What is a classical music critic doing at The Knife? We’re not supposed to frequent the coolest gigs in town. We’re supposed to sit in the capital’s concert halls, tut-tutting if a pianist is too glitzy, shaking our heads if a new opera is too wordy. We’re certainly not meant [...]
Getting into opera is one thing. But Wagner? That’s another matter altogether. So I’ve put together a five-point plan… 1. Clear your mind. Forget everything you know, or think you might or should know, about opera on the one hand and the extra-musical associations of Wagner on the other. Yes, [...]
Now and then a friend or colleague says to me: ‘I’d like to get into opera, but I don’t know how.’ There are certain things that opera can do that no other art form has managed to the same degree over about four centuries. That’s a long time. How do [...]
Sometimes we can’t see what is in front of our own noses. We need to step back and take in the bigger picture before whatever-it-is can make sense. And so the gigantic year-long festival The Rest is Noise at London’s Southbank Centre has launched at just the right time. It [...]
I suspect that, like many Londoners, I cope with the scale of my city by imagining its urban geography as series of interconnected villages. Where others see part of an impersonal alien metropolis,I see my local village with its familiar landmarks and comforting streets. My London village is Camden and [...]
Last week the Oxford Literary Festival screened BBC Arena’s recording of the National Theatre Tribute to Harold Pinter. Towards the end of the film Colin Firth gives Aston’s speech from The Caretaker. Hunkered down in a centre-stage armchair, Aston recalls being forcibly electrocuted by doctors in a mental institution. His speech [...]
It’s strange to be contemplating the 5th Anniversary of ‘Billy Elliot: The Musical’ at the same time as productions are about to open in Chicago and Korea. Seeing the Koreanboys on Youtube singing my songs in Korean was a truly surreal experience. In theatre you don’t expect things to last; [...]
When I was fifteen and wearing one of my father’s old shirts back to front in one of those secondary school Art lessons that facilitate conversation more than they facilitate artistic endeavour, I was in the middle of a monologue, on some subject of infinite interest to me and none to [...]