The Critics

“Between you and me…”

On the Stage
Ring up the new

The most expensive post-war work sold last year fetched just over $91 million. The most expensive Old Master sold for $21.5 million

On Art
Tapping into history

As soon as you enter Idagio.com you can kiss your working day goodbye

On Music
She’s not the messiah…

Watching Greta Thunberg and the hysterical devotion she arouses, I am reminded of Judaism’s best-known self-styled redeemer

On Television
A belly full of agitpropera

Opera really doesn’t need the help of activist directors when it comes to politics — it’s all there already

On Opera
Non-nose job

In a free reworking of “Cyrano”, it takes pizzazz to rewrite French alexandrines in the manner of Eminem

On Theatre
The toughest role

The most successful modern actor-director, Clint Eastwood, rejects “the auteur crap”

On Cinema
Swedish smorgasbord

On the Stage
Right-on cue

As usual, the Academy flagellates itself over insufficient African American Oscar contenders

On Cinema
Charlie’s cardboard feminists fall flat

Bad jokes, no chemisty, lame action: the snoozathon that’s not woke enough

On Cinema