Arts
We’re very lucky Philip II was so indulgent with Titian
In Venice, around 1552, Titian began work on a series of six paintings for King Philip II of Spain, each…
Romeo, Juliet and Mussolini
George Balanchine’s Serenade, the manifesto of 20th-century neoclassical choreography, requires a deep understanding of both its complex stylistic nuances and…
A Rosenkavalier without a heart ain’t much of a Rosenkavalier
In all its minute details, Der Rosenkavalier is rooted in a painstakingly stylised version of Rococo Vienna that, paradoxically, is…
Memo to Nick Payne: filling your plays with cosmic chit-chat doesn’t make you intelligent
How do you write a play? Here’s one theory. Put a guy up a tree, throw rocks at him, get…
Avoid the latest commercial juggernaut and go off-road with Run & Jump
When you see the latest corporate entertainment juggernaut hurtling at you, what are your options? When I saw X-Men: Days…
So Dylan Thomas was a drunk: does this TV drama have anything else to say?
According to its executive producer Griff Rhys Jones, A Poet in New York (BBC2, Sunday) sought to rescue Dylan Thomas…
When Virginia Woolf's husband ruled Sri Lanka's jungles
Tucked away in the schedules, just before midday, just after midweek (on Thursday), just four lines in the Radio Times,…
Norman Thelwell: much more than a one-trick pony
‘The natural aids to horsemanship are the hands, the legs, the body and the voice.’ But a Thelwell pony sometimes…
Pony tales
‘The natural aids to horsemanship are the hands, the legs, the body and the voice.’ But a Thelwell pony sometimes…
Pony tales
‘The natural aids to horsemanship are the hands, the legs, the body and the voice.’ But a Thelwell pony sometimes…
Balanchinian ideal
George Balanchine’s Serenade, the manifesto of 20th-century neoclassical choreography, requires a deep understanding of both its complex stylistic nuances and…
Running out of time
If I live as long as my father, I’ll be checking out on 9 December 2017. Since every man in…
Running out of time
If I live as long as my father, I’ll be checking out on 9 December 2017. Since every man in…
A photographer sheds new light on Constable Country
Andrew Lambirth talks to Justin Partyka, whose photographs show Constable Country in an unexpected light
The brilliant neurotics of the late Renaissance
In many respects the average art-lover remains a Victorian, and the Florentine Renaissance is one area in which that is…
What was Allen Ginsberg doing in Wales? LSD
‘Valleys breathe, heaven and earth move together,/ daisies push inches of yellow air, vegetables tremble,/ grass shimmers green…’ The characteristic…
When Raquel Welch danced on a table at Cinecittà
Before there was Hello!, OK! and Closer, there was Oggi. Oggi was the magazine my Italian mother used to flick…
You want a glitzy new cultural centre in Backofbeyondistan? Don’t call Shigeru Ban
Shigeru Ban is the celebrated architect who refuses to become a celebrity. Thus, at 57, his career has run opposite…
Two Mimi-Rodolfos at Opera North who go from nought to frisky very believably
Purists might have winced at Opera North’s advertisement for its latest revival of La Bohème. ‘If you see one musical…
The Silver Tassie: a lavish, experimental muddle that slithers into a coma
The Silver Tassie is the major opening at the Lyttelton this spring. Sean O’Casey’s rarely staged play introduces us to…
The humans in Godzilla are so bland and dull you may well find yourself rooting for the monster
Godzilla is from the director Gareth Edwards, a Brit whose first film, Monsters, truly put him on the map, as…
Thank God for the Game of Thrones imp – and the heaving breasts
Which character are you in Game of Thrones? For me it’s got to be the imp, Tyrion Lannister. As Ed…
The best blues singer you’ve never heard of
A rustle of paper as the sleeve is removed. A clunk and click as the needle arm is swung across.…
The general who scribbled and doodled his way around the British empire
Soldier scribes are rare, soldier artists rarer still, and soldiers who can write and draw rarest of all. General Henry…
Sketches of war and peace
Soldier scribes are rare, soldier artists rarer still, and soldiers who can write and draw rarest of all. General Henry…
