Arts

Every bit as well observed as Rembrandt – and often funnier: Nicolaes Maes reviewed

7 March 2020 9:00 am

Nicolaes Maes (1634–93) relished the simple moments of daily life during the Dutch Golden Age. A woman peeling parsnips over…

Oracles, perverts and the Dirtbag Left

7 March 2020 9:00 am

For 500 years the State Oracle of Tibet has worked as a kind of angry immortal advisor to the Dalai…

Unimpressive: The Prince of Egypt reviewed

7 March 2020 9:00 am

The Prince of Egypt is a musical adapted from a 1998 Dreamworks cartoon based on the Book of Exodus. So…

An algorithmic zero-to-hero narrative: Military Wives reviewed

7 March 2020 9:00 am

Military Wives is a British comedy drama starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Sharon Horgan. It is based on the true…

The gloriously indecent life and art of Aubrey Beardsley

7 March 2020 9:00 am

In seven short years, Aubrey Beardsley mastered the art of outrage. Laura Gascoigne on the gloriously indecent illustrations of a singular genius

If your instinct is to undermine Beethoven, you’re directing the wrong opera: Fidelio reviewed

7 March 2020 9:00 am

‘People may say I can’t sing,’ said the soprano Florence Foster Jenkins, ‘but no one can ever say I didn’t…

The last great purveyors of a vanishing art form: Green Day’s Fathers of All... reviewed

7 March 2020 9:00 am

Grade: B+ It is an eternal mystery to me why Britain has never had much time for power pop, seeing…

‘I feel compelled to be disgraceful’: Miriam Margolyes interviewed

7 March 2020 9:00 am

Miriam Margolyes chews the fat with Tanya Gold about mother love, anti-Zionism and too much shagging

Antonio Pappano on diversity, a new Ring cycle and defending Verdi from dodgy directors

29 February 2020 9:00 am

After a record 18 years – and counting – as music director, Antonio Pappano talks to Norman Lebrecht about life after Covent Garden and how opera is beyond younger audiences

Grimes has talent – but not for writing songs: Miss Anthropocene reviewed

29 February 2020 9:00 am

Grade: B The old axiom no longer applies. In modern popular music, it is possible not only to gild a…

Eurotrash Verdi: ENO’s Luisa Miller reviewed

29 February 2020 9:00 am

Verdi’s Luisa Miller is set in the Tyrol in the early 17th century, and for some opera directors that’s a…

Sharp family saga with a thriller uneasily attached: ITV’s Flesh and Blood reviewed

29 February 2020 9:00 am

As in many thrillers, the characters on display in Flesh and Blood (ITV, Monday to Thursday) often seemed locked in…

Comedy gold: The Upstart Crow at the Gielgud Theatre reviewed

29 February 2020 9:00 am

A Moorish princess shipwrecked on the English coast disguises herself as a boy to protect her virtue. Arriving in London,…

A bruising encounter: Pina Bausch's Bluebeard reviewed

29 February 2020 9:00 am

Pina Bausch’s best work always hovered between the familiar and the unknown. The late choreographer revelled in borders and thresholds,…

Strange, sinister and very Belgian: Léon Spilliaert at the Royal Academy reviewed

29 February 2020 9:00 am

The strange and faintly sinister works of the Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert have been compared — not unreasonably — to…

Deeply romantic and wildly sexy: Portrait of a Lady on Fire reviewed

29 February 2020 9:00 am

Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is set on a remote, windswept Brittany island in the late 18th…

Trent Dalton

29 February 2020 9:00 am

He’s barely in his forties. He’s married with two nearly teenage daughters. He lives in Brisbane. He’s a staff journalist…

Bruce Beresford at home in Birchgrove 2018

22 February 2020 9:00 am

Sydney’s Archibald has the name and the fame, but there is a new kid on the block: the Darling Portrait…

I regret my bust-up with the Bee Gees: Clive Anderson interviewed

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

Mark Mason talks to Clive Anderson about mistaken identity, Macbeth and making a career out of being a bit of a smartarse

Weill's Broadway opera is made for telly: Opera North's Street Scene reviewed

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

It’s a sweltering night in Manhattan, circa 1947, and on the doorstep of a brownstone tenement three women are waiting…

Slight: Steve McQueen at Tate Modern reviewed

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

Steve McQueen’s ‘Static’ (2009) impresses through its sheer directness — and it’s very far from static. A succession of helicopter-tracking…

Why foreign-language series will always have the edge over American ones

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

An office worker stands on the ledge of an open window about to leap. Two colleagues enter, ignoring him completely.…

The appeal of psychopaths

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

Ever since the end of Gomorrah season four (Sky Atlantic) I have been bereft. I eked it out for as…

The rancid meanderings of a long-spent wankpuffin: Justin Bieber’s Changes reviewed

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

Grade: D– For my first review of popular music releases in 2020 I thought I’d deposit this large vat of…

In this instance, greed isn’t good: Greed reviewed

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

Greed is Michael Winterbottom’s satire on the obscenely rich and, in particular, a billionaire, asset-stripping retail tycoon whose resemblance to…