Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle, Barbican
Simon Rattle’s Sibelian journey has been long and fruitful and has taken him all the way from Birmingham to Berlin and more particularly the revered Philharmonic where the spaces between the notes now resonate in extraordinary ways…
A Conversation With PATRICIA HODGE
Patricia Hodge is one of Britain’s most popular and versatile actresses. Her distinguished career on stage, film and television ranges from Shakespeare to comedies and modern classics. Her most recent stage appearance was in the West End…
A Little Night Music, Palace Theatre
Can it really be 40 years since Sondheim’s waltzy, nostalgia-flecked, fancy first intoxicated our senses with its promise of indiscretion and insatiable desire? But that’s the thing, isn’t it – every Sondheim piece feels brand new on…
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Playhouse Theatre
It’s true that there is something wildly, garishly, theatrical about Pedro Almodóvar’s films – none more so than this rampant farce – but it’s equally true that their sensibility is far removed from what the English might…
The Grand Tour, Finborough Theatre
Everything about this little-known and largely forgotten show – including the title – suggests epic. Multiple locations, ambitious concept, big ideas. But like so much of Jerry Herman’s work – and the received wisdom on it is…
A Conversation With DAME JANET BAKER
Every now and again – but only very rarely – a professional engagement comes along that is so personal, so loaded with treasured associations, that it transcends all normal parameters and takes on a significance all of…
Assassins, Menier Chocolate Factory
Santa Claus does make it to the Menier Chocolate Factory this Christmas but his name is Sam Byck and he plans to fly a 747 into the White House and “incinerate Dick Nixon”. So not the Christmas…
A Conversation With RENÉE FLEMING
Renée Fleming, as part of Ms Fleming’s Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Opera Studies at the University of Oxford, November 2013. The discussion flowed from Edward’s opening question: ‘What makes now a different time to be a singer…
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Nézet-Séguin, Royal Festival Hall
Music lovers invariably divide into two faction over the Brahms piano concertos: those who thrill to the elemental D minor and those who prefer to bask in the more reflective charms of the sumptuous B-flat Second Concerto.…
Memphis, Shaftesbury Theatre
It’s throwback week with two very different shows recalling the darkest days of America’s racial disharmony – but where The Scottsboro Boys shocks and satirises and has us choke on our own laughter Memphis is content to…
