On Opera
Booze or muse?
Composers have been no slouches when it comes to the sauce
Gothic staging
The Turn of the Screw, Coliseum
Why can’t there be more vampires?
Bloodsucking, in various more or less metaphorical guises, is after all opera’s happiest place
Less than the sum of its parts
Eugene Onegin, Royal Opera
Borientalism
Madama Butterfly, Opera Ballet Flanders, Antwerp
A full Platée
A daring production of a daring work
Magic moments
A bomb dropped into the frightful world of mid-Victorian musical entertainment
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
Most Read
How religion shapes football fandom
The meaning of football is intertwined with the meaning of faith
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
Institutional feminism against women
The likes of Julia Gillard and Jess Phillips have enabled misogyny
Strange new world
A new art history hinges on a proleptic reading of Edwardian history
Antisemitism and the Islamic connection
Antisemitic sentiments in Islamic theology cannot be overlooked or obscured
The chairwoman of the board
A story driven at a whip-crack pace, pulsing with manic energy and nail-biting
The case for coal
We need more energy, quickly, and where else to get it from?
Murders for June
Bodies in Brighton and spies in Scotland are features of our first crop of summer murder mysteries
The return of a luxury lingerie brand
La Perla isn’t about the male gaze; it’s about feminine feel
The EU’s immigration asymmetry
Ten years on, the EU still hasn’t learned Brexit’s hard lesson on migration
Homes for Ukraine — and everywhere else
Why were some non-Ukrainians far more likely to enter Britain under a scheme meant for Ukrainians?
The promises of politicians
We are surrounded by lies, euphemisms and deceit
Beyond Carmen
Georges Bizet: The piano works (Hyperion)