sea
Recreative energy from a conductor to watch, fantasy from a fine Ukrainian pianist
Imogen Cooper, Wigmore Hall review - calm waters run deep
A piano journey down the river of musical time
opera
Zingari/Tosca Suite, Opera Rara, Rizzi, Cadogan Hall review - symphonic mastery and fluent hokum
Top singers and orchestra deliver the goods in Leoncavallo's fast-moving melodrama
The Valkyrie, English National Opera review - fitfully flickering flames
Consistently fine orchestra, singing from strong to strenuous, clear but patchy staging
The Cunning Little Vixen, CBSO, Gražinytė-Tyla, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - nature, large as life
Janáček's natural wonder goes large, in a supercharged concert staging
theatre
Antony Sher: 'I discovered I could be other people'
Remembering the brilliant actor knight who revealed himself both on stage and in pioneering performance diaries
Life of Pi, Wyndham's Theatre review - visually ravishing show uplifted by astonishing puppetry
Despite its deceptive lightness, at heart this is a dark terrifying story
Stephen Sondheim in memoriam - he gave us more to see
A master gone but in no way and never to be forgotten
dance
Starstruck, Scottish Ballet review - smart, sassy and cinematic
A ballet by Gene Kelly from 1960 gets new wings
Past Present, Linbury Theatre review - historic, but very much alive
Yorke Dance Project premieres the final work of Robert Cohan
Ballet Black, Linbury Theatre review - an essential part of the landscape
Twenty years on, the pity is that it's still necessary for this excellent company to exist
comedy
The Good Life, Richmond Theatre review - popular sitcom gets its own origin story
Tom, Barbara, Jerry and Margo are back in the '70s, but with a message for today
Alfie Brown, Soho Theatre review - a contrarian on great form
Mental health and male privilege examined
Ahir Shah, Soho Theatre review - lockdown laid bare
Disappointing show feels like a work in progress
Books
Peter Robison: Flying Blind review – a story of decline and crawl
The galling account of the 737 MAX Boeing tragedies
Lucie Elven: The Weak Spot review - a cryptic modern fable
This study in manipulation asks what happens when our weaknesses are weaponised
Sarah Moss: The Fell review - a dark night on the hills
What happens when you go missing in a pandemic?
visual arts
The Courtauld Gallery - the old place, just better
After a three-year redevelopment, one of the UK's finest galleries is better than ever
Lubaina Himid, Tate Modern review – more explication please
A carnival of characters looking forwards as well as backwards
The Danish Collector: Delacroix to Gauguin review - fabulous art, not sure about the framing
Exhibition on Screen offers a catch-up for those who missed the RA show
latest comments
Good to know. Thanks. It's still the Cadogan Hall...
Yes, players in the orchestra are testing before...
Invasion is brilliant quality sci-fi. Sadly,...
Also surprised that the players were all bunched...
It was a wonderful evening and Rizzi and the fine...
An interesting evening, to delight those who...
There are no words. I saw the original 1970's...
Thanks Richard. Good tips!