YOU CAN JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER
She has been dead for nearly forty years but there is no stopping her. The last book she wrote was her autobiography which came out posthumously in 1977. As far as I know there are no unpublished gems hiding in […]
EYEWITNESS NEARLY HITS THE MARK
MC gangs, a tentative teenage gay love story, a professional sharpshooter, an undercover infiltrator for a secretive police unit, a female detective, a criminal boss with international ties, his young daughter, a pedophile and a host of other more ’ordinary’ […]
SCHUBERT symphony no.9, 7…um 8 ? at BBC Proms
BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall, Friday 28 August 2015 prom 57 I have no idea “how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall” , but at the Chamber Orchestra of Europe’s recent BBC Proms concert (no.57) the hall was […]
WAGNER MUSEUM COMPLEX OPENS IN BAYREUTH
The 104th edition of the Bayreuth Festival has just kicked off with Christian Thielemann conducting Tristan und Isolde. Thielemann was recently appointed as the very first music director of the Bayreuther Festspiele. The opening night saw the usual procession of German celebrities, high nobility […]
GRUBEROVA REIGNS ONCE MORE IN MUNICH
ROBERTO DEVEREUX by GAETANO DONIZETTI Libretto: Salvatore Cammarano Bayerische Staatsoper, seen at the Nationaltheater in Munich, 15th of July 2015 Age is no hindrance, when you are singing. Placido Domingo is 74 years old and has during the last decade […]
ARABELLA’S ARCHAIC SMILE WINS HEARTS
ARABELLA by R. Strauss/H. von Hofmannsthal Seen at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich 14/07/2015 I have been racking my brain for a couple of days now, but I am pretty sure it is called an ‘archaic smile’. Anja Harteros’s lips […]
THE BEST OPERATIC HAIRCUT AROUND
SAMSON ET DALILA by CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Seen at Grange Park Opera June 24, 2015 The story, taken from the Book of Judges, about a classic haircut is well-known. We are all familiar with that sinking feeling and loss of potency […]