Arts
![Richard Tognetti [Photo: Zan Wimberley]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Culture_Buff.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
Richard Tognetti
Going from strength to strength, the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s recently announced 2019 Season shows no flagging of inspiration or ambition.…
Operetta is serious business in Bad Ischl – and seriously glorious
It’s the lederhosen that grabs you first. Two gents were walking down the street ahead of us in full Alpine…
If you think you can’t have too much Ian McEwan, then you are wrong
The Children Act is the third Ian McEwan film adaptation in 18 months (after The Child in Time and On…
I had no idea how fascinating rubbish could be: The Secret Life of Landfill reviewed
Not the most beguiling of titles, I admit, but The Secret Life of Landfill: A Rubbish History (BBC4, Thursday) was…
Teenage Fanclub reissues
Still got your record player? Dig it out. The crunchier the music, the better it sounds on vinyl: a broader…
Caricature, satire and over-the-top horror: Magic Realism at Tate Modern reviewed
‘It is disastrous to name ourselves!’ So Willem de Kooning responded when some of his New York painter buddies elected…
The power of Sue MacGregor’s The Reunion
The return of Sue MacGregor’s long-running Radio 4 series The Reunion (produced by Eve Streeter) is a welcome reminder of…
Is Frank Skinner the new Alan Bennett? Edinburgh Fringe round-up
For recovering teetotallers, like me, Thinking Drinkers is the perfect Edinburgh show. On stage, two sprucely dressed actors perform sketches…
A Beggar’s Opera that beggars belief in Edinburgh
Robert Carsen’s new updating of The Beggar’s Opera is a coke-snorting, trash-talking, breakdancing, palm-greasing, skirt-hiking, rule-breaking affair — and every…
Grace Cossington Smith (1892-1984)
Exhibitions prior to major art auctions can be a wonderful way to view works by significant artists that may not…
![Let there be light: the Atlantic footballfish dwells 3,000 feet below the surface of the ocean. [Paulo Oliveira / Alamy Stock Photo]](https://www.spectator.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/18augartslead.jpg?w=410&h=275&crop=1)
How to live in a world without light: Life in the Dark at the Natural History Museum reviewed
Like most of our ape ancestors, we have really had only one response to the fall of night. We have…
Three of the best faces, and six of the best hands, ever painted: the pick of the Edinburgh Art Festival
The Rembrandt show at the National Galleries of Scotland (until 14 October) has a problem. A mighty haul of Rembrandt…
Holidays in Hell – Such A Pleasant Getaway from the BBC
Apparently there’s a new ‘character’ on University Challenge. I wouldn’t know. Last year, I vowed never again to raise my…
A captivating addition to the filmography of the first world war: The Guardians reviewed
There are moments in The Guardians when you can imagine you’re in the wrong art form. Time stills, the frame…
An exalted experience even without a convincing central character: Siegfried in Edinburgh reviewed
There’s one big problem with Wagner’s Siegfried, and the clue’s in the name. None of Wagner’s mature works hangs so…
Conversations with a penis, having a laugh about Brexit and why titles matter: Edinburgh Festival reviewed
David Greig has written the international festival’s flagship drama, Midsummer. This farcical romance is performed as a party piece by…
Another side of John Humphrys
‘What can you tell me just now,’ asks Audrey Gillan. She’s talking to Tara, who’s been sleeping rough on Fournier…
The House
The House is the economically direct title of a new book about ‘the dramatic story of the Sydney Opera House…
Music’s Brexit
It’s October 1895 and the spirit of Music has been absent from Britain for exactly 200 years. Why she fled,…
Full of bog-standard, if annoyingly effective, emotional manipulation: The Foreign Doctors Are Coming reviewed
Surprising I know, but judging from The Foreign Doctors Are Coming (Channel 4, Tuesday), Britain mightn’t be such a bad…
Washed-up junkies, Trump the director and a cash giveaway: Edinburgh Festival round-up
Trump Lear is a chaotically enjoyable one-man show with a complicated premise. David Carl, an American satirist, has arrived on…
Robert Redford turns his hand to radio
Much ado is being made of the latest listening figures, which have suggested that the percentage of those aged between…
A visionary and playful heir to Duchamp: Yves Klein at Blenheim Palace
Nothing was so interesting to Yves Klein as the void. In 1960 he leapt into it for a photograph —…
Thank god for the return of the generation gap in pop
In June, a 20-year-old man called Jahseh Onfroy was murdered after leaving a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Onfroy…
Magnificent: Vanessa at Glyndebourne reviewed
‘Outside this house the world has changed. Life is swifter than before; there is no time for idle gestures.’ Anatol,…
