Birdsong, Comedy Theatre, London’s West End, September 2010
Posted on 28 September 2010It’s not easy to turn this story — about human anguish occasioned by the First World War — into a screenplay, nor indeed a play for the stage.
Monthly Archives: September 2010
Stephen Fry: Wagner and Me, cinema screening, September 2010
Posted on 27 September 2010“You stand waiting hours for a Valkyrie and then they all come at once”. So quips Stephen Fry in a studio at Bayreuth with four Valkyries in rehearsal. Bayreuth is the small town in Bavaria where Wagner built his own opera house, and in this delightful documentary we learn how he acquired the money for …
All My Sons, Apollo Theatre, London’s West End, September 2010
Posted on 26 September 2010David Suchet, Zoë Wanamaker, and the others were so natural, I believed all the emotions I saw on display, and Miller’s play has a deft logic that packs a huge emotional punch.
The Rivals, Richmond Theatre, September 2010
Posted on 22 September 2010How do you play a character who has given her name to a word in the Oxford dictionary? Sincerely rather than as a caricature is what Penelope Keith gave us in her elegantly intelligent and sharply drawn portrayal of Mrs. Malaprop. It was a glowing performance, very well supported by Peter Bowles as an irascibly …
The Makropulos Case, English National Opera, ENO at the London Coliseum, September 2010
Posted on 21 September 2010Emilia Marty, Ellian MacGregor, Eugenia Montez, Elsa Müller, Ekatěrina Myškin, all E.M., just like her original name Elina Makropulos. This beautiful woman, born in Crete to Hieronymos Makropulos, is now 339 years old but has not aged since she was 39.
Faust, English National Opera, ENO at the London Coliseum, September 2010
Posted on 19 September 2010Overall some lovely singing from Toby Spence and Melody Moore, but I left feeling underwhelmed.
In the Penal Colony, Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House, September 2010
Posted on 16 September 2010The music was rhythmically intense, as one would expect from Glass, and its energy carried the strange plot forward.
The Master Builder, Chichester, Minerva Theatre, September 2010
Posted on 16 September 2010“No, I can’t take it anymore” says Knut Brovik, an old architect who now works for Halvard Solness, the Master Builder.
Blood and Gifts, National Theatre, NT Lyttelton, September 2010
Posted on 14 September 2010On September 9th, 2001 Ahmed Shah Massoud (aka The Lion of Panjshir) was assassinated by two suicide bombers — Al Qaeda agents posing as journalists. Two days later more suicide bombers crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The rest is history, as they say
Don Pasquale, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, September 2010
Posted on 13 September 2010It’s wonderful fun, and this Jonathan Miller production is a delight …