Arts
Living history
It has been a while since the BBC really pushed the boat out on the epic history documentary front. Perhaps…
Should Euston Arch be raised from the dead?
Yes William Cook Rejoice! Rejoice! Fifty-four years after its destruction, Euston Arch has returned to Euston. Well, after a fashion.…
Welcome to Japan’s best kept cultural secret: an art island with an underground museum
In his introductory remarks to the Afro–Eurasian Eclipse, one of his later suites for jazz orchestra, Duke Ellington remarked —…
Renzo Piano’s new Whitney Museum is very good news - for the Met
About six years ago the first section of the now celebrated High Line was opened in New York and made…
How dedicated a fascist was Le Corbusier?
The ‘revelations’, 50 years after he drowned, that Le Corbusier was a ‘fascist’ and an anti-Semite are neither fresh nor…
What really happened in the Berlin Philharmonic election
The morning after the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra failed to elect a music director, I took a call from Bild-Zeitung, Berlin’s…
Fine production of a painful play: Death of a Salesman at the Noel Coward reviewed
Here come the Yanks. As the summer jumbos disgorge their cargoes of wealthy, courteous, culture-hungry Americans, the West End prepares…
We Are Many reviewed: does anyone think this anti-Iraq War film will change anything?
Big-screen documentaries never change the world. Blackfish has not shortened the queues to see maltreated killer whales leap through hoops…
Half-brilliant, half-bewildering: Peter Pan at Welsh National Opera reviewed
In Beryl Bainbridge’s novel An Awfully Big Adventure the producer Meredith Potter issues a doughty injunction on the subject of…
Rapture - and loathing: Woolf Works at the Royal Ballet reviewed
People have been saying that Wayne McGregor’s new Woolf Works has reinvented the three-act ballet, but not so. William Forsythe…
A bit silly: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell reviewed
BBC One’s 2015 choice of Sunday-night drama series is beginning to resemble the career of the kind of Hollywood actor…
The history of India in 50 personalities
The idea of using objects — salt, cod, nutmeg, silk — to turn history lessons into something popular and accessible…
Culture Buff
The Laird’s House at Skara Brae on Orkney overlooks the Neolithic settlement, uncovered in a huge storm in 1850. Predating…
Dedicated follower of fascism?
The ‘revelations’, 50 years after he drowned, that Le Corbusier was a ‘fascist’ and an anti-Semite are neither fresh nor…
Sexed-up pacifism
Big-screen documentaries never change the world. Blackfish has not shortened the queues to see maltreated killer whales leap through hoops…
Woolf haul
People have been saying that Wayne McGregor’s new Woolf Works has reinvented the three-act ballet, but not so. William Forsythe…
Moving pictures
About six years ago the first section of the now celebrated High Line was opened in New York and made…
Moving pictures
About six years ago the first section of the now celebrated High Line was opened in New York and made…
Two batons better
The morning after the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra failed to elect a music director, I took a call from Bild-Zeitung, Berlin’s…
Two batons better
The morning after the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra failed to elect a music director, I took a call from Bild-Zeitung, Berlin’s…
Strange ways
BBC One’s 2015 choice of Sunday-night drama series is beginning to resemble the career of the kind of Hollywood actor…
Martin Gayford finds a few nice paintings amid the dead trees, old clothes and agitprop of the Venice Biennale
Martin Gayford finds a few nice paintings amid the dead trees, old clothes and agitprop of the Venice Biennale
Jackie Mason reveals the secret of stand-up: avoid fried food
What does it take to be a stand-up comic? Jackie Mason has absolutely no idea
Do you see me laughing? Mike Leigh’s Pirates of Penzance at the ENO reviewed
Forget the pollsters and political pundits — English National Opera called it first and called it Right when it programmed…
Mad Max: Fury Road reviewed - your inner 12-year-old will be in heaven
No one goes slack-jawed in wonder at the movies any more. In our cyber-enabled times, kid designers can mega-pixelate any…
