Curiously inconsequential
Rodelinda, at Garsington Opera, lacks real attention to character or relationship
Bonfire of the vanities
The Covent Garden Semele uses the bad-faith tricks of the director’s shabby trade
Wagner saga just keeps on giving
Richard Wagner, it appears, had Nazism thrust upon him
Bum deal
The Queen of Spades, Garsington
The Merry Widow’s peak operetta
Who should we blame for art admired by monsters?
Family matters
Jephtha, Il Pomo d’Oro, Barbican
Desert love songs
Giulio Cesare, The English Concert, Barbican
Dogme drama Festen adapted for stage
How gratuitous would everyone would have found this if the film had never existed?
Bring back the song-and-dance men
The brilliance of an overlooked generation of 18th century English music makers
Bane sailing
There’s got to be some sort of price to pay for being so fabulous
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
Game of Thrones star steals the show
Steal, Amazon Prime’s enthralling new six-part financial crime thriller
The problem with price freezes
Freezing prices is not half as simple (or cheap) as politicians often think
What the reparations debate says about Britain
Social and ideological shifts mean that we face an increasingly divided future
The meaning of Zack Polanski
The icon of geriatric millennials is one of life’s drifters
“You can’t preach here!”
A hostile attitude towards preaching threatens freedom of religion and freedom of speech
Restore the King James Bible
Those who are opposed, please consider, in the bowels of Christ, whether you may be mistaken
We must save the right to smoke
Liberals must not put down the sword against paternalism
Reclaiming Christian nationhood
Linking the Christian faith to our national identity is not radical (or American)
A memo crying in the wilderness
Why does the Church of England now sound like an HR department?
The next chapter for The Critic
A request — and an opportunity!
Literary freedom is in the gutter
The disappearance of a praiseful review for a “cancelled” writer is as disturbing as it is bizarre