When the music stopped
A reflection on the inexorable decline of arts education and the rise of knee-jerk politics and managerialism
Royals in an online age
Can the royal mystique survive the glare of modern media?
Butchering La bohème
Opera is “relatable” already
Badmissions procedures
Putting decisions in the hands of non-specialist administrators fails students and universities
Against literary celebriphilia
We need interesting authors, not “big names”
Of course we need opera
Click-hungry editors should stop enabling philistinism
There is nothing wrong with rules
People can put down their phones for the duration of concert
The love that dare not speak its name
Classical music has been tarnished with the dread word “elitism”
Save St John’s Voices
The glorious tradition of British choral singing should be defended
When youth becomes period drama
The stakes feel very high when our younger years become the stuff of popular entertainment
The sadness of AI boyfriends
Technology can make romance frictionless and sterile
Cleaning up the town
As cities grew, so did the need for reform and sanitation
Borientalism
Madama Butterfly, Opera Ballet Flanders, Antwerp
Cities of the mind
19th century English towns live on in our collective imagination
It is good to challenge kids
That which makes us anxious can also make us strong
Cynical in Venezuela
The corruption and incompetence of its political system seeps into the soul
Why Ukraine almost certainly cannot win
And why the war is likely to continue anyway
Gifted children
How does one wrap a bank transfer?
Magic moments
A bomb dropped into the frightful world of mid-Victorian musical entertainment
Embrace your inner exile
How can we appreciate art in alienating times?
Graduation blues
On the sad decline of the British university
