Digging for gold
La fanciulla del West, Opera Holland Park
Operatic satire is a Shaw thing
The old Art has an armoury of skunk-like defence mechanisms to keep the unwashed at bay
Restoration romps
Purcell, The Musical, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
These violent delights
Pagliacci made the murder the true apex of the show
Jolly boating weather
The Gondoliers, English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire
Mass hysteria
Sancta, Flanders Opera, Antwerp
Sexy sisters and holy hotties
Less Sister Simper, more Attila the Nun
Ring engagement
The Mash meets The Ring!
A show to make you afraid of the dark
Opera is the repository of everything crass and depraved in what is laughingly called European “civilisation”
When Kurt was better without Bert
Musical theatre forgets all but the smashiest hits from its past
Most Read
The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
Losing control of the narrative
The British establishment no longer sets the terms of public debate over migration
Grooming gangs and the truth
We should not give ammunition to deniers of the grooming gangs scandal
Babies need women
Leaving children with only men who are not their parents is foolish and dangerous
Stop ignoring the Islamisation of our democracy
The British state is bending to Islamism, not attempting to defeat it
Britain needs a moral core
The UK’s greatest vulnerability isn’t its weakened military but its lack of spiritual depth
Europe should defend itself
European states should invest more in their own defence, and the US should let them
By the by-elections
Do not expect major surprises or lasting change as a result of the latest Scottish by-elections
The limits of choice
Sometimes, we do know better than people who are harming themselves
The real problem with rigmarole
A journalistic focus on proceduralism distracts us from deeper political questions
Squeezing out your generation
New laws are harming, not helping, younger people
Illuminating shady corners of the soul
Chilling accounts of how men can be destroyed from within
Andy Burnham’s immigration double game
Andy Burnham might make sceptical noises about mass migration but they mean nothing in practice
One year later
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, the gender argument is not going anywhere
It is time for antidisestablishmentarianism
Church establishment is still worth fighting for
The Book of JO’B
James O’Brien’s aggressive incuriosity is becoming ever more embattled as his worldview crumbles