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Paul Levy measures the Angles

A Slice of Life in Lockdown

March 31, 2020 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

The Amazon delivery guy rang the bell, then scampered off to safety behind the garden gate, a good distance, but not so far that he couldn’t hear and acknowledge my “thank you.” My wife is so far coping with her duties as a Parish Counsellor by attending meetings online. I am writing, as usual – all too-regular obituaries, entries for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and occasional … [Read more...]

Obituary Hugh Cecil

April 2, 2020 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

Search The Times and The Sunday TimesToday’s sections Past six daysM articlesTimes+My account RegisterOBITUARY Historian and biographer with a Bloomsbury background who unearthed forgotten writers of the First World War Thursday April 02 2020, 12.00am, The TimesBooksHistory Hugh Cecil had a special sympathy for the lost generation of young soldiers and writers of the … [Read more...]

The Young Rembrandt: not a prodigy

March 5, 2020 by Paul Levy 2 Comments

When you walk down one corridor in the current Ashmolean Museum’s exhibition of Young Rembrandt you see half a dozen tiny-to-small, though not quite postage stamp-size etchings, which are self-portraits of the twenty-something artist. My favourite of these is a posturing 1630 “Self-portrait in a cap, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.” You can just imagine how many hours it took of him looking in a … [Read more...]

She was just a Miller’s daughter: ENO revives a middle-period Verdi

February 22, 2020 by Paul Levy 1 Comment

The English National Opera company is having a tough old time. Its personnel keep changing, its huge building, the London Coliseum is a headache to maintain and fill, and its audience is too old. It has resorted to cast list handouts whose reverse patronises newcomers by telling them how to behave at the opera. And its big problem is its bone-head commitment to singing in English. With the … [Read more...]

From caftan to opera hat: the greatest living playwright takes on the Jewish bourgeoisie and its destruction

February 21, 2020 by Paul Levy 3 Comments

There’s something a bit ho-hum, mean and pinched about the reception of Sir Tom Stoppard’s new (and, he says, perhaps final play), Leopoldstadt. A minority has treated its opening this February in the 1899 Wyndham’s Theatre as a perfectly ordinary event, nothing special in the long history of the British theatre or, indeed, in the chronicles of theatre. This misses the significance, not of the … [Read more...]

Beckett: A bit of Rough at the Old Vic

February 5, 2020 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

For one reason or another, we hadn’t been to the Old Vic since the daft unisex loos were installed, and, said my wife, “Something else has changed.” It was very noticeable that the press night audience for the Samuel Beckett double-bill was much younger than when I last reviewed a production here: it is, of course, the “Harry Potter” effect. I am a Harry Potter virgin; but I can understand why the … [Read more...]

The Mystery/History of the Bottle in the Box

February 3, 2020 by Paul Levy 1 Comment

On Thursday, 23rd January, we had a small party at Millwood Farm. Though as it happened all our guests had our recovered good health to celebrate, that was not the reason for the gathering. Our excuse to dine on foie gras, tomato salad and burrata, and long-cooked shoulder of salt marsh lamb with borlotti beans from the garden, was to drink a special bottle, one that had been in my cellar for a … [Read more...]

How Brilliant Are My Friends, After All?

November 27, 2019 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

As I’ve relished all four volumes of the identity-mysterious Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, I was more than willing to sit through the four/five hour double-bill of the National Theatre’s production of My Brilliant Friend Parts One and Two – and today I’ve got the sore bum to prove I finished the drama marathon. I love Naples, from discovering its hardware-shop-front restaurants, to walking … [Read more...]

La guerre de Troie n’aura pas lieu, Or did it ever do anyway?

November 22, 2019 by Paul Levy Leave a Comment

Jean Giraudoux’ 1935 play’s title in English claims “The Trojan War Will Not Take Place,” but his tragedy’s use of the future tense is actually a denial of Cassandra’s prophecy – in the face of all the evidence that an even worse war was to begin shortly. For the sharp-witted French playwright the Homeric/Virgilian parallels were with the foibles, follies and bad faith of the intellectuals and … [Read more...]

Not Such A Little List

November 3, 2019 by Paul Levy 2 Comments

ENO revives Jonathan Miller's 1986 Mikado Despite some newsworthy casting, there don’t seem to have been many reviews of the current revival of Sir Jonathan Miller’s bankable production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado at the English National Opera. Which is a little odd, because the title part of the emperor of Japan is being sung by Sir John Tomlinson. It is the 50th operatic role sung … [Read more...]

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Paul Levy

is almost a citizen of the world, carrying the passports of the USA and the UK/EU. He wrote about the arts in general for the now-defunct Wall Street Journal Europe. [Read More]

Plain English

An Anglo-American look at what's happening here and there, where English is spoken and more or less understood -- in letters, the visual and performing arts, and, occasionally, in the kitchen or dining room. … [Read More...]

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  • Laura Hughes on Remembering Jaime Parladé, the Marquess who Made Marbella Chic: “We bought a furnished home remodelled and owned by Jaime in the Lot department in France in 2003. He had…” Jan 2, 13:34
  • Estel on Not Such A Little List: “Sir Jonathan Miller had nothing to do with Private Eye. This production was entirely based around the personality of Eric…” Dec 27, 02:01
  • JohnCook on Remembering Tony Staniland: “I should like to add to something I posted about Tony some time ago. After we were demobbed in 1951…” Aug 20, 21:08
  • Daniel Cooper on John Cornford, the tragedy of a faithful communist: “Hello Frances, I have just read your comment, and sympathise with it very much. Would you be interested in participating…” Apr 7, 14:38
  • Christopher Brown on The Young Rembrandt: not a prodigy: “Glad you enjoyed it, Paul.” Mar 9, 18:39
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An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Obituary Hugh Cecil
  • A Slice of Life in Lockdown
  • The Young Rembrandt: not a prodigy
  • She was just a Miller’s daughter: ENO revives a middle-period Verdi
  • From caftan to opera hat: the greatest living playwright takes on the Jewish bourgeoisie and its destruction

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