wed 22/05/2013

archive

Desperate: How a disaster was born

Jasper Rees

In recent years theatre has sought assistance from a pair of popular art forms. Shows based either on movies, or on pop groups’ back catalogues, have become mainstays of the theatrical economy. So...

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Inspector Morse's Last Round

Jasper Rees

Oxford. A glum afternoon in early spring, 2000. Tourists clogging the city’s arteries. On a terrace overlooking the river Cherwell, a tour guide finishes her spiel and shepherds a flock of pensioners...

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theartsdesk in Florence: The British Are Going

Jasper Rees

In the 1450s in Florence, Alberti was working on the facade of Santa Maria Novella, Donatello and Fra Filippo Lippi were active, while Leonardo was born in nearby village of Vinci. And the English...

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The Underbelly Project: New York

Jasper Rees

Art Basel Miami, the biggest art fair in America, takes place this week. It features the work of 35 street artists who are gathering together in one place for the first time. However, it's not the...

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Interview: Novelist Gillian Slovo

Jasper Rees

“To my friend Craig.” As all writers must, Gillian Slovo will put her signature to copies of her 2008 novel, Black Orchids, for queues of readers. No other writer will have performed this promotional...

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Alina Somova: dancer or circus pony?

Ismene Brown

It is a curious feeling to go to meet a hated figure and find a delicate, blonde girl with a sweet face.On Monday, 23-year-old ballerina Alina Somova opens the batting for the legendary Mariinsky...

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Interview: What Do We Know About Julian Barnes?

Jasper Rees

Of the golden generation of British novelists now within hailing distance of old age, Julian Barnes is much the most inscrutable. Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan – you know where you are with...

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Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine: A passionate love letter re-opened

Ismene Brown

"It was more than just 'I love you'," Suzanne Farrell, America's nonpareil ballerina, the love and inspiration of 20th-century ballet's greatest choreographer, is telling me at breakfast in a little...

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Ulyana Lopatkina: The beanpole who became the soul of Russia

Ismene Brown

If you tell a tall, whisper-slim young woman of 31 that she has been described as "the soul of Russia", it is understandable that she looks startled. Two huge, smoke-grey eyes cast a doubtful glance...

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Derevo: Absolute clowns

Ismene Brown

Clowns are supposed to be chubby, grinning, funny, with anarchic hair and big red noses, like Coco. Or they are Chaplin-types, oppressed little city folk mutely combating the vast machines of the...

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The man who said too much

Ismene Brown

Wayne Eagling was famous for many things in his 25-year career at the Royal Ballet - not least for his rich girlfriends. There was Isabel Goldsmith, daughter of the late Sir James; there was...

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latest in today

Something in the Air

Olivier Assayas recalls his heady, heavy days as a soixante-huitard

The Kite Runner, Theatre Royal Brighton

A story-centric stage adaption of Khaled Hosseini's sentimental best-s...

The King of Marvin Gardens

Melancholy meets irrational optimism in Bob Rafelson's New Hollywood c...

CD: British Electric Foundation - Music of Quality and Disti...

Resurrected after 22 years, does this covers project still work?

Relatively Speaking, Wyndham's Theatre

Early Ayckbourn play fizzes anew 46 years on

Sylvie Guillem, 6000 Miles Away, Sadler's Wells Theatre

Guillem weaves her game-changing magic in Forsythe and Ek

Limbo, Southbank Centre

London Wonderground's erotic circus bumps and grinds

CD: Stooshe - London with the Lights On

Mouthy London trio's debut is loaded with enjoyable bawdiness and atti...

Lubomyr Melnyk, Village Underground

The pioneer of continuous music astonishes while Bon Iver’s preferred artis...

Helen Chadwick, Richard Saltoun

Her obsession with death and decay was leavened by a wicked sense of humour

News

The Art of Conducting 2012
For the third year running, we bring you Chris Christodoulou's wonderful images from the podium at the BBC Proms
BBC Proms: Perahia, Vienna Philharmonic, Haitink
An outstanding Vienna night with Beethoven and Bruckner in thrillingly lucid performance
BBC Proms: Cameron Carpenter/ Znaider, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Chailly
Mendelssohn masterclass from Chailly and a Bach car crash from Carpenter