Here we are, in an enormous converted hen-house, sitting in plush red velvet seats. They are a tiny bit too small for 21st century bums, and they are numbered with gold-coloured tabs – a dead giveaway that they have been salvaged from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The man in the pit, Anthony Negus, is the UK’s most eminent Wagnerian. We are about to witness a performance of … [Read more...]
Archives for 2017
Sublime: Country House Opera in Real Time
photo by Mark Douet Our more or less local country house summer opera season has started with a pair of pieces at Garsington Opera at the gorgeous Getty estate, Wormsley. There’s something magic about the location, with its long, long drive to the ever more comfortable “temporary” auditorium, and the view from it over the landscaped pond. This is an area we know well. Here Paul Getty tried, and … [Read more...]
Remembering Jaime Parladé, the Marquess who Made Marbella Chic
Reading the news I learned that our former MP and PM, David Cameron, and his wife, Sam, had been holidaying at one of the resorts designed by Jaime Parladé. And that reminded me that the obituary of him I wrote for one of the British national newspapers, the Telegraph, was never published. I knew Jaime slightly, and liked him, and it is sad that this fascinating man's life has not been remembered … [Read more...]
Some Home Thoughts about Angels from Abroad
Among the dramatis personae in Tony Kushner’s two-play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes are a couple of non-fictional characters, Roy Cohn and Ethel Rosenberg. Cohn (1927-1986) was one of the most morally reprehensible characters in American history. I am old enough to remember him as chief counsel to Joe McCarthy’s Senate subcommittee “investigating” Communist influence and … [Read more...]
Who pays The Ferryman? It’s complicated.
The hottest new play in London has got the maximum 5-star rating from half a dozen of the national newspapers; its West End transfer was assured before it even opened. There hasn’t been a theatrical event like this since – well, since the same playwright’s Jerusalem, Jez Butterworth’s “state of the nation” play about England. The Ferryman details the state of another part of the United … [Read more...]
Entertaining Consent — Seriously
Nina Raine’s new drama, Consent, can now be seen in a stunning in-the-round production at the National Theatre’s small Dorfman auditorium – but the play is so good (and has been so well reviewed) that it will not be surprising if it transfers to the West End. Or even to Broadway, despite its essential Englishness. American audiences will have no difficulty with its themes of rape (thus the … [Read more...]
Making What You Will of Malvolia
Having spent the past five weeks in Palm Beach, where I stayed four doors away from Mar-a-Lago, the winter palace of the current Lord of Misrule, I came late to the Twelfth Night party at the National Theatre, which opened last month. We often forget that Twelfth Night or What You Will was offered as a traditional entertainment for the end of the Christmas season. Shakespeare, of course, … [Read more...]
Who’s responsible for The Donald? The Founding Fathers.
Last Friday Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States. Across the world this weekend millions, mostly women, have marched to protest the event. It is already said to be the largest protest march in the history of the U.S. The attitude of the Briton on the High Street is simple: it’s preposterous. Not that it can’t happen here – after all, we have Nigel Farage and Jeremy … [Read more...]