Searching out lost musicals of yesteryear is rather like reading The Da Vinci Code. The long slog through banal lines and plod plotting is never rewarded by the ultimate revelation. This does not stop theatres from dusting off hits of the past, usually to pointless effect and occasionally to the point of self-implosion, as English National Opera discovered when it set Kismet in post-Saddam Baghdad. Anyone for car-bombs? Most musical theatre is, of its nature nostalgic. … [Read more...]
Out with the count
December 8, 2009 By
I was sorry to read this morning of the death of Otto, Count Lambsdorff, the former German economics minister. I met him briefly last summer at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, where he turned out, in visible discomfort, to share memories of his heady days in office. He had been summoned into government in the summer of 1977 after one of the executives at the bank he directed was kidnapped and murdered by the Baader-Meinhoff terrorist gang. He recounted the events of that … [Read more...]
Chewing up the critics
December 7, 2009 By
One lunchtime last week as I masticated a lonely calory, BBC Radio 4 announced a discussion on the role of the critic. Ears pricked and finger on the button (they usually have game shows at this time), I attended with the appropriate acuity - only to find that the lineup consisted of a non-specialist critic, a book blogger and a tenured academic. I'd heard enough in ten minutes to switch off, walk upstairs and finish a book. I'm past getting angry with the triviality of public media and … [Read more...]
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