mon 20/05/2013

Reviews

Case Histories, BBC One

Veronica Lee

He's back - and he's even moodier than before; Jackson Brodie, the private dick for whom the word “brooding” was invented, hasn't been seen on BBC One since 2011, and now there are three 90-minute films to feast on, based on Kate Atkinson's novels and relocated to Edinburgh. Last night's was Started Early, Took My Dog.The story started in Munich, where Brodie (Jason Isaacs) was involved in a child snatch that he was doing solely for the money, as he had just spent two months visiting his...

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The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, BBC Four

Tom Birchenough

You can only marvel at the family intrigues that virtually closed down the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld in the years following his death in 1969. "Destroy, destruct, separate, divide,” was the emphatic double-phrased imperative with which one of his granddaughters described the “family legacy” in The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, the BBC Four documentary that’s itself the work of another descendant, grandson Remy Blumenfeld, who wrote and produced this film by Nick Watson.It’s...

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Ariadne auf Naxos, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Edward Seckerson

The Major-Domo promises fireworks during the Prologue of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s Ariadne auf Naxos. Katharina Thoma, the director of Glyndebourne’...

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Scott Walker

Kieron Tyler

Scott Walker: The Collection 1967-1970Few pop records possess a beauty taking them into the otherworldly, inexplicable realm where it’s impossible to...

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Say It With Flowers, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff

Gary Raymond

There is a glaring irony in that a play about an all-consuming obsession with one thing (fame) has no real idea of what it itself is supposed to be....

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Mariele Neudecker, Regency Town House, Brighton

Fisun Güner

The German artist plays with notions of the Romantic sublime

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CD: Jamie Cullum - Momentum

Peter Quinn

Stylistic mash-ups of album number six result in perfect pop

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The Liability

Tom Birchenough

Brit crime caper hits new lows, despite strong cast

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La donna del lago, Royal Opera

David Benedict

Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez and Michael Spyres triumph over adversity

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Rock ‘n’ Roll Britannia, BBC Four

Kieron Tyler

The entertaining tale of the protracted birth of a British rock scene which took America on at its own game

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Bullet Catch, Spiegeltent, Brighton

Thomas H Green

The classic shock trick provides the core for a surprisingly philosophical show

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Propaganda: Power and Persuasion, British Library

Fisun Güner

A thought-provoking exhibition looking at ways in which the state seeks to wield its influence

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The Victorian in the Wall, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs

Sam Marlowe

Will Adamsdale's new musical comedy-drama is touching, quirky and deliciously daft

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The Stoker

Tom Birchenough

Nihilism stared down in Alexei Balabanov's bleak look-back to Russia in the Nineties

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Carmageddon

Stuart Houghton

A car crash of a racing game

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The Great Gatsby

Matt Wolf

Baz Luhrmann's Fitzgerald-spawned epic is busy and brash and big - but great? No, except for Leo

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Albert Herring, Opera North

Graham Rickson

Britten in the round is a comic treat fit for a May Fair

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Knee Deep, Theatre Royal, Brighton

Thomas H Green

Australian acrobatic circus troupe are truly thrilling

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These Shining Lives, Park Theatre

Demetrios Matheou

London's new theatre makes a thrilling debut, albeit with a play a little less shiny

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The Pirates of Penzance, Scottish Opera, Theatre Royal, Glasgow

David Nice

Gilbert and Sullivan need a lighter director's touch in this musically strong new production

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Nina Conti, Soho Theatre

Veronica Lee

The ventriloquist gives a fresh take on an old art form

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Tomorrow's World, ICA

James Williams

Good things happen when one of Air collaborates with New Young Pony Clubber

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Frankie, BBC One

Jasper Rees

New primetime district nurse dispenses a spoonful of sugar

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Public Enemy, Young Vic

David Nice

The horrors of local politics still chime in Richard Jones's queasy production of an Ibsen masterpiece

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The Fall, BBC Two

Adam Sweeting

There's a serial killer on the loose. Do try to curb your enthusiasm

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An Evening for Hospices of Hope, Sadler's Wells Theatre

Ismene Brown

Nine leading men answer the call to ballerina Alina Cojocaru's gala

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Beware of Mr Baker

Graham Fuller

Documentary paints the legendary Cream drummer Ginger Baker as an irresponsible genius

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Daniel Kitson, Theatre Royal, Brighton

Thomas H Green

Comedian who eschews the usual routes to fame proves to be both incisive and decidedly different

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The Jim Jones Revue, The Sebright Arms

Garth Cartwright

Old school rockers mix Little Richard and The Cramps to pack a ferocious punch

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Case Histories, BBC One

The brooding private detective is back

The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, BBC Four

The welcome return of the legacy of photographer Erwin Blumenfeld

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The mother of all vérité docs

Ariadne auf Naxos, Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Strauss's opera reluctantly enters the Battle of Britain courtesy of a...

theartsdesk in Warsaw: A New Jewish Museum

Although only 7,500 Jews live in Poland, a space dedicated to their history...

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Easy listening and continental European intellectualism combine on the earl...

Say It With Flowers, Sherman Theatre, Cardiff

New play about tragic Welsh diva Dorothy Squires misses the real story

Extract: England My England - Anglophilia Explained

Why are some Americans so seduced by the land of Downton? A native explores

Mariele Neudecker, Regency Town House, Brighton

The German artist plays with notions of the Romantic sublime

CD: Jamie Cullum - Momentum

Stylistic mash-ups of album number six result in perfect pop