\nagainst him, which grew over his stand on the Iraq war, was wrong. Hitch is a
\nhero. He has cheerfully faced down adversity, shown quiet courage (the best
\nkind), and blown a cerebral raspberry to the god-bothering brigade who
\nanticipate a death-fearing conversion to their childish theism. I wish him
\nwell, and I wish I’d always done so, as his example teaches me more about
\nliving a worthwhile life than (to quote Lytton Strachey) Mr Jehovah, Mr Jesus
\nor any of their prophets or disciples.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span>What <\/span>One <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thinking about the year that is almost gone, I realise that I have changed my mind about a few things. The first – but foremost – is Christopher Hitchens. I’ve seen a couple of interviews he’s done since having treatment for his nasty cancer, and I’ve read, with great pleasure, his memoir Hitch 22. I knew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-bR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nelse have I been wrong about? Well not about Lord Lloyd Webber’s Love Never Dies<\/i> (or, as we still think
\nof it, despite his rewrite, Paint Never
\nDries<\/i>). It was too feeble to go to Broadway, and though I haven’t seen it
\nagain (and don’t plan to, thanks) I’d be very surprised if it crosses the
\nAtlantic even wearing its new clothes. Is it the worst thing I’ve seen all
\nyear? Probably.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.eno.org\/__assets\/asset3109.jpg\")
<\/span>![\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/localhost\/Users\/paullevy\/Library\/Caches\/TemporaryItems\/msoclip\/0\/clip_image002.jpg?resize=272%2C237\")
<\/span><\/p>\n
\nof the best, though unreviewed by me in the day job, was English National
\nOpera’s A
\nDog’s Heart<\/a><\/i> by the Russian composer Rastakov – though the real point of
\nit was the raucously imaginative expressionist staging by Complicit\u00e9, complete
\nwith puppets and multiple voices playing the title role. My Russianist
\ngoddaughter tells me that Mazzonis’ libretto is fairly true to the original
\ntale by Bulgakov. Director Simon McBurney’s production had the good or ill
\nfortune to be reviewed by a lot of non-specialists who were rude about the
\nmusic. Unfairly, I thought, as the score was full of quotations that added
\ngreatly to the fun, and was not as difficult to listen to as one or two of my
\ntheatre-critic colleagues insisted. You have to wonder whether a production as
\nexpensive as this, with its big band, huge cast and elaborate sets can be
\nrevived. You have to hope so. Was this the ENO’s best effort in 2010? Yes,
\nprobably, though I enjoyed the new Pearlfishers<\/a><\/i>
\na good deal more than most of my colleagues, and was one of the few critics who
\nreally liked Rufus Norris’ Don
\nGiovanni<\/a><\/i>. I note that Jonathan Miller’s production of The
\nMikado<\/a><\/i> will celebrate its 25th<\/sup> anniversary at ENO on
\nFebruary 26. As I have an anniversary of my own that day, I probably won’t be
\nthere to applaud Sir Jonathan; but don’t you think it might have been
\nappropriate to mark this milestone by commissioning the great man to direct
\nanother production? After all, this, and his La
\nboh\u00e8me<\/a><\/i> and Rigoletto<\/a><\/i>
\nhave kept the house solvent through many a year.<\/span><\/p>\n