Slipped Disc

Three colours, three moods, three registers. And yet Puccini conceived this triptych as a whole from the outset. He interweaves these three one-act operas, from Il tabarro, a drama of passion set on the quays of […]

The Night Watch Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn would have celebrated his 419th birthday this week which is my excuse for writing about him. Rembrandt (he ditched the ‘Harmenszoon’ early and became known as, simply, Rembrandt) was […]

The International Society of Bassists has issued a notice of mourning for Gary Karr, who died yesterday of a brain aneurysm, having just been diagnosed with terminal  cancer. Gary was 83. Born Gary Michael Kornbleit […]

The formidable cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Auschwitz survivor and longterm moral conscience of London’s orchestras, turned 100 today. Instead of a telegram from the King, she received a personal visit.   The post Anita, 100 appeared […]

Click here to subscribe or purchase The best of the tributes to Billie Holiday is this full length play with songs, written by Lanie Robertson and directed by Lonny Price, it stars 6-time Tony winner […]

Billie Holliday   Most people know that jazz great Billie Holiday died penniless and riddled with drugs and alcohol on 17th July 1959 of cirrhosis of the liver. They know less about her life which […]

Kurt Weill’s Broadway musical One Touch of Venus transferred to Hollywood in 1948. But the delicacy of ‘Speak Low’ was way beyond the capcity of its female lead. Eileen Wilson did the singing while Ava […]

The Haitian American composer Nathalie Joachim has been picked by Opera Philadelphia as its Composer in Residence for the new season. Joachim is one of ten composers contributing to the company’s February 2026 World Premiere […]

From an AP report: FUJAIRAH, United Arab Emirates — The humble road rumble strip, used around the world to alert drifting drivers to potential hazards or lane departures, can play Beethoven on a mountain highway […]