Arts
Charting history
When you’re next waiting for a train at King’s Cross, don’t waste time window shopping on the concourse. Instead, pop…
Charting history
When you’re next waiting for a train at King’s Cross, don’t waste time window shopping on the concourse. Instead, pop…
Man power
Louis XIV might have been a narcissistic and whimsical tyrant, but he did a lot for dance. An accomplished practitioner,…
Julian Mitchell on Another Country: ‘I based it on my fury and anger and I wrote it fast and it flowed'
Robert Gore-Langton talks to Julian Mitchell about the painful roots of his hit play Another Country
Menuhin is the world’s toughest violin competition. Why is it packed with Asians, and no Brits?
‘The truth is,’ says Gordon Back, lowering his voice, ‘that if the violin finalists from the BBC Young Musician of…
Upside down and right on top: the power of George Baselitz
It’s German Season in London, and revealingly the best of three new shows is the one dealing with the most…
The tubular joys of Fernand Léger
In 1914 Fernand Léger gave a lecture about modern art. By then recognised as a leading Cubist artist, he had…
The Royal Opera House's Die Frau ohne Schatten – a dream solution to Strauss’s problem opera?
If ever an opera was weighed down by its creators’ joint ambition, it is Die Frau ohne Schatten. Richard Strauss…
The dancers who said ‘no’ to postmodernism
It all started in 1971, when a group of physically and artistically talented youngsters decided to create a dance company…
A gaggle of husbands and a pair of piglets
Here’s a great idea for a play. Turn the polygamy principle upside-down and you get a female egoist presiding over…
These screen suicides deserve a nudge off the ledge
A Long Way Down is about four would-be suicides who meet for the first time on the top of a…
Eton vs snobbery
One of the stranger things about Eton is its near-total lack of class snobbery. Yes, all right, you still get…
Lives captured in transit
It’s such a simple idea. Take a tape recorder. Hang around at the entrance to a railway station or in…
Jeremy Deller is lost in Walthamstow
At the Venice Biennale last year, Jeremy Deller presented English Magic in the British Pavilion. It was an aggressive look…
Lost in translation
At the Venice Biennale last year, Jeremy Deller presented English Magic in the British Pavilion. It was an aggressive look…
Lost in translation
At the Venice Biennale last year, Jeremy Deller presented English Magic in the British Pavilion. It was an aggressive look…
The third way
It all started in 1971, when a group of physically and artistically talented youngsters decided to create a dance company…
The Menuhin test
‘The truth is,’ says Gordon Back, lowering his voice, ‘that if the violin finalists from the BBC Young Musician of…
The Menuhin test
‘The truth is,’ says Gordon Back, lowering his voice, ‘that if the violin finalists from the BBC Young Musician of…
Ivan Vasiliev and Roberto Bolle: interview with ballet royalty
Giannandrea Poesio meets Ivan Vasiliev and Roberto Bolle, ballet’s demigods
Bare and authentic or full and fake? The dilemma of preserving writers' houses
Every year, tens of thousands of visitors flock to the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, in order to see…
Opera's fallen women
Opera’s grim fascination with ‘fallen women’ — as Welsh National Opera has called its latest mini-season — lies largely in…
Are you a lobotomised teenager? Then Need for Speed is for you
OK, Need for Speed, if we must, and we must because I sat through it (running time: 130 minutes) and…
Richard Deacon – from Meccano into art
When I visited the Richard Deacon exhibition at Tate Millbank, there were quite a lot of single men of a…
If you're going to adapt a bestseller, don't choose the A-Z
What’s the quickest way to create a hit musical? Base it on a bestselling book. The writers of The A-Z…
