Arts
Coming up for air
The thing that the photojournalist Don McCullin likes best of all now, he tells me, is to stand on Hadrian’s…
Culture buff
He may not be a household name, yet, but Peter Boggs is one of our outstanding painters. His works hang…
Palio exposes the bribery and violence that lies at the heart of Siena’s lawless ritual
Siena’s Palio is steeped in violence, bribery and corruption. But it matters to its people more than anything, says Jasper Rees
There's a good reason why there are no great female composers
Last week a 17-year-old girl forced the Edexcel exam board to change its A-level music syllabus to include the work…
As good a treatment of a Bellini opera as we are likely to see: WNO's I puritani reviewed
Bellini belongs to that category of not-quite-great operatic composers whose works are also very difficult to perform adequately, and don’t…
The Globe's Oresteia lets Aeschylus speak - the Almeida's muzzles him
To examine an ancient text requires an understanding of the ancient imagination. The Oresteia is set in a primitive world…
The World Goes Pop at Tate Modern - our critic goes zzzzz
The conventional history of modern art was written on the busy Paris-New York axis, as if nowhere else existed. For…
All about the climb (and little else): Everest reviewed
‘Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side,’ sang Miley Cyrus. ‘It’s the climb.’ She’s not usually a musician to…
War, socialist tyranny and the oppression of the handicapped - welcome to the new dance season
If there’s one thing scarcer than hen’s teeth in serious choreography nowadays, it’s a light heart. When was the last…
An Inspector Calls is poisonous, revisionist propaganda - which is why the luvvies love it
What a load of manipulative, hysterical tosh is An Inspector Calls. It wasn’t a work with which I was familiar…
The Baroque composer who was a world music pioneer
On Private Passions this week the writer Amitav Ghosh gave us a refreshingly different version of what has become a…
High and mighty
‘Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side,’ sang Miley Cyrus. ‘It’s the climb.’ She’s not usually a musician to…
There will be blood
If you don’t want to spend hundreds of euros on a good seat, the best place to watch the Palio…
Fighting talk
If there’s one thing scarcer than hen’s teeth in serious choreography nowadays, it’s a light heart. When was the last…
Deadlier than the male
Last week a 17-year-old girl forced the Edexcel exam board to change its A-level music syllabus to include the work…
Deadlier than the male
Last week a 17-year-old girl forced the Edexcel exam board to change its A-level music syllabus to include the work…
All roads lead to Callas
Bellini belongs to that category of not-quite-great operatic composers whose works are also very difficult to perform adequately, and don’t…
All roads lead to Callas
Bellini belongs to that category of not-quite-great operatic composers whose works are also very difficult to perform adequately, and don’t…
Double tragedy
To examine an ancient text requires an understanding of the ancient imagination. The Oresteia is set in a primitive world…
Double tragedy
To examine an ancient text requires an understanding of the ancient imagination. The Oresteia is set in a primitive world…
Eastern airs
On Private Passions this week the writer Amitav Ghosh gave us a refreshingly different version of what has become a…
Eastern airs
On Private Passions this week the writer Amitav Ghosh gave us a refreshingly different version of what has become a…
Socialist Cluedo
What a load of manipulative, hysterical tosh is An Inspector Calls. It wasn’t a work with which I was familiar…
I was Reggie Kray's penpal
Harry Mount once idolised the Kray twins. He’s since seen the error of his ways
In praise of cheap box sets
This column does like a bargain. Indeed, it not only esteems and relishes a bargain, it has also worked long…
