Category: London
-
Quatuor pour la fin du temps at St John’s Smith Square review *****
Alban Gerhardt cello, James Ehnes violin, Jean Johnson clarinet, Steven Osborne piano St John’s Smith Square, 14th November Shostakovich – Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor Op. 67, Messiaen – Quatuor pour la fin du temps I don’t suppose Olivier Messiaen had any idea, when he composed his chamber…
-
Labour of Love at the Noel Coward Theatre review *****
Labour of Love Noel Coward Theatre, 15th November 2017 The Tourist is wracked with guilt. A couple of lovely women who were sat next to him asked his opinion at the interval as to whether James Graham’s Ink or Labour of Love was the better play. He said Ink. By…
-
Opera: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition at the V&A review ****
Opera: Passion, Power and Politics V&A, 13th November 2017 You can’t seem to navigate on t’Internet, (all right, the bit that isn’t hate, porn or celebrity, which doesn’t leave much), for confessionals from opera lovers telling you how they came to love the “queen”, or is it “king”, of art…
-
Jasper Johns at the Royal Academy review ***
Jasper Johns “Something Resembling Truth” Royal Academy of Arts. 10th November 2017 So here’s my theory. Sometime in the mid 1970s the real Jasper Johns was kidnapped by aliens and replaced with a cloned doppelganger. All the AI software was packed in but they forgot to prevent him from clicking…
-
Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle at Wyndham’s Theatre review ****
Heisenberg: The Uncertainty Principle Wyndham’s Theatre, 9th November 2017 Everyone’s at it. The “science” play. Science, whether directly through using theory to inform plot, or indirectly, often through the impact of ecological or other catastrophe, has underpinned many of the best new plays I have seen in the last couple…
-
Designs of the Year 2017 at the Design Museum review ****
Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 The Design Museum, 8th November 2017 If you have any interest in design you are probably on to this but, if not, you should be. This is the tenth year of the exhibition, now held in the basement of the Design Museum’s plush new…
-
Slaves of Solitude at the Hampstead Theatre review ***
Slaves of Solitude Hampstead Theatre, 8th November 2017 As this blog testifies I spend a lot of time in theatres, (too much I think), but the SO is far more circumspect in her choices. Occasionally, very occasionally, the SO’s desire to see a play, and her enjoyment thereof, outstrips mine. Slaves of…
-
Luciano Berio: London Sinfonietta at Kings Place review *****
Luciano Berio: Theatre of the World London Sinfonietta, Kings Place Choir, Jonathan Cross (presenter), John Woolrich (curator) Kings Place, 4th November Lucy Schaufer – mezzo-soprano Michael Cox – flute Darragh Morgan – violin Paul Silverthorne – viola Timothy Lines – clarinet Lucy Wakeford – harp Young violinists from Waltham Forest…
-
Scythians exhibition at the British Museum ****
Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia British Museum, 2nd November 2017 I have been bowled over by most of the recent exhibitions I have seen at the British Museum, covering the history of Sicily, the art of South Africa, US modernist art printmaking, (The American Dream at the British Museum review ****),…
At Home He Feels Like A Tourist 