Archives for 2009

At the Royal Opera House (with one more performance, tonight [March 7] and a BBC Radio 3 broadcast on May 30) is one of the musically finest productions of Wagner's  Die Fliegenede Hollander I can remember. Bryn Terfel looks more like a Monty Python lumberjack than a sailor, let alone the Wandering Jew, but his singing of the role of the Flying Dutchman is so nuanced … [Read more...]

There's a lot of noise going on in London about the National Gallery's major show "Picasso: Challenging the Past." Some critics are cross because the London show, unlike its Paris avatar, does not display the Picasso pictures alongside the Old Masters they are "challenging," while others regret the absence of Picasso's contemporaries (viz., Matisse) being available for enlightening comparison. For … [Read more...]

Sometimes it's sheer laziness that keeps us from seeing the Royal Shakespeare Company's productions at their very best - in their Stratford-upon-Avon HQ - as it's only an hour's drive for us, less time than it takes us to drive to London. But I did catch up with the RSC's new "Taming of the Shrew," directed by Conall Morrison, at the Novello in London, and their new "Othello," directed by Kathryn … [Read more...]

  You have to wonder whether our culture is robust enough to survive the death of Jade Goody. Non-British readers probably need to be told that Ms Goody is the most repulsive, rebarbative result yet thrown up by our oxymoronic "celebrity culture." She's a 27-year-old who, in 2002, became notorious as the youngest contestant on the fatuous TV reality show "Big Brother." Despite the fact that … [Read more...]

  Does London have a category of theatre similar to "Off-Broadway"? I suppose you could argue that any show that doesn't originate in the commercial West End qualifies, except that most plays that begin in the several Arts Council-subsidised companies (whether London-based or regional) almost always have limited runs. So the idea of an Off-Broadway production as a commercial one with a … [Read more...]

  London's only paper, the Evening Standard, recently bought by the ex-KGB Russian billionaire, Alexander Lebedev, has had the prescience to send a reporter to survey the aftermath of the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The journalist found stagnant water and garbage in the diving pool, weeds growing through the walkways and dog mess in the site of the Olympic Village. That is the legacy left to … [Read more...]

  Usually I go to performances on their official opening nights, as they are normally the first time the press is admitted, and often the only performance for which the press office has an allocation of tickets. But sometimes that's not possible because of a clash, and, if you ask nicely, the press officer will find you seats sometime later. I've discovered that, especially in the case of … [Read more...]

This week has pointed up, for me and many of my colleagues, a category of critical judgement that all critics hate, the "oh dear" performance. You know exactly what I mean. It's what you say when someone asks you about a play, opera, ballet or concert for which you had high hopes and, usually, some special incentive to get a ticket - a director, actor, conductor, singer or dancer you rate highly, … [Read more...]

On Tuesday, January 27th, the UK Critic's Circle Drama Awards for last year will be announced. Here's a small, incomplete survey of what's happening on the London stage at the beginning of 2009. … [Read more...]

Michael Holroyd is my friend and, since 1972 (senior) partner in literary crime, when we were appointed co-literary executors of the Strachey estate by Alix, the widow of James Strachey, who was the last surviving sibling of Lytton. I plead my special interest here because I have hugely relished his new book, A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their … [Read more...]