Features & Interviews
theartsdesk at the Pärnu Music Festival 2019 - super-orchestra, top clarinettists, transcendent strings
Wednesday, 14 August 2019
Little has changed about Pärnu, with its concentric rings of eight-mile sandy beach and dunes, wooded gardens and wooden old town, in the five years I've been going there.
theartsdesk at Itinéraire Baroque 2019 - a musical journey through the Périgord
Monday, 05 August 2019
We’ve all had the experience of wandering into a church, only to discover it filled unexpectedly with music: the choir rehearsing for Evensong, a local orchestra practising, a soprano and organist getting ready for a weekend wedding.
theartsdesk in Dalarna: Rhinegold in a Swedish...
Saturday, 27 July 2019
Anna Larsson's fellow Swedes can count themselves lucky that the worldwide first choice to sing Wagner's Erda and the midnight song in Mahler's Third...
10th Odessa International Film Festival review -...
Saturday, 27 July 2019
Odessa, the so-called "pearl of the Black Sea", is a Ukrainian city full of lovely 19th-century Italianate architecture and sandy beaches, with a...
theartsdesk Q&A: documentary maker Karen...
Friday, 26 July 2019
For a time, Aung San Suu Kyi enjoyed a heroic status on the international stage perhaps surpassed only by Nelson Mandela. The politician won a Nobel...
Ewa Banaszkiewicz and Mateusz Dymek: 'Is our film porny?'
Directors of My Friend the Polish Girl respond to claims they've set the female cause back two decades |
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2019 - in heaven with Dante's Purgatorio and Estonian rites
A dramatic tour from the tomb of Italy's greatest poet and music among the mosaics |
On making The Left Behind: 'We've plugged into the mains'
The director of Killed By My Debt introduces his new BBC drama about a hate crime |
'A product not only of his era but also of his travels': Ian Page on Mozart's cosmopolitan education
The Mozartists' main man on how an early life moving around Europe shaped a genius |
theartsdesk in Treviso - cultural patronage, Italian style
High-level attention to detail in the Fondazione Benetton's support for the arts |
First Person: Damian Cruden on reinvigorating the Bard away from London with Shakespeare's Rose
The onetime director of 'The Railway Children' sets out his vision for bringing Shakespeare afresh to the country's 'cultural pageant' |
theartsdesk in Svalbard: cultural excellence at the top of the world
At 78 degrees north, polar bears outnumber people - but Norway's musical flag flies high |
Franco Zeffirelli: 'I had this feeling that I was special'
Recalling a two-day audience at the home of the great maestro, who has died aged 96 |
Roger Wright on Oliver Knussen: ‘his challenge to us all to remain curious lives on’
Inspiring composer, conductor and mentor remembered by Snape Maltings CEO |
First Person: Matt Henry on fulfilling 'a dream come true' to play the legendary singer Sam Cooke
The Olivier Award-winning alumnus of 'Kinky Boots' shifts gears to tell a vibrant story of 1960s America |
Bob Dylan Special - Rolling Thunder Revue, Netflix
Martin Scorsese reexamines the legendary 1975 tour |
Bob Dylan Special - theartsdesk Q&A: Scarlet Rivera
The violinist on 'Desire' and 'Rolling Thunder Revue' talks about working with Dylan at his peak |
theartsdesk in Bergen: Gothic shocks and Romantic treats
Genres and periods mix and match in style at Norway's premier arts festival |
theartsdesk in Gothenburg: concert-hall storytelling rivets at the Point Music Festival
Galvanizing Santtu-Matias Rouvali kicks off, and two dozen instrumentalists go barefoot |
First Person: Conductor Maxime Pascal on Stockhausen at the Southbank Centre
The man in control of a cosmic opera tonight on its visionary German composer |
Cannes 2019: Week One - a genre-heavy opening
The 72nd film festival showcases ghouls, the gig economy, and gun-wielding avengers |
First Person: Ellen McDougall on finding the commonality in the American classic 'Our Town'
The director explains what drew her to the season-opener this summer at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park |
First Person: Liam Byrne on bringing Versailles to the City's 'Culture Mile'
The viola da gamba player on pleasures at the Barbican's free Sound Unbound festival |
theartsdesk in Tallinn and Tartu: Estonian Music Days go global
Latest host of the International Society for Contemporary Music still leads the way |
First Person: Sam Lee on singing with endangered nightingales
The folk singer on streaming for Extinction Rebellion and the Absolute Bird series |
First Person: Robert Hollingworth on I Fagiolini's 'Leonardo - Shaping the Invisible'
Images reflected in music 500 years after the ultimate Renaissance man's death |
Obituary: Bibi Andersson 1935-2019
David Thompson pays tribute to one of cinema's most enduring icons |
For Folk's Sake: 'I owe my very existence to Morris dancing'
Richard Macer, who has made documentaries about Vogue and dyslexia, introduces his latest |
In the spirit of the composer as innovator: Samir Savant on the London Handel Festival
The director presents a month of enterprising events |
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