theartsdesk.com, first with arts reviews, news and interviews
Fleabag, BBC Three
Friday, 26 August 2016
Have you seen Fleabag yet? If not, here’s the one-word review: brilliant. You need three hours to watch the lot on the iPlayer, which is BBC Three’s main address these days. Do...
Prom 53: Stadler, RLPO, Petrenko
Friday, 26 August 2016
He still looks every inch the golden boy, but Vasily Petrenko has just turned 40, and next month celebrates a decade with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Time well spent, as...
Blu-ray: Women in Love
Friday, 26 August 2016
Women in Love was Ken Russell’s first cinema film to directly reflect his work in television. He had directed The Billion Dollar Brain (1967), but that was an adaptation of a Len...
Julieta
Thursday, 25 August 2016
Red, the colour of blood, passion, love and hate, is Almodóvar’s trademark and in Julieta, his 20th film (and surely one of his most visually lustrous), it’s never far away. It’s...
Soulful Islamic passion: the Najmuddin Saifuddin group
Thursday, 25 August 2016
Qawwali music is amongst the most soulful, passionate music in the world. Many people have discovered it through the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who was one the greatest...
CD: Warhaus - We Fucked a Flame Into Being
Thursday, 25 August 2016
One of popular music’s mightiest talents, Leonard Cohen, at the age of 82, has a new album out in the Autumn, the fabulously titled You Want It Darker. If it’s anywhere near as...
They Drink It in the Congo, Almeida Theatre
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
Do you carry a small part of the Congo every day on your person? Probably. Your mobile phone will contain coltan, aka...
theartsdesk at the Rosendal Festival: Schubert above a fjord
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
More than just a great and serious pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes is a Mensch. His special gift in recent years has been to bring...
CD: Morgan Delt - Phase Zero
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
In 1966, David Warner assumed the title role in Karel Reisz’s satire Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment. The film’s...
Ripper Street, Series 4, BBC Two
Tuesday, 23 August 2016
H Division has a new home in Whitechapel that basks in the white heat of the technological revolution. The police station...
Prom 49: Quincy Jones Prom, Royal Albert Hall
Tuesday, 23 August 2016
As I waited outside the entrance to the Royal Albert Hall, someone leaned over to me and said: “My cocaine is to your left...
Edinburgh 2016: Angel by Henry Naylor/ Horse in Careful/ Lucy McCormick: Triple Threat
Tuesday, 23 August 2016
Angel by Henry Naylor, Gilded Balloon ★★★★Rehana tells us what her hometown Kobane, in Syria, is like – “A small border...
DVD/Blu-ray: Sid & Nancy
Tuesday, 23 August 2016
As this year has been designated the 40th anniversary of punk rock hitting the UK, there’s no surprise that Alex Cox’s Sid...
Prom 48: Weilerstein, BBC Scottish SO, Pintscher
Monday, 22 August 2016
If you go down to the woods today, to be sure of a big surprise is a contradiction in terms, but this pair of sylvan...
Edinburgh Festival 2016: Alan Cumming/ The Glass Menagerie/ Mark Thomas
Monday, 22 August 2016
Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs ★★★★★ Is this even theatre? Hardly – cabaret, more like, as Scottish actor-author-...
Edinburgh Fringe 2016: Zoë Coombs Marr/ Randy/ Sarah Callaghan
Monday, 22 August 2016
Zoë Coombs Marr, Underbelly Cowgate ★★★Zoë Coombs Marr's debut show last year, Dave, gained a lot of attention, and rightly...
CD: De La Soul - and the Anonymous Nobody
Monday, 22 August 2016
De La Soul are the posterboys for creative longevity in hip hop. While some contemporaries have maintained a presence by...
Proms at...Roundhouse: London Sinfonietta, Gourlay
Sunday, 21 August 2016
Some enchanted afternoon in Camden Town… the Proms returned to the Roundhouse after four decades with a dreamlike fusion of...
Reissue CDs Weekly: Betty Davis, Jeanette Jones
Sunday, 21 August 2016
Despite their different paths in the Seventies, the final years of the Sixties saw parallels between Betty Davis and...
There's Something about Romcoms, Channel 4
Sunday, 21 August 2016
Ever since Britain shipped Cary Grant across the Atlantic, the romcom has been a transatlantic English-language staple. This...
CD: Divine Comedy - Foreverland
Sunday, 21 August 2016
With ten albums over a quarter-century, Neil Hannon and Divine Comedy don’t have too many surprises left. Most fans will...
Prom 45: The Makropulos Affair, BBCSO, Bělohlávek
Saturday, 20 August 2016
Karel Čapek, the great Czech writer who pioneered some of the most prophetic dramatic fantasies of the early 20th century,...
Classical CDs Weekly: Strauss, Weinberg, Rolf Lislevand
Saturday, 20 August 2016
Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Four Symphonic Interludes from Intermezzo Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis (ABC...
CD: New Model Army - Winter
Saturday, 20 August 2016
Casual fans of New Model Army may be surprised at how doggedly the band has plied its trade – aside from a couple of brief...
disc of the day
Blu-ray: Women in Love
Exemplary package celebrating Ken Russell’s compelling DH Lawrence adaptation
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 10,000 pieces, we're asking for £2.95 per month or £25 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take an annual subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
tv
There's Something about Romcoms, Channel 4
Thirty years of the romantic comedy remembered with wit by leading players
film
Blu-ray: Women in Love
Exemplary package celebrating Ken Russell’s compelling DH Lawrence adaptation
new music
Soulful Islamic passion: the Najmuddin Saifuddin group
It can be dangerous to sing Qawwali - the greatest group of recent times is on a rare tour
CD: Warhaus - We Fucked a Flame Into Being
Belgian singer stylishly realises ten tracks of doomed torch pop
classical
Prom 53: Stadler, RLPO, Petrenko
Ravishing night of Russian greats and young artists from the Liverpool Phil
theartsdesk at the Rosendal Festival: Schubert above a fjord
A half-Norwegian voyage around 1828 from Leif Ove Andsnes and friends
Prom 48: Weilerstein, BBC Scottish SO, Pintscher
Orchestral walks on the wild side - shame about the Shakespeare
opera
Prom 45: The Makropulos Affair, BBCSO, Bělohlávek
Karita Mattila, in incandescent company, is Janáček's long-lived diva to the life
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Glyndebourne
Peter Hall's magical production continues to weave its spell on Britten's opera
The Exterminating Angel, Die Liebe der Danae, Salzburg Festival
Brilliant ensemble in Adès's new opera trumps a meaningless Strauss staging
theatre
Six of the best: Theatre
Lee Hall's miraculous 'Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour' leads theartsdesk's stage tips
They Drink It in the Congo, Almeida Theatre
New drama about the Congo is absorbing, but too long, too messy and too complex
Edinburgh 2016: Angel by Henry Naylor/ Horse in Careful/ Lucy McCormick: Triple Threat
Theatre highlights from the world's biggest and best arts festival
visual arts
theartsdesk at the Rosendal Festival: Schubert above a fjord
A half-Norwegian voyage around 1828 from Leif Ove Andsnes and friends
Colour, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Treasures jostle with texts to explore the art and science of manuscript illumination
Stubbs and the Wild, Holburne Museum, Bath
Known as a painter of horses, the 18th-century artist captured an entire menagerie
dance
The Flames of Paris, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Opera House
Emotion and politics skilfully combine in Ratmansky's old-new ballet about the French Revolution
The Taming of the Shrew, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Opera House
Unfeminist comedy in Jean-Christophe Maillot's Shakespeare ballet
Swan Lake, Bolshoi Ballet, Royal Opera House
A peerless Odette almost makes up for production's psychological shortcomings
comedy
Edinburgh Fringe 2016: Zoë Coombs Marr/ Randy/ Sarah Callaghan
Latest instalment of comedy from the world's biggest and best arts festival
Edinburgh Fringe 2016: Richard Gadd/ Kieran Hodgson/ Nazeem Hussain
Another batch of comedy highlights from the world's biggest and best arts festival
Edinburgh Fringe 2016: Bridget Christie/ Adam Kay/ Rachel Parris
Comedy highlights from the world's biggest and best arts festival
latest comments
You know??? He was absolutley fantastic! ...
The sound balancing in the auditorium was woeful...
No mention of Jacob Collier? Seriously!?
Thanks for a well written and descriptive review...
Earring clue seems to be a mistake. ALso, in...
Kate Humble self-indulgent? *Irony* This TV...