From our agony aunt’s mailbag: Dear Alma, I have a precious Guarnerius, my grandfather’s violin, that I take with me to the communal shelter (known as Mamad) every time the Iranians start dropping hardware in […]
What did Vermeer’s Woman Reading a Letter learn from the correspondence? What is Rembrandt’s Night Watch talking about just before marching out? And who will catch the maiden’s slipper in Fragonard’s The Swing? The Secret Life of Paintings is a unique […]
Fred Astaire died 38 years ago today, on June 22nd 1987. This item is just a blatant excuse to watch Fred Astaire’s best numbers with all three of his great partners. They are all gone […]
It’s been a while: well, over 40 years, since I heard Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe, in an amdram production just outside of Manchester in which I was playing French horn. Has absence made the […]
From the independent Russian site, Meduza: Following the G7 summit in Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russian individuals and entities, as well as more than 200 vessels from […]
In essence, the story of the ‘fallen woman’ of Alexandre Dumas’s play (the literary source for Verdi’s opera) is simply a modern, secularised version of the age-old Christian trope of the wayward, sinful woman who […]
#MOZART250: Rachel Podger plays Mozart. Rachel Podger (violin); The Mozartists / Ian Page (conductor). Wigmore Hall, Londo, 18.06.2024 (CC) Haydn Symphony No. 66 in B flat (1775/6) Mozart Violin Concertos: No. 2 in D, K 211 […]
What’s different about looking at a painting if we don’t know who it’s by? What opportunities does this open up? Regular readers know how much I love process and here’s a video which is right […]
Welcome to Le Grand Hôtel de l’Opéra: a brand-new show set in the 1920s that weaves the music from Johann Strauss, Donizetti and Mozart into an international tangle of mischief and seduction. Le Grand Hôtel […]
Baba Yaga workshop -Ana Dordevic, Rowan Hellier, Carola Schwab – (Photo: Pascal Buenning/Deutsche Oper) Rowan Hellier is a mezzo-soprano who, along with her operatic career, is known for creating projects which blur the boundaries of […]
