It’s an amazing time for diversity of style in “musicals” on both sides of the pond. Hamilton’s hip-hop, street poetry, storytelling, David Yazbek’s middle-eastern infused charmer The Band’s Visit, Jeanine Tesori’s Fun Home (newly arrived at London’s Young Vic while her dazzlingly original Caroline Or Change plays at the Playhouse Theatre).
It’s never too late to play music for pleasure…
I write a lot about the performing arts I watch other people engaging in. Last week, for a change, it was my turn. I went to Benslow Music in Hitchin for three days – for the sixth or seventh time and immersed myself in string quartets for three days. It was my birthday on the […]
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OPERA: PASSION, POWER & POLITICS – Victoria & Albert Museum ★★★★★
Opera: Passion, Power and Politics is a vast and exhilarating exhibition which explores the complex and beautiful history of opera as well as its power to affect us all. In collaboration with the Royal Opera House, the exhibition examines seven operas both in the context of the composer’s lives and the cities and countries they were originally performed in.
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra / Chailly – Barbican
There’s an old conductor’s adage which suggests that the only way safe to start Strauss’ Don Juan is to start before the applause has died – that way no one hears any imperfections in the upward rush of strings. Remembering those words made me smile as Riccardo Chailly and his magnificent Leipzig orchestra lept as one from the starting blocks, stretching every sinew of Strauss’ youthful tone poem as if the imperative of the piece was directly proportionate to the Don’s sexual prowess.
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