On Opera
Domesticating Wagner
A new production of Die Walküre is at odds with its music
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?
Bane sailing
There’s got to be some sort of price to pay for being so fabulous
Can arias ever be the reel deal?
Most film adaptations have been pale imitations weighed down with charmless music
Opera as it should be
This, at last, is what the English National Opera is for
Feminist rehab for mean girl Mahler
You’d have thought the Head Muse of old Vienna had enough on her plate
Tawdry tales
The Tales of Hoffmann, Royal Opera House
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The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
Why has Keir Starmer been so unpopular?
He was the perfect embodiment of a failing system
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
Warm home, wrong decision
Ministers are once again choosing the most politically convenient response to rising energy costs, not the most effective one
Fair vs free elections
The grey zone between interference and counter-interference is becoming Europe’s new political frontier
Wunderbar wines
The love affair between British and German wine is an ancient one
Sir David Attenborough at sea
RRS Sir David Attenborough is a ship worthy of the great man’s name
Questioning Islam should not be policed
Luke Salmons’s legal victory should lead to a change in police culture
A range of Stratford anecdotes
The Walliams dilemma
Whip smart
Threatening the whipping system would be alarmingly stupid
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
The missing variable in the masculinity crisis
The literature on masculinity ignores the most obvious factor of all: a steady, civilisational fall in testosterone
Publishing has an AI problem
From reviews to actual books, creativity is being outsourced to machines
Against the scolding mob
MPs have helped to create the puritanism that is now coming for their drinks