Reviews
Sarah Kent
“Do we really need another Anish Kapoor exhibition?” I asked myself on hearing of the Hayward Gallery’s plan to show the sculptor a second time. (He exhibited there in 1998 and has also had major shows at the Royal Academy and Tate Modern along with numerous Lisson Gallery exhibitions, while his Orbit Tower continues to overlook the Olympic Park in Stratford.)Having just visited the exhibition, though, the answer is a resounding “YES”! I’m still buzzing with delight at Kapoor’s majestic take-over – the show is more like an occupation than an exhibition. On entering, for instance, your way is Read more ...
Nick Hasted
Spielberg’s new close encounter of the third kind asks for faith in humanity and extraterrestrial life which it struggles to earn, his old sense of wonder only fitfully sparking as he argues that, whether contemplating our neighbours or the cosmos, we are not alone.Jaws, Close Encounters and Spielberg’s later Munich all borrowed from the Seventies conspiracy thriller, and Disclosure Day too begins as Daniel (Josh O’Connor) pilfers copious buried alien evidence from the US government’s secret Wardex Corporation, taking startled girlfriend Jane (Eve Hewson) along on his flight from company boss Read more ...
Boyd Tonkin
Reader, I confess that I entered the dark space of Pélleas et Mélisande at Snape Maltings with a prior conviction: that, although musicians adore (for the best of reasons) Debussy’s sole completed opera, audiences sometimes simply endure it. However, strongly singers and orchestra (here, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Ryan Wigglesworth) convey this dense-woven tapestry of suffering, foreboding and confinement, the first half especially can make listeners echo Pélleas’s cry down in the airless vaults where Golaud drags him: “I’m suffocating.” Wigglesworth, his wholly committed Read more ...
Helen Hawkins
The finale of the Royal Ballet’s 2025-26 programming is an extraordinary sight. At the curtain call for Salle de danse, a world premiere from Sol León and Paul Lightfoot, there are so many dancers taking a bow that they have to take turns to come forward, in two different rows, each as wide as the stage. That’s before the conductor and creatives join them.León and Lightfoot’s visit is yet another canny – and generous – piece of scheduling by director Kevin O’Hare, a way to give a sizeable chunk of his company a piece to get their teeth into, with grandstanding turns in the spotlight for many Read more ...
David Nice
Berlioz's intended companion for his Symphonie fantastique was Lélio, or the Return to Life - an assemblage of mostly magical earlier pieces strung together with an autobiographical narration. That's a rarity these days, but so is an all-Berlioz programme with a more familiar work to preface the iconoclastic Symphonie, and we should be grateful to Simon Rattle with a much-expanded Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for such an imaginative choice.The concept, it seems, was for a gauzy, dreamy take on a less fantastical slice of autobiography, Harold in Italy - which despite its Byronic nod Read more ...
Alison Cole
As the UK prepares for a particularly severe cold snap, the opening of David Hockney’s major retrospective at Tate Britain brings a welcome burst of Los Angeles light and colour and Yorkshire wit and warmth. The exhibition, which opens in the lead-up to Hockney’s 80th birthday, will be deservedly popular – for many people, Hockney’s work is simply bright and beautiful. But the show also seeks to reveal the serious and consistent nature of Hockney’s interrogation of the meaning of picture-making, and his preoccupation with the joyous and rather subversive business of “looking”.The curators Read more ...
theartsdesk
We are bowled over! We knew that theartsdesk.com had plenty of supporters out there – we’ve always had a loyal readership of arts lovers and professionals alike – but the response to our appeal to help us relaunch and reboot has been something else.Our fundraiser is rolling towards hitting the halfway mark, and it’s already raised enough to repair our ageing site and ensure its survival. But just as important to all of us have been the messages of love and support from our readership. It’s not just the morale boost of being praised either – though let’s be honest, the warm glow is pretty Read more ...
Jonathan Geddes
The World Cup is everywhere in Scotland these days, even among the country’s gigging venues. Rolled up Saltires were visible on the balconies of the O2 Academy, a reminder that the Glasgow venue is hosting watch parties for the national team’s matches, and when Lola Young came back onstage for the encore she was serenaded by fans belting out “no Scotland no party”, to which the Londoner cheerfully joined in.Roughly an hour earlier, the 25-year-old had walked out to the sort of wild reaction that greeted John McGinn hitting the back of the net against Haiti, with screams and hollers from the Read more ...
India Lewis
Madfabulous, director Celyn Jones’ retelling of the true story of an heir who bankrupted a peerage, is a truly beautiful film – worth a watch if only for the excellent outfits worn by its iconic queer antagonist (played by Callum Scott Howells). Sailing into his new life, wearing his mother’s burgundy dress, Henry Paget, fifth Marquess of Anglesey (Ynys Môn), "Toppy" (as he is nicknamed), has come to live by his mother’s rule: “always be true to yourself, Henry, it’s the greatest gift you have.” However, tragedy is already near at hand – Toppy coughs into a handkerchief in the first Read more ...
Ellie Roberts
After his record-breaking and warmly remembered Love On Tour, Harry Styles is back with a fresh, slightly more experimental twist on universal, blockbusting live pop. The revision of his performance style is subtle enough that Together, Together feels comfortable and familiar but the minor rebrand that came with his latest album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. sufficiently spices things up. Following a glittery, feel good singalong with Shania Twain to warm things up, “Are You Listening Yet?” opens the show, with tangible gratitude flying through the stadium from Styles in the Read more ...
Thomas H. Green
For many years Paul Weller had a conflicted relationship with the oldest parts of his back catalogue. It was rare to hear more than one of his pre-1990 songs in concert. Then he started slipping them in, but only a couple. Tonight, he’s clearly at peace with the whole of his long and varied career, playing seven songs by The Jam and four by the Style Council in a set well over two hours long. It’s a joy to hear these gems scattered with vital precision among the eclectic smorgasbord of what came after.Weller has always been a lean, urgent presence and he remains so. Chewing gum, iron-grey of Read more ...
Kieron Tyler
“John Coltrane, he’s a major influence on this record. The instrumental on the A-side is an abstraction of the jazz musician named John Coltrane. That’s C-o-l-t-r-a-n-e.”The Byrds’ David Crosby was spelling it out on 28 March 1966 at a New York press conference called to promote – and explain – his band’s new single “Eight Miles High,” issued nine days earlier. His fellow Byrd Roger McGuinn told journalists that Allen Ginsberg had played them Coltrane: that he “wanted that to come out in our music.” A tape was made of what Ginsberg was urging them to assimilate.
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