A right royal rave: Radio 1’s Ibiza Prom
Dance music has certainly come of age culturally when the superstar DJs have MBEs (Pete Tong was awarded his in 2014), and it moves from the dark nightclub floor to…
THREE DAYS IN THE COUNTRY, National Theatre, SE1
Patrick Marber has taken Turgenev’s A Month in the Country and strengthened it in all directions, rather like an enthusiast restoring an aged, leaky old boat into a seaworthy thing…
Power-dressed and power hungry: Handel’s Agrippina at Iford
Bruno Ravella has updated the action of Handel’s Agrippina to the consumerist hell of the 1980s, giving us big hair, shoulder pads, cocaine and ruthlessness in spades. Agrippina, immaculately coiffured…
The curate’s night out: the Tête-à-Tête Clubnight at Egg, London
Although the first piece (One Day This Will be Long Ago) was difficult and the second (China Doll) plain agony to sit through, the Tête-à-Tête Clubnight at Egg, London finished with…
Prom 8: Amateur Hour: the BBC Asian Network Prom
The BBC Asian Network Prom was the first such adventure for the radio station. In a night of many firsts, it seems Watford-born producer Naughty Boy is also the first…
From TV dinners to highway robbery: People Watch, Sacred Mountain and Life Stories at Tête-à-Tête
Composer Tim Benjamin gives us a masterclass in how to create a one-handed opera twice over in his Life Stories. Rest in Peace, inspired by a short story from Chekhov (Life…
Just what the Philosopher ordered: Salieri’s La Grotta di Trofonio at Bampton
Salieri’s brisk, vibrant comedy is a hidden masterpiece, combining the perils of courtship with the 18th century’s burgeoning taste for crackpot science. Director and designer Jeremy Gray’s commitment to the score, the…
Gradually going flat: Lucia di Lammermoor at Buxton Opera Festival
Among the great mad scenes available to an operatic soprano, Lucia di Lammermoor is a classic. The parade of blood-stained divas staggering across stages to Donizetti’s eerie, twirling melody includes…
Dark and heavenly visions: Giovanna d’Arco at Buxton Opera Festival
From its very first chords, Buxton Festival’s Giovanna d’Arco had the shivers rolling down my spine. The curtain lifts on asymmetrical slanting black surfaces, glossy as a grand piano, forming…
The Boys from Bohème: An Unexpected Opera Chat Show
I have to start this review with a confession: the more you go to Unexpected Opera shows, the harder it gets to remain objective about them. As I’ve now seen…