Features & Interviews
Global fiction: the pick of 2018
Sunday, 09 December 2018
If you believe the bulk of the “books of the year” features that drift like stray tinsel across the media at this time of year, Britain’s literary taste-makers only enjoy the flavours of the Anglosphere. With a handful of exceptions, the sort of cultural and political notables invited to select their favourite reading overwhelmingly endorse titles from the UK or US. For our book-tipping elite, it seems, a hard literary Brexit happened decades ago.
theartsdesk in Brno: Czech 100th feted through Janáček and Smetana
Saturday, 08 December 2018
Five of Leoš Janáček's 10 operas are staples of the worldwide repertoire. Two I'd never seen on stage, so the slice I chose of the19-day festival devoted to all of them for the second time in the history of Brno, the cultured Moravian capital where he spent most of his life, tended to the rare and local.
'I’ve told everyone that it’s a comedy – but...
Wednesday, 05 December 2018
Marx is having a terrible day. He is supposed to be finishing volume two of Capital but he’s distracted by his lust for the maid, workmen are taking...
theartsdesk in Gothenburg - Wagner's gold...
Thursday, 29 November 2018
Before we hear a note, extras dressed as maintenance staff potter about the stage. They try to erase a scrawled slogan on a wall that reads “Hur allt...
Robert Hastie: 'a seam of love runs through...
Monday, 12 November 2018
Robert Hastie is a little late for our meeting. Directing Shakespeare's darkest tragedy in London while also running Sheffield Theatres must...
Don Quixote rides again, and again
The RSC's stage version reaches the West End, while Terry Gilliam's film is stuck in a legal vortex |
First Person Plural: the Calidore String Quartet on music for their torn nation
How Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Janáček and Golijov speak for our troubled times |
Refreshing the sonic spectrum: disability and excellence in British orchestras
A musical evolution for the 21st Century |
More Blood, More Tracks review - Bob Dylan opens up
The fourteenth volume in the Bootleg Series is a keeper |
theartsdesk in Stockholm: the Birgit Nilsson Prize unites two great Wagnerian sopranos
Nina Stemme does honour to her compatriot, who would have been 100 this year |
Montserrat Caballé (1933-2018): from Bellini to 'Barcelona'
Glimpses of the Spanish soprano who could float a line like no other |
James Graham: 'the country of Shakespeare no longer recognises arts as a core subject'
Full transcript of the playwright's passionate speech about the importance of the arts at the Hospital Club's h100 Awards |
Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto: 'We figured Molière would have toyed with it too'
The co-adaptors of the RSC's new 'Tartuffe' talk about translating a French classic to our times now |
10 Questions for singer Live Foyn Friis
Charismatic Norwegian singer on her journey through genre |
'I read French from left to right and Arabic from right to left': remembering Algerian rebel rocker Rachid Taha
Recalling a night out drinking in Paris with the Algerian rocker who died this week |
Jeanie O'Hare: 'The play taught me how European we really are'
The playwright introduces 'Queen Margaret', her new play for the Royal Exchange, Manchester |
Sir Peter Hall: a day of thanksgiving and celebration for a colossus of culture
A year after his death, the great director was honoured by the stars at Westminster Abbey and the National Theatre |
'You won't be able to handle this lady': remembering Fenella Fielding
The vampish comic actress has died at 90 not long after receiving an OBE |
Like a baton out of hell: Conductors at the 2018 Proms
Chris Christodoulou snaps mostly men at work, but the women are coming |
'I saw that death is beautiful, unspeakable and strange': on filming 'Island'
Filmmaker Steven Eastwood introduces his documentary about the last moments of life |
theartsdesk in Cologne: urban boutique on the Rhine
c/o Pop festival clouded by uncertainties about Britain’s departure from the EU |
theartsdesk at the Suoni dal Golfo Festival - romantics shine in the Bay of Poets
A Liszt novelty proves worth revealing, while a fine pianist takes a castle by storm |
theartsdesk at the Lucerne Festival - all-Beethoven and all-Ravel concerts from the greatest
Haitink conducts an unearthly 'Pastoral' while Chailly ignites symphonic dances |
h 100 Awards: Art, Design and Craft - making art public
Showcasing the strength of British visual culture, and the people bringing it to public attention |
theartsdesk at bOing! International Family Festival - the best of European children's theatre
Visual and aural adventures at well-programmed weekend introduce the young to the arts |
Neil Simon: 'I don’t think you want it really dark'
The great technician of stage comedy, who has died at 91, recalls writing the likes of Sweet Charity and The Odd Couple |
h 100 Young Influencers of the Year: James Bingham on community choirs
The first of the four finalists in theartsdesk's award in association with The Hospital Club writes provocatively about a choral crisis |
'I wanted a juke box that plays nothing but flip-sides' - Jeremy Sams on The Enchanted Island
Creator of a 'new' Baroque opera anticipates British Youth Opera's takeover of a Met hit |
theartsdesk at Itinéraire Baroque 2018 - canaries in front of a Périgord altar
Distinguished Dordogne dweller Ton Koopman and friends meet in a Romanesque priory |
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