Features & Interviews
First Person: conductor Enrique Mazzola on Verdi's time-travelling 'Luisa Miller'
Friday, 30 July 2021
It is difficult to know why some operas succeed while others remain unknown. The reasons can be emotional or historical, or it might be as simple as a poor cast who couldn’t quite launch the opera into the stars. In the case of Luisa Miller, we have the perfect example of a masterpiece which has been a little bit neglected.
10 Questions for Harry Grafton of Red Rooster Festival
Wednesday, 14 July 2021
Harry Grafton (b. 1978) is the preferred title of Henry Fitzroy, 12th Duke of Grafton, custodian of Euston Hall in Suffolk and the man behind the Red Rooster Festival.
First Person: Héloïse Werner on a live...
Monday, 28 June 2021
It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to perform with musicians like the ones I’ll be sharing the St John’s Smith Square stage with on...
An Oral History of Glastonbury Festival 1992
Thursday, 24 June 2021
There is never one Glastonbury Festival. There are as many Glastonbury Festivals as there are people who attend. Thus it ever was, even back in 1992...
'In music, we are together':...
Thursday, 24 June 2021
For over a year, many concert halls' doors have been firmly shut, the curtains drawn and the lights out. As we begin to emerge into a new world and...
First Person: Roxanna Panufnik on a new version of her 'Letters from Burma' in aid of Myanmar refugees
The composer on why she expanded a chamber piece for London Mozart Players |
From cancellation to new vigour: pianist and artistic director Joseph Middleton on Leeds Lieder
One of our most enterprising younger-generation performers on renewing a major festival |
First Person: Director Maria Aberg on drawing fresh inspiration for the future
The theatre-maker sets out her stall for an ambitious, pan-European venture |
First Person: playwright Tanika Gupta on being back in the rehearsal room once more
The writer expresses her joy at going 'Out West' |
Glastonbury Festival: Live at Worthy Farm livestream review - glitched access upstages beautifully shot live footage
Calamitous technical upset overshadows Coldplay, HAIM, Damon Albarn, Kano, IDLES and the rest |
Music books to end lockdown: Sam Lee, Hawkwind, Dylan, Richard Thompson, and the Electric Muses
From nightingale song to sonic attack via folk rock and the world's greatest songwriter, spring 2021's best music books |
Christa Ludwig, 1928-2021: a selective tribute
The German mezzo-soprano embraced the light and the dark at a transcendental level |
Extract: Blackface by Ayanna Thompson
Examining the history and legacies of this racist performance mode |
First Person: Boris Giltburg on lockdown interruptions to filming Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas
The Moscow-born Israeli pianist on an odyssey that took several unexpected turns |
First Person: composer and Renaissance man Tunde Jegede on transcending genres
Crossing boundaries for Southampton's 'Mayflower 400: Voyages of the Heart' project |
Helen McCrory: 'If there's one interesting thing about acting it's trying to lose your ego'
Three encounters with the great actor who has died at the age of 52 |
The Royal Ballet - variations on a comeback
How one major ballet company survived to dance another day |
The Master Musicians of Joujouka review - a 4000 year-old rock'n'roll band
Healing music from the Rif Mountains of Morocco |
Filmmaker Darius Marder: 'Deafness is a culture. That's not being PC'
Writer and director on Sound of Metal's long journey from concept to award nominations |
Extract: TV by Susan Bordo
On 75 years of changing TV, changing habits and the relationship between TV and Trump |
First Person: violinist Abigail Young on getting back to her Japanese orchestra in Covid year
Leader of the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa on the trials of returning to what she loves |
Extract from Sauntering: Writers Walk Europe, introduced and edited by Duncan Minshull
An ode to leisurely aimlessness |
First Person: Anna Lucia Richter on Monteverdi and a transition from soprano to mezzo
A last gift from the pre-Covid era followed by surprises in a time of pandemic |
theartsdesk Q&A: Daryl Hall
Legendary singer-songwriter talks recording, vaccines and reaching a billion streams |
First Person: Clare Norburn on how she came to write her ambitious Zoom-era drama, 'Love in the Lockdown'
Writer-producer Clare Norburn elaborates upon her self-isolation online play |
‘The Healing Power of Music’: composer Nigel Hess on great-aunt Myra’s wartime concerts
Parallels between lockdown solace and a great Dame's National Gallery events |
Britney Spears (1998-present): The Video Special
Britney on video: 23 years of salacious self-objectification and hyper-kitsch |
Disc of the Day 10th Anniversary: the level playing field
Ten years of record reviews show how sometimes deranged variety works in our (and the records') favour |
Reviewing music off-piste: reflections on working beyond the comfort zone
The joy of adventure on unfamiliar ground |
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