Plain English

I confess I've only paid flying visits to Manchester -  though I think of it as England's second city - and both of those were for purposes of plugging a book. Indeed, prior to last week I had seen nothing of Manchester save the large office building housing the  TV and radio studios of BBC Manchester. Though I saw these again, making fleeting appearances on both media, I also managed to … [Read more...]

Bill CooperThe opera at Glyndebourne on a warm summer evening is one life's big and unfailing pleasures. The air-conditioned auditorium with its good acoustic and excellent sightlines is always comfortable; and you can reduce the considerable cost of the evening by bringing your own picnic and drink. All this means that the general director, David Pritchard and his team can take a box office risk … [Read more...]

The current revival of La traviata at the Royal Opera House could easily have been one of the great performances ever staged there. Richard Eyre has returned to direct his 1994 production, with its staggeringly wonderful, lavish sets by Bob Crowley (the sight of the elaborately grotesque yet beautiful décor of Flora's Act II scene 2 salon alone is worth the price of a ticket)  and magical … [Read more...]

 (photo Nobby Clark)Chip off the (solid oak - he's Peter Hall's son) old block Edward Hall leads Propeller, an all-male company dedicated to performing the works of Shakespeare. I try to see all their productions; they're usually superb, and never less than exciting - every one I've seen makes you think again about a text you know well, and the revelations generally come thick and … [Read more...]

We've forsaken sun and sand for chilly June nights and picnics in the shelter tent. Summer opera festivals are increasingly prevalent, ever more fun, and gaining in cultural weight. We've recently seen a pair of operas that would not have been possible, or at least very difficult,  to stage in the context of a normal season, Garsington Opera's Mirandolina by Bohuslav Martinů and Glyndebourne … [Read more...]

Recently I've detected something curious happening in the dramatic and lyric theatre, a tendency to clarity, to narrative simplicity and straightforwardness. In a way it's the opposite of the Konzept school that has so long dominated performances in Europe, with directors of East German origin pushing their weight around the stages of the West. What we're seeing is a drive to tell the story using … [Read more...]

Do all artists have a "late period," in which they exhibit power coupled with exuberance, occasionally even surpassing some of the work they made when younger? Or is this venerable fireworks display only achieved by great artists? The list is familiar (and assembling it a trivial pursuit) - Picasso, Rothko, Rembrandt, Titian, Poussin,  the Verdi of "Falstaff." On  the evidence of his … [Read more...]

For those interested in the arts, the metaphor for being in London this summer  is what? - a kid in a toy shop or sweet shop? Or maybe a religious trope is more appropriate - a believer finding himself in heaven or paradise (and with no shortage of virgins at the British Museum's newly opened exhibition, Garden & Cosmos)? … [Read more...]

Such excitement here in Oxford. About twenty-four hours ago the first female Professor of Poetry at Oxford University resigned the post she'd held for 8 or 9 days. Our Brit-land is a small world, and though I was not eligible to vote (I spent two post-graduate years at my Oxford college, but never took an Oxford degree), I seem, more or less, to know everyone involved in the fracas. … [Read more...]

Until I saw Britten's Peter Grimes last week at the English National Opera with surtitles, I hadn't realised how clunky and often silly Montagu Slater's libretto is. Or maybe I should say (by contrast), that I hadn't realised how fine is my late friend Myfanwy Piper's libretto for Turn of the Screw, or Britten and Peter Pears' redaction of Shakespeare for that of  Midsummer Night's Dream. The … [Read more...]