Paris
Manon, Royal Ballet review - glitter and betrayFriday, 30 March 2018
"Massenet feels it as a Frenchman, with powder and minuets," declared Puccini in annoucing his own operatic setting of the Abbé Prévost's 1731 novel Manon Lescaut. "I shall feel it as an Italian, with desperate passion." That's the usual Kenneth... Read more... |
Agnès Poirier: Left Bank review - Paris in war and peaceSunday, 11 March 2018
There are too many awestruck cultural histories of Paris to even begin to count. The Anglophone world has always been justly dazzled by its own cohorts of Paris-based writers and artists, as well as by the seemingly effortless superiority of... Read more... |
Dialogues des Carmélites, Guildhall School review - calm and humane drama of faithTuesday, 27 February 2018
One question dominates any staging of Dialogues des Carmélites. How will the production team deal with the cruelty and tragedy in the 12th and last scene when all of the nuns, one by one, go through with their vow of martyrdom and calmly proceed to... Read more... |
La Vie Parisienne, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire review - vintage champagne in a new bottleFriday, 23 February 2018
Don’t you just love that new concert hall smell? The main hall at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is so new that as soon as you walk in you get the scent of fresh woodwork; so new, in fact, that it won’t even be officially opened until next... Read more... |
Spiral, Series 6 Finale, BBC Four review - hot fuzz hit new heightsSunday, 04 February 2018
Happily, there’s hope for Spiral junkies – as series six ends, we bring you news that series seven has just gone into production. This is just as well, because these last dozen episodes have been an object lesson in how to make TV drama for the mind... Read more... |
Alexander Melnikov, Wigmore Hall review - three pianos, four monsterworksThursday, 18 January 2018
Living-museum recitals on a variety of historic instruments pose logistical problems. Telling The Arts Desk about his award-nominated CD of mostly 19th-century works for horns and pianos, Alec Frank-Gemmill remarked on the near-impossibility of... Read more... |
Spiral, Series 6, BBC Four review - grime pays in the City of LightSunday, 31 December 2017
We’ve seen some “interesting” series filling BBC Four’s celebrated Saturday evening slot recently, which if nothing else have prompted plenty of below-the-line discussion. Happily, we can now turn our backs on all that and hail the return of the ace... Read more... |
Maigret in Montmartre, ITV review - dirty deeds in clublandSunday, 24 December 2017
Whatever the Waitrose and Morrisons commercials are telling you, as far as TV schedulers are concerned ‘tis the season for murder. Thus a Christmas Maigret has become an instant tradition, with Rowan Atkinson reprising his performance as Georges... Read more... |
Belleville, Donmar Warehouse review - prickly and unnervingFriday, 15 December 2017
The city of love provides a backdrop for marital discord and worse in Belleville, Amy Herzog's celebrated Off Broadway play now receiving a riveting British premiere at the Donmar. The director, Michael Longhurst, is rivaling Dominic Cooke (of... Read more... |
DVD: A Journey Through French CinemaTuesday, 12 December 2017
Bertrand Tavernier’s trip through French cinema is shot through with the love of someone who has grown up with cinema and knows how to communicate his passion in a way that is totally engaging. The three hours-plus that he delivers make you want to... Read more... |
Rachel Hewitt: A Revolution of Feeling review - from passions to emotionsSunday, 10 December 2017
Utopias have a way of going up in flames. Rachel Hewitt’s new book, A Revolution of Feeling: The Decade that Forged the Modern Mind, charts the revolutionary fervour and disappointment provoked over the course of the 1790s by looking at the decade... Read more... |
Modigliani, Tate Modern review - the pitfalls of excessFriday, 24 November 2017
Modigliani was an addict. Booze, fags, absinthe, hash, cocaine, women. He lived fast, died young, cherished an idea of what an artist should be and pursued it to his death. His nickname, Modi, played on the idea of the artiste maudit – the... Read more... |
