Opera
L’Amour de loin is a strange concoction by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho; a 12th century love story played out at a distance between France and Lybia. The music is hypnotic in a Debussy-like way and the staging by a Swiss Italian better known for circus spectacles by Cirque Eloize and Cirque du Soleil includes a [...]
Archive for July, 2009
The Rest of July
Posted in Art, Classical Music, Contemporary Music, Film, Opera, Photography, tagged Opera, Art, Classical Music, Film, Contemporary Music, Photography on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Black Album
Posted in Theatre on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The best thing about this is Tim Hatley’s design. Otherwise, it’s all rather pointless.
Why on earth did a writer as good as Hanif Kureshi rehash a 20-year old novel about islamic fundamentalism at the time of the Satanic Verses affair to make a dull play when the subject matter is ripe for a more relevant [...]
Three More Sleepless Nights
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This Carol Churchill revival is better than her more recent minimalist work, but it’s rather lost in the Lyttleton. It belongs in the Cottesloe, or even better Soho or Bush theatres.
Individually, the three short realistic scenes of couples in bed at night talking or rowing are intriguing, but added together they don’t really make a [...]
The Sound of Music – on tour
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on July 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This was the opening night at Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff. Connie Fisher is back as Maria, but the rest of the cast is new and the production has been scaled down (for smaller theatres later in the tour, rather than the vast WMC). In case you’re wondering why I made the 300-mile round-trip, I’ [...]
Forbidden Broadway
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This musical revue spoofs just about every Broadway / West End musical of recent years. There’s only one that’s not been on Broadway (Priscilla) and one not (yet) in the West End (Legally Blonde), so the tile is a bit misleading.
Though I think it pulls more punches in the first half than the second, it really is [...]
Waiting for Godot
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on July 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Though it’s the third or fourth time I’ve seen this play, I still don’t have much of a clue what its about!
This particular production is lighter and funnier, with lots of references to music hall and comedians like Max Wall, Charlie Chaplin and Morecombe & Wise and a set which is in part a dilapidated playhouse.
But [...]
Lucca & the Puccini Opera Festival
Posted in Opera, Travel, tagged Opera on July 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Staying in Lucca, this became much more than a visit to an opera festival. We spent the days wandering inside and on the ancient city walls, followed by a late lunch and an afternoon nap (well me, anyway!) before later heading off to Torre del Lago for three nights of consecutive operas in descending death [...]
Manchester International Festival blog
Posted in Architecture, Art, Classical Music, Contemporary Music, Design, Film, Opera, Theatre, tagged Architecture, Art, Classical Music, Contemporary Music, Design, Film, Opera, Theatre on July 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is only the second MIF. The first, two years ago (it’s biennial), had one big coup – Damon Albarn / Jamie Hewlett’s ‘opera’ Monkey. This one has lots!
My visit started with It Felt Like A Kiss, a site specific installation / film / journey from Punchdrunk. This is the fourth of their shows I’ve [...]
Damn Yankees
Posted in Theatre on July 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s end-of-year musicals are always great fun and fantastic value for money.
Damn Yankees is a preposterous tale of a middle aged baseball fan who sells his soul to the devil to become a young baseball star and send his team, the Washington Senators, to the top of the league [...]
Phedre
Posted in Theatre on July 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I always think a Greek tragedy has been a success if you leave the theatre emotionally drained, and that was not the case here. As much as I admired the performances, design and staging, it left me rather cold.
I think I like my Greek tragedy ‘neat’ (simply translated from the original). Here it’s gone through [...]
