Features & Interviews
'Time Out of Mind' Revisited - a deep focus take on classic Dylan
Tuesday, 24 January 2023
The 1997 release of Time Out of Mind was the resurrection of an artist who appeared to have wandered off the reservation some years before, lost in transit on his Never Ending Tour, trailed by an army of "Bobcats" who followed him for show after grinding show. “How can you stand it?” he once asked of a woman who told him she’d seen dozens of NET gigs.
- Comment
First Person: Kings Place Artistic and Executive Director Helen Wallace on a year of 'Sound Unwrapped'
Saturday, 21 January 2023
2023 is surely the year the performing arts reach peak "immersive", a word endangered by its own ubiquity. From Punchdrunk’s Burnt City to Danny Boyle’s The Matrix we are promised a swallowing-up by art. Kings Cross is the location for two visual and aural initiatives: David Hockney’s 3D Bigger & Closer at the Lightroom, and Sound Unwrapped at Kings Place, a year-long series of intimate, immersive events kindled by live performance.
First Person: soprano Soraya Mafi on why...
Friday, 20 January 2023
Anyone concerned about making the arts accessible regardless of where they live should be concerned by the recent announcement from Glyndebourne that...
First Person: Royal Academy of Music Principal...
Wednesday, 11 January 2023
Why is it important for a music conservatoire to make recordings? What is the educational context? These are questions we have continued to reflect...
Best of 2022: Books
Saturday, 31 December 2022
From Kafka’s spry sketches to Derek Owusu’s novel-poem, and Jaan Kross’s Estonian Wolf Hall to Katherine Rundell’s spirited biography of John Donne,...
theartsdesk in Brno - a visionary at home in his ‘Moravian Bayreuth’
Jiří Heřman delivers remarkable Janáček and Verdi in Brno’s National Theatre |
Top 10 Films of 2022: Conclusion
'The Banshees of Inisherin' won our reviewers' poll |
Adam Sweeting's Top 10 Films of 2022
'Nightmare Alley' and nine more |
Sebastian Scotney's Top 10 Films of 2022
Old films have a head start |
Markie Robson-Scott's Top 10 Films of 2022
Quirks, strangeness and charm in the cinematic year |
Demetrios Matheou's Top 10 Films of 2022
The best movies reflected our sense of cosmic dislocation |
Veronica Lee's Top 10 Films of 2022
Transforming expectations in a less than stellar year for cinema |
Nick Hasted's Top 10 Films of 2022
Art and commerce have never been more polarised |
Graham Fuller's Top 10 Films of 2022
Great films are being made but fewer than ever in Hollywood |
Saskia Baron's Top 10 Films of 2022
It’s a cruel world – and desperate refugees, dodgy doctors, drought, disease and emotional misfits lit up the screen |
Remembering Wilko: unforgettable encounters with the Dr Feelgood guitarist
Following the death of the legendary musician, our writer recalls the most disturbing gig he's ever been to |
An open letter from Dame Sarah Connolly and colleagues to Arts Council England
The mezzo is joined by an operatic who's who in a plea to save English National Opera |
First Person: conductor Leo Hussain on why we still need English National Opera in London
Arts Council England's evisceration of ENO has provoked outrage. A regular explains why |
'We needed to find the perfect sound of vibranium, an alien metal specific to the Marvel Universe': Foley artist Shelley Roden on creating audible movie miracles
The fine art of naturalising sound on 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' |
'We wanted to emphasise the “ordinariness” of people affected by torture': Sally Beamish on her new work for Ex Cathedra
The composer and viola-player on her collaboration with writer husband Peter Thomson |
Leslie Phillips: 'I can be recognised by my voice alone'
Saying goodbye to the actor famous for saying hello |
First Person: composer and co-founder of The Multi-Story Orchestra Kate Whitley on car-park creativity
Enabling young people from all walks of life to be themselves in a wonderful environment |
‘Stripping naked the process of making theatre’: Martin Crimp talks about his latest play
The playwright talks about 'Not One of These People', which he is performing himself, digital creativity and constraints on authorship |
First Persons: co-music directors Jasdeep Singh Degun and Laurence Cummings on their new Opera North 'Orpheus'
Premiering tonight in Leeds, a project that's so much more than lip-service to diversity |
theartsdesk in Kyiv - defiant new operatic epic in an empty gallery
Plaintive affirmation of the human and the divine in the Khanenko Museum of Art |
'Serving the community means representing the narratives of our time': Elena Dubinets on her responsibilities as the LPO's Artistic Director
Music as home, from Rachmaninov to Iyer, in the London Philharmonic's new season |
theartsdesk at Musikfest Berlin - orchestral and choral rainbows around the clock
Superb musicians from Berlin and elsewhere in far from conventional repertoire |
First Person: violinist and music director Bjarte Eike on bringing the Playhouse to his 'Alehouse Sessions'
Barokksolistene's freewheeling spirit of delight returns to the Southbank tomorrow |
Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022)
Remembering cinema's eternal, loving revolutionary |
latest in today
Two Billion Beats, Orange Tree Theatre review - lively, but...
Do the right thing! But doing the right thing isn’t easy – especially if you are a teen. And a female teen who is being pressurised by your mother...
January review - the end is nigh in vampirised Bulgaria
At their best, horror movies reflect destabilisation caused by cracks in the social fabric. The crack indicated in the documentarist Andrey...
Album: Lisa O'Neill - All of This Is Chance
Lisa O’Neill is a part of the new wave of Irish contemporary folk artists, one that encompasses the likes of Lankum, Ye Vagabonds...
Leonskaja, Staatskapelle Streichquartett, Wigmore Hall / Sec...
It’s dangerous to claim a sense of absolute rightness about a musical performance; that could mean no more than responding to an interpretation...
Othello, Lyric Hammersmith review - Frantic Assembly's...
Frantic Assembly’s Othello, originally co-developed with the Lyric in 2008, is back in its third iteration, and it’s still not...
Blu-ray: The War Trilogy - Three Films by Andrzej Wajda
Watching these harrowing films in rapid succession allows us to watch a great...
Ólafsson, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - spirit of delight
This concert was advertised as the completion of an Elgar symphony cycle, though in the absence of the reconstructed Third, that meant the second...
Sound of the Underground, Royal Court review - loud and triu...
Ever been to a queer club? You know, drag cabaret night at Madame Jojo’s, or the Black Cap or Her Upstairs. No? Well, not to worry – the...
Gerhardt, BBC Philharmonic, Gernon, Bridgewater Hall, Manche...
Ben Gernon’s calm and clear way of conducting an orchestra (something he once told me he’d observed in the work of his mentor, Colin Davis) is...
Album: Robert Forster - The Candle and the Flame
Reflections on how the past relates to now suffuse The Candle and the Flame. The album’s closing track is “When I Was a Young Man.” When...