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David Nice
Friday, 17 May 2024
It’s what you dream of in opera but don’t often get: singers feeling free and liberated to give their best after weeks of preparation with a master conductor. Glyndebourne Music...
Thomas H Green
Friday, 17 May 2024
Before reviewing The Great Escape, we must first deal with the elephant in the room. Or, in this case, the room that’s crushing the elephant, like the trash compactor in the first...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 17 May 2024
There are many definitions of bravery, and taking on the challenge of embodying John Cleese as Basil Fawlty in Cleese’s own stage adaptation of Fawlty Towers would undoubtedly be...
Sebastian Scotney
Friday, 17 May 2024
In many ways, Laufey’s emotionally charged, sold-out Royal Albert Hall debut was a masterclass. The Chinese-Icelandic musician, who started writing songs as as cello student while...
Adam Sweeting
Friday, 17 May 2024
What with the likes of Sexy Beast, Layer Cake, The Hatton Garden Job and the oeuvre of Guy Ritchie, the British gangster movie has become its own quaint little genre, a bit like...
Tim Cumming
Friday, 17 May 2024
So Billie Eilish’s new album has had its worldwide midnight release, dropping at midnight wherever you are kiddos, and taken as a whole it’s like some dark, heavy, low-hanging...
Bernard Hughes
Thursday, 16 May 2024
The sixteen voices of the Dunedin Consort raided the large store of music inspired by the Song of Songs and the sonnets of...
Demetrios Matheou
Thursday, 16 May 2024
It’s unusual for a play to be revived with its original director and star, let alone a decade after they premiered the piece...
Guy Oddy
Thursday, 16 May 2024
Let’s put our cards firmly on the table here. I am a big fan of Bruce Robinson’s cinematic masterpiece about two out-of-work...
Veronica Lee
Thursday, 16 May 2024
For fans of a certain age the name Jack Docherty will always be associated with a very good run of chat shows on Channel 5;...
Thomas H Green
Thursday, 16 May 2024
It’s a long way to the middle. Jack Savoretti has worked hard to get there. He’s grafted. His first album, 2007’s Between...
Markie Robson-Scott
Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Two women were best friends at school but they haven’t seen each other in years. One is an uptight divorcée, the other a...
Graham Fuller
Wednesday, 15 May 2024
A visually dazzling, fiercely acted psychological drama with a manic comic edge, Hoard channels an 18-year-old South...
Miranda Heggie
Wednesday, 15 May 2024
It’s hard to imagine that The Arches – a string of stylish glass-fronted units in prime city centre location, housing...
Nick Hasted
Wednesday, 15 May 2024
Claire Denis’ 1988 debut is a sensual madeleine to her Cameroonian childhood, with its taste of termites on butter, sound of...
Boyd Tonkin
Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Programme notes for Mahler’s monumental symphonies will often blithely chat about the works’ epic struggle between life and...
Kieron Tyler
Tuesday, 14 May 2024
If there’s a feeling of déjà vu, it isn’t detectable. Conchúr White played St Pancras Old Church in April 2016 with County...
Graham Rickson
Tuesday, 14 May 2024
Glance at The Holdovers’ synopsis and you might suspect that Alexander Payne’s latest effort is a slice of lightweight...
Adam Sweeting
Monday, 13 May 2024
Director Cesar Diaz’s debut feature film was made on a modest budget and confines its running time to a crisp 78 minutes,...
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disc of the day
Album: Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft
Desire and longing are the submersibles that propel Eilish’s riveting third album
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 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
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tv
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, Disney+ review - how the boy from Sayreville, NJ conquered the world
Four-part documentary series outstays its welcome
Red Eye, ITV review - Anglo-Chinese relations tested in junk-food thriller
Richard Armitage returns in another preposterous potboiler
Blue Lights Series 2, BBC One review - still our best cop show despite a slacker structure
The engaging Belfast cops are less tightly focused this time around
film
Bermondsey Tales: Fall of the Roman Empire review - dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Michael Head's gangland drama is a bit of a dog's breakfast
Two Tickets to Greece review - the highs and lows of a holiday from hell
Laure Calamy, Olivia Côte and Kristin Scott Thomas star in a silly French comedy
Hoard review - not any old rubbish
A star is born amid the muck and squalor of Luna Carmoon's ambitious directorial debut
new music
The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - a dip into day one and the elephant-in-the-room
An opening snapshot of Brighton's multi-venue showcase
Album: Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft
Desire and longing are the submersibles that propel Eilish’s riveting third album
classical
Dunedin Consort, Mulroy, Wigmore Hall review - songs of love old and new
First-rate chamber choir explore contemporary and Renaissance approaches to amour
Coote, LSO, Tilson Thomas, Barbican review - the triumph of life
A great, ailing conductor rises to Mahler's mightiest challenge
Britten Sinfonia, The Marian Consort, Milton Court review - a journey around turbulent spirit Gesualdo
Contemporary homages among the works in this celebration of the Renaissance 'badass'
opera
Carmen, Glyndebourne review - total musical fusion
Production tells the story, mostly, but it’s the lead and the conductor who electrify
L'Olimpiade, Irish National Opera review - Vivaldi's long-distance run sustained by perfect teamwork
Sporting confusions and star-crossed lovers clarified by vivacious singing and playing
Remembering conductor Andrew Davis (1944-2024)
Fellow conductors, singers, instrumentalists and administrators recall a true Mensch
theatre
Fawlty Towers: The Play, Apollo Theatre review - lightning strikes twice
John Cleese's sitcom masterpiece makes seamless transition to the stage
People, Places and Things, Trafalgar Theatre review - a scintillating shot in the arm
Duncan MacMillan’s riotous reflection on addiction and recovery returns
Withnail and I, Birmingham Rep review - Bruce Robinson’s 1987 film makes for a theatrical hit
Withnail and Marwood fix up the Jag and head for Birmingham
dance
The Winter's Tale, Royal Ballet review - what a story, and what a way to tell it!
A compelling case for ROH's ballet-friendly rebrand
All You Need Is Death review - a future folk horror classic
Irish folkies seek a cursed ancient song in Paul Duane's impressive fiction debut
MacMillan Celebrated, Royal Ballet review - out of mothballs, three vintage works to marvel at
Less-known pieces spanning the career of a great choreographer underline his greatness
comedy
Jack Doherty, Soho Theatre review - warm and witty childhood memoir
Former chat show host on his David Bowie obsession
Rhod Gilbert, G-Live Guildford review - cancer, constipation and celebrity treatment
Finding the funny in illness
Books
Extract: Pariah Genius by Iain Sinclair
A form-defying writer explores the troubled mindscape of a Soho photographer
Jonn Elledge: A History of the World in 47 Borders review - a view from the boundaries
Enjoyable journey through the byways of how lines on maps have shaped the modern world
Lisa Kaltenegger: Alien Earths review - a whole new world
Kaltenegger's traverses space in her thoughtful exploration of the search for life among the stars
visual arts
Brancusi, Pompidou Centre, Paris review - a sculptor's spiritual quest for form and essence
The Paris landmark signs off with a historic survey
Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider, Tate Modern review - a missed opportunity
Wonderful paintings, but only half the story
Eye to Eye: Homage to Ernst Scheidegger, MASI Lugano review - era-defining artist portraits
One of Switzerland's greatest photographers celebrated with a major retrospective
latest comments
Hello! I enjoyed the production although it...
Fantastic review, I ended up closing my eyes for...
Just returned from seeing this in Cambridge....
We saw Opening Night yesterday and felt...
Spot on! To me it was like a panto version...
Saw this wonderful opera last night in Cheltenham...
Couldn't agree more. THIS is the one to see to...
I watched it yesterday and it made feel like "Oh...