Gelding: the pros
Bring back the castratos? Might as well
Revolution in the air
Andrea Chénier, Royal Opera House
Bedlam bingo
Sex, death, sado-masochism and blasphemy in a heady cocktail
Loony tunes
Opera begs leave to celebrate lunacy in a different way
Lucia di Lammermoor, Royal Opera House
It’s an amazing paradox that something as tawdry as opera can produce such a pure expression of what it is to be human
We are the cultural Norns
Here, at last, is a mind-expanding podcast that is the antidote to everything the wretched Arts Council stands for
Off with the fairies
Unsurprisingly, the most brilliant of all English music-theatre pieces are mostly overlooked
Poor old Carmen
This update of a classic from the Royal Opera House is a reminder of why messing with great pieces is so risky
The grand tour
Sex and the cities
Operettas for the apocalypse
As we career merrily ever deeper into the end-times, what is the appropriate soundtrack for civilisational collapse?
“Nice” people need to read this book
How women have been hounded throughout the gender wars
The art of violence
High jinks in the Groucho Club are small beer when compared to the misdeeds of their artist ancestors
It’s a M.A.D. world in Kubrick’s satire
A drama based around the shaky paradox of deterrence no longer feels like a dusty throwback
Escaping the digital dark age
We cannot rely on digital media to preserve our art and knowledge
Farewell to Larry Siedentop
The great political philosopher, Oxford don, and sage defender of Western liberalism
Silk Road splendour
The bare plain is now home to a million souls, their mosques, cathedrals and some very exclusive hotels
Britain should get serious about organised crime
We underestimate how much crime is the work of small, nasty groups of people
The restless life of a very bourgeois rebel
Gauguin was not an artist who lent himself to categorisation
We are missing the important point on procurement
Systemic dysfunction is far more important than individual failures
The failure of the Irish nerve
Politicians are not acting and the public are not forcing them to act
Are all Christians monks?
George Guiver’s book exudes down-to-earthiness, bordering on irreverence
