The Critics
Have I seen the future of music?
On a performance in three dimensions for all five senses
Missing the point
Why opera needs fictional dead women
Rock benediction
Make-Up gig is a matter of performance
A novel collector
The legacy left by art collector and novelist Hugh Walpole
Back to Blackstuff
The Boys from the Blackstuff hit the stage in Liverpool
My war stories
The role of the war film in British cinema
Haunting Ghosts
Two timely dramatisations of espionage in the Middle East
Tove Jansson’s humane vision
A major Paris exhibition highlights timeless themes of the Finnish artist’s ouvre
Forever stuck in the nineties
Sarah Lucas and the sexual revolution that wasn’t
Frans Hals’ sense of fun
A delightful display of portraiture at the National Gallery
On the Cusk of austerity
A cerebral critic pleaser, a dramatic crowd pleaser, and a perennial favourite
En rama drama
Spanish wine helps one escape the misery and damp of Britain
Jane Austen versus virtue signalling
What Mansfield Park can tell us about contemporary politics
The National Trust should act its age
Our main heritage conservation charity wants to be down with the kids
Giving peace a chance
War has had its opportunity, and it has failed
How ideology threatens to corrupt science
Ideological censorship in science is antithetical to its purpose and its methods
Too measured for its own good
Lukas Foss: 1st symphony &c (Naxos)
Reject Naominomics
Ideas like Naomi Klein’s are bad for the economy (and for the environment)
This was a bad start to the week
More work for the BBC pronunciation unit
Rishi Sunak losing will be a blessed relief
The Conservatives should be put out of their misery
Do the arts need policy?
Decoupling creativity from policy might give art ambition again
