Arts
The mean, bullying maestro is extinct – or should be
W.H.Auden once wrote: ‘Real artists are not nice people. All their best feelings go into their work and life has…
The Double will stay in your mind, like a bit of food caught in a tooth
I should warn you that if you go see The Double it is one of those films that will trouble…
It’s the whisper you’ve got to listen for in Arturo Di Stefano’s paintings
One of the paintings in Arturo Di Stefano’s impressive new show at Purdy Hicks Gallery is called ‘Santa Croce’ and…
Francisco de Zurbarán had a Hollywood sense of drama
It seems suitable that just round the corner from the Zurbarán exhibition at the Palais des Beaux Arts is the…
The snobbery and sweaty brows of watching opera in the cinema
I remain puzzled that, so far as I know, no daily or weekly paper carries reviews of the New York…
European postmodern dance can be just as boring as American postmodern dance
What’s in a definition? As far as theatre dance is concerned, quite a lot. Labelling — and often labelling for…
Simon Cowell’s latest attempt at global domination
I Can’t Sing! is a parody of The X Factor, which already parodies itself at every turn. Quite a tough…
The EU is worse than you thought
For me, by far the most surprising revelation in Martin Durkin’s documentary Nigel Farage: Who Are You? (Channel 4, Monday)…
Radio that makes you feel the wind on your cheek
After a walk in Richmond Park beset by rush-hour traffic, the Heathrow flight path and a strange swarm of flying…
Michael Craig-Martin pokes a giant yellow pitchfork at the ordinary
Visitors to Chatsworth House this spring might wonder if they have stumbled through the looking-glass. The estate’s rolling parkland has…
Steeling the show
Visitors to Chatsworth House this spring might wonder if they have stumbled through the looking-glass. The estate’s rolling parkland has…
Steeling the show
Visitors to Chatsworth House this spring might wonder if they have stumbled through the looking-glass. The estate’s rolling parkland has…
Visual overload
What’s in a definition? As far as theatre dance is concerned, quite a lot. Labelling — and often labelling for…
Bad behaviour
W.H.Auden once wrote: ‘Real artists are not nice people. All their best feelings go into their work and life has…
Bad behaviour
W.H.Auden once wrote: ‘Real artists are not nice people. All their best feelings go into their work and life has…
Why are Shakespeare’s women so feeble?
Shakespeare did not give his female characters pivotal roles, but some of his contemporaries did, as Lloyd Evans discovers
Where’s a goofy, flat-chested shrew when you need one?
Ray Cooney, the master of farce, is back. These days he’s in the modest Menier rather than the wonderful West…
The great and the good and the gassed and the dead
Last week, three exhibitions celebrating the art of Germany; this week, a show commemorating the first world war fought against…
Julian Cooper's rock profiles
Like most ambitious artists, Julian Cooper has been pulled this way and that by seemingly conflicting influences. The son and…
What backing singers are really thinking behind the ‘ooh, ooh, oohs’
Have you ever looked at backing singers and thought: what is their story? Do they or have they ever prayed…
Handelian pleasures vs modern head-scratchers
Opera seems almost always to have been acutely concerned with its own future. These days this is most often manifested…
Kings of Dance: a show to keep the Sun King happy
Louis XIV might have been a narcissistic and whimsical tyrant, but he did a lot for dance. An accomplished practitioner,…
Game of Thrones tells the story of Britain better than most histories
A young pretender raises an army to take the throne. Having recently learnt of his father’s beheading, the adolescent —…
How Radio 5 Live transformed the airwaves
It’s amazing to think that it’s 20 years since the launch of Radio 5 Live. But it was bright and…
The art of data
When you’re next waiting for a train at King’s Cross, don’t waste time window shopping on the concourse. Instead, pop…
