tue 19/03/2024

Features & Interviews

First Person: conductor Peter Whelan on coming full circle with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra

Peter Whelan

There's something undeniable about the way music can weave itself into the fabric of our lives, shaping our passions and leaving an indelible mark on our journeys. For me, this magic has been particularly intertwined with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra. My first encounter with them, back in 1992, wasn't live in a concert hall, but rather through the flickering screen of a television.

theartsdesk in Strasbourg: crossing the frontiers

Boyd Tonkin

A single pair of swans glided serenely under the bridges of the river Ill as I walked to the premiere of the Opéra National du Rhin’s new production of Lohengrin in Strasbourg on Sunday.

First Person: Laurence Cummings on his 25th and...

Laurence Cummings

At the time of writing, rehearsals are well under way for the London Handel Festival 2024. It’s a big year for me as it’s my 25th and final year as...

First Person: violinist Tom Greed on breaking...

Tom Greed

For musicians, the period from early 2020 to mid-2021 was one of great reflection, with so many questions to puzzle over. Could we satisfy the basic...

First Person: Ten Years On - Flamenco guitarist...

Paco Peña

There are moments that forever remain imprinted in our consciousness, engraved on the general map of our lives. I cannot forget the excitement of...

First Person: pioneering juggler Sean Gandini reflects on how the spirit of Pina Bausch has infiltrated his work

Sean Gandini

As Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch's 'Nelken' comes to Sadler’s Wells, a tribute from across the art forms

First Person: contralto Hilary Summers on going beyond her baroque and contemporary comfort zones

Hilary Summers

On recording 'Circus Dinogad', a wacky collaboration with distinguished Dutch colleagues

Best of 2023: Books

Theartsdesk

As the year draws to a close, we look back at the best books we opened

Best of 2023: Classical music concerts

David Nice

No drop in orchestral high standards, and youth shines again

Best of 2023: Theatre

Matt Wolf

The National Theatre fielded hit after hit, and smaller venues scored as well

Best of 2023: Film

Theartsdesk

Kicking off the top choices of the year, theartsdesk's film critics cast their net wide

theartsdesk in Ravenna - Riccardo Muti passes on a lifetime's operatic wisdom

David Nice

Three unforgettable evenings with the most experienced living exponent of Italian opera

Powell and Pressburger: The Composers

Graham Rickson

Two musicians, both largely forgotten, gave the duo's films much of their power

Powell and Pressburger: A Celtic storm brewing

Kristin M Jones

The Archers stepped up their wartime campaign against materialism with the mystical Scottish romance 'I Know Where I'm Going!'

First Person: novelist Pip Adam on the sound of injustice

Pip Adam

Author Pip Adam describes how her time working in prisons and interest in the jurisprudence of noise gave life to her recent sci-fi novel, 'Audition'

Michael Powell: a happy time with Bartók’s Bluebeard

David Nice

Fine performers in perfect balance with fantastical visuals for this profound one-act opera

First Person: Natalia Franklin Pierce, Executive Director of Nonclassical, on 'creating a sense of belonging'

Natalia Franklin Pierce

On bringing classical music to wider audiences - and appealing for help in a good cause

Powell and Pressburger: In Prospero's Room

Nick Hasted

A magical day at Derek Jarman’s Dungeness cottage, dancing with the ghosts of Shakespeare, Powell and Pressburger

Powell and Pressburger: the glueman cometh

Graham Fuller

A perverse village magus plays god with three wartime pilgrims in 'A Canterbury Tale', the Archers' strangest film

theartsdesk at Wexford Festival Opera - four operas and a recital in one crazy day

David Nice

Youth takes the comedy award in fringe delights alongside a well-done schlocky rarity

Powell and Pressburger: Spy masters

Demetrios Matheou

Though less renowned, Powell and Pressburger’s wartime spy films put some of Alfred Hitchcock’s in the shade

Powell and Pressburger: Battleships and Byron

Hugh Barnes

The 1950s war films 'The Battle of the River Plate' and 'Ill Met By Moonlight' turned a clapped-out genre into art

theartsdesk in Ukraine - Stankovych's 'Psalms of War' at the Lviv National Opera

Ed Vulliamy

A powerful new work written in blood from the inside

Michael Powell interview - 'I had no idea that critics were so innocent'

Saskia Baron

In an interview Powell gave to City Limits in 1986, he discussed the furore over his misunderstood masterpiece 'Peeping Tom' and his wrangles with David O Selznick

theartsdesk at Salzburg Jazz & the City Festival - perfection in free venues

Sebastian Scotney

The ideal setting for cleverly programmed European jazz

Martin Scorsese's 'Mean Streets' - a triumph of personal filmmaking

Demetrios Matheou

Martin Scorsese’s breakthrough film celebrates its 50th anniversary this month

Powell and Pressburger's 'The Red Shoes' - art and nothing but

Hugh Barnes

The indelible ballet classic was the Archers' first attempt at a 'composed' film

They had a good war: Powell and Pressburger's no-nonsense heroines

Helen Hawkins

In the Archers' 1940s classics women are frequently indomitable opponents

'Glorious, isn't it?' Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Subversive Cinema

Graham Fuller

theartsdesk opens a series timed to the BFI's Powell and Pressburger season

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