Journalist, photographer and social commentator.
Is La Damnation de Faust an opera, an oratorio, a dramatic legend, or a symphony for four soloists, chorus and children’s choir? Hector Berlioz himself intended it for the concert hall, famously describing it as “an opera without décor or […]
The Czech Philharmonic has started its touring schedule for its 131st season with two concerts in Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen (25-26 August). The Helsinki Festival is next. Under the baton of the world renowned Chief Conductor and Music Director Semyon Bychkov, the […]
Puccini’s Tosca is pure 19th century pulp fiction. It is an irresistible, shabby, shocking – according to the critics of the day– little melodrama that hints at political tyranny and social upheaval. With a cast featuring a sadistic, sex-obsessed police […]
Glyndebourne’s production of Richard Srauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s mash-up opera Ariadne auf Naxos is an absolute treat for the ears. The singers, the conductor and the orchestra are nearly all of a very high standard, crowned by Alina Wunderlin’s […]
Tate Modern’s latest exhibition, Frida: the Making of an Icon, features (only) 30 of Kahlo’s own oil paintings as well as works by her husband, Diego Rivera, and several of her Mexican contempories. The second part of the show displays […]
The set for Act I of Garsington Opera’s revival of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier is dominated by a large, canopied four-poster bed, with the curtains drawn. Rather than a traditional overture; the opera opens with an introduction (Einleitung) that, as […]
An upside-down apostle, a head colossal, a crucified Christ in paint, a beaten and bound saint, a lamb readied for slaughter, a rose and a cup of water: these are a few of my favourite things in the National Gallery’s […]
Jack White. You probably only know him as a superb songwriter and musician: drummer, guitarist, founder member of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather. And not to forget, The Upholsterers. But there is more to Jack Antony […]
The versatility of Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965) knew few bounds. While he was first and foremost a towering statesman, he could have found success in any number of other disciplines. His stories about his ¨Indiana Jones-like¨ capers in the […]
Gustav Mahler was a Bohemian by birth, but the family moved to Iglau in Moravia when he was only a few months old. It was a largely German-speaking town, and Mahler never learned to speak Czech very well. For Mahler, […]
Cádiz is situated on a narrow peninsula that you approach on a road flanked by wetlands, beaches and water. The alternate access, via Puerto Real, is the Constitution of 1812 Bridge – one of Europe’s longest. Whichever way you enter, […]
In his short life, Georges Seurat (1859 – 1891) finished approximately 45 oil canvases. Just over half of these were created during his visits to the Channel coast. Seurat’s seascapes, however, seldom receive the attention they deserve when displayed alongside […]