[contextly_auto_sidebar] We’re suffering post-Brexit gloom, and disappointment at the cabinet appointments made by the new Prime Minister. (Who is Matt Hancock, the new Minister for Culture? I don’t recall ever seeing or hearing of the MP for West Suffolk at the theatre, opera or at a gallery.) As for Mrs May’s major choices of the interesting David Davis, the dreadful Liam Fox and … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2016
His Kingdom for a Horse: Another Bad Brexit Deal?
The Almeida Theatre is one of the wonders of North London – a little theatre that has had a costly makeover, leaving the uncomfortable seating untouched, but still attracting high-paid Hollywood stars to work for relatively tiny fees. Why? The Almeida’s current Artistic Director is Rupert Goold, still the hottest director in town, which is at least half the explanation. Actors want to … [Read more...]
How an Operatic Sow’s Ear Becomes a Silk Purse at Wormsley
Director Tim Albery and conductor Tobias Ringborg’s production of Mozart’s Idomeneo for Garsington Opera at Wormsley transforms this operatic sow’s ear into a silk purse. By tightening up the story, cutting down the recitative but adding music from the Anhang, the appendix to the published edition, they have restructured the youthful composer’s flabby piece. In a “conversation” in the programme, … [Read more...]
82 Portraits, One Still-Life, and a Few Nice Loans – Is This the Future of Exhibitions?
Two thought-provoking exhibitions have just opened in London. At the Sackler Gallery of the RA are “82 Portraits and One Still-life by David Hockney”; and at the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, “Painters’ Paintings: from Freud to Van Dyck.” Each of these is at least slightly novel, and indicative of changes that must be afoot in the art world. None of Hockney’s 82 portraits … [Read more...]