On Opera
It’s not for kids
Children are always unwelcome in Opera, except in The Magic Flute
Pulp Puccini
Having the hots for Tosca
Ship of fools
A summer of ecstatic, eccentric and not-so-operatic audiences at opera fringe
Pity and terror
A powerful, moving adaptation of Puccini
Verdi shines, despite everything
A gloomy production of a glittering opera
Music to die for
The elegant narrative solution of suicide has had no greater cheerleader than opera
Ethics men
Opera directors are utilising programme books to purvey their moral and ethical wisdom
Joyous adventures in the absurd
A new performance of a Janacek opera takes one to the moon and back
Getting wrecked
Dame Ethel Smyth’s opera dated quickly, but it hardly hurts to have another look at it
The original, best and shortest English opera
John Blow, Venus and Adonis; Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas (HGO)
Beware of the K-Hype
The strange state of the States
Gambling gifts
New reports on Labour and political donations miss the point
What does it mean to be Christian?
We are in danger of reducing faith to the shallow depths of personality and politics
Anti-extremism or opportunism?
The UK government should be more careful to distinguish criminal activities from legitimate opinion
EDI corrodes the rule of law
Embedding EDI in the work of barristers makes for bad law, not a good society
Equality for some
Labour is continuing a misguided approach to DEI
Office politics
There’s the joker, the slacker, and the bloke who just got fired
Who are the Scottish Conservatives?
The election of Russell Findlay to lead the Scottish Conservatives reveals a party that doesn’t know what it stands for
Digital killed the analogue man
Despite the seductions of the virtual, we can’t escape our bodies
The Critic guide to glass ceilings
On the self-made men (and women!) of the Labour Party
Israel’s forever war
Netanyahu risks dragging his country and his allies into an open-ended regional conflict
