I'm on my way down, heavily flu-stricken, to St Martin-in-the-Fields to read a poem by William Blake at the memorial service for my friend Ewen Balfour. Somehow, I don't think it's going to be a solemn occasion. With Ewen, it never was. Ewen was one of those people who made things work so well that you only noticed they were hanging by a thread when he stepped out of the frame. As director of public affairs at the Royal Opera House in the late 1980s he defused local opposition to the … [Read more...]
Bob’s blowing way off course
April 28, 2009 By
The reputation of Bob Dylan as poet and musician hangs by the thinnest of threads in the course of his UK tour. There were 200,000 applications for 2,000 Roundhouse tickets in the first hour they went on sale, but those who got left on the outside were not necessarily the unlucky ones. Dylan, 68, no longer playing guitar due to reported arthritis, banged a keyboard and mumbled his way through Tangled Up in Blue and other legacy numbers, adding little by way of musical development. His … [Read more...]
Twitter the opera
April 22, 2009 By
I'm having more fun than is probably legal summarising opera plots for The Omniscient Mussel's international contest. More, in fact, than is strictly within the rules since the contest doesn't open until next Monday. There is a measure of sanity to this madcap game. I hate convoluted opera plots and classical farces with characters hidden in shrubbery. Any opera that can't be summarised in 140 characters should never get onto a stage. Here's a couple of samplers, for starters: Salome: 'Bring me … [Read more...]
Worth seeing twice?
April 2, 2009 By
Six weeks ago, I saw Stephen Sondheim's earliest stage work in a pocket West End theatre and was so excited by it that I concluded the review by saying it was worth seeing twice. Needless to say, that observation went up in lights on the billboards and the show has since upgraded to a slightly less cramped space, the Arts Theatre. But the remark preyed on my consicence, so I decided to test whether the show was, indeed, worth seeing a second time. First time round, I … [Read more...]
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