On Opera
The geopolitical prescience of Handel
On opera’s flirtation with current affairs
Divine trickery
Jephtha, Royal Opera House
Passionate subjectivity
La traviata, ENO, Coliseum
Missing the point
Why opera needs fictional dead women
Content warning
On triggering opera and Arts Council England
High-octane despair
Das Rheingold, Royal Opera House
Bad-boy opera
Tosca, Grand Opera House, Belfast
The cat in a hat
A colourful glimpse into a dramatic feast of sex and death
Why it’s time to drop Don Giovanni
Mariame Clément’s new production of Don Giovanni falls prey to modern mores.
The enemy of the Civil Service is my friend
Conservatives should hope that Keir Starmer can weaken its grip on British policy
Chill message of Booker shortlist
The contempt of publishers for middle-class life and values is diminishing the novel
Some picture-perfect restorations
What we were seeing looked as good as it would have at its premiere
Fiddling while Canterbury burns
The new proposals from the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice are depressingly wrongheaded
Why has Tehran released Toomaj Salehi?
The regime is said to be split over whether to target high-profile protesters
The dark underbelly of the sex industry
Advocacy for the idea of sex work has not been matched by advocacy for the exploited
Don’t marry your cousin
And don’t knock culture wars — they can save lives
Trump: Post-Modernist?
The former — and future? — president has an awkward but interesting relationship with the truth
Wanted: a plan to reform the NHS
No serious party can sit out the ideological battle over the remorseless rise in public spending, including on health
A rebel advance in Syria is nothing to cheer
You don’t have to sympathise with Assad to think that the alternative would be worse
The sorry strategy
Reparations are a deeply dangerous strategy in the carnivorous world of geopolitics
