This pleasant production of one of Gilbert & Sullivan’s lesser-performed works, Ruddigore is full of ghostly fun and frivolity. A ‘Difficult’ Gilbert & Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan operettas seem to be one of those things that attracts a very solid fan base. I’m more of a casual visitor into the Gilbert & Sullivan world, so […]
A multi-disciplinary performance that can be experienced in-person or digitally, HOME X ruminates on the meaning of home as well as experimenting with digital technologies. HOME X Something I miss about the arts of a couple of years ago is the feeling of experimentation. Sure, those were dark times. But the necessity of delivering arts […]
A revival of the Royal Opera House’s 2005 production of Rossini’s beloved comic opera The Barber of Seville is a delight from start to finish. The Barber Of Seville As a relative opera novice, it took me a moment to get my head around how the operatic Figaros are related. I knew The Barber of […]
Will I ever run out of versions of A Christmas Carol to see at Christmastime? It doesn’t look like it so far! This year it’s Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol and A Dickensian Christmas, both at the Southbank Centre. A Christmas Relapse I tried quite hard to avoid overdosing on A Christmas Carol this […]
Let’s get the Christmas season underway with this adaptation of the beloved 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life, performed as an opera by the English National Opera (ENO). Warning: allusions to suicide. Plus plenty of spoilers. It’s A Wonderful Life “This year,” I thought, “I will do something different. I need to branch out from […]
An evening of film, music and poetry, Black Corporeal (Breathing by Numbers) continues Julianknxx’s exposure of the realities of Black lives in London and the effect of the built environment on the psyche. Black Corporeal The mind of a poet is a wonderful thing. They have a wonderful ability to draw out connections, strip complex […]
A review of Dido’s Bar, an immersive and compelling evening of music and theatre. Arriving at the Royal Docks, visitors will find themselves transported from East London’s Tate & Lyle factory to a world of epic tales and intrigues. Dido’s Bar There is something about the story of Aeneas that speaks to us across the […]
A review of Sun & Sea, an opera about Climate Change which unfolds over several hours as the audience at the Albany look on. Strangely mesmerising, this is an atmospheric rather than didactic response to the Climate Emergency. Sun & Sea Sun & Sea, by all-female creative team Lina Lapelyte (visual artist and composer)̇, Vaiva […]
A review of Wagner’s chivalric opera Lohengrin, as seen at the Royal Opera House in London. A very entertaining few hours, supported by incredible design. Lohengrin Imagine the scene: you make plans with a friend to go to the opera. Something by Wagner. “Great,” you think, “I haven’t seen any Wagner before.” You know Wagner’s […]
A review of William Kentridge: Sibyl, a curiously multidisciplinary collaboration between South African artists. Bold Barbican programming at its finest. William Kentridge, Alexander Calder And The Cumaean Sibyl Reading the programme ahead of attending William Kentridge: Sibyl at the Barbican, I was somewhat surprised to read that Kentridge is “[b]est known for his charcoal drawings, […]
