Music
Vivid nostalgia
The Cunning Little Vixen, Irish National Opera, Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sligo
Baroness Chakrabarti is living in a world of make believe
No, drill rap is not comparable to mafia films and country music songs
A cherishable dream
Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius (Hyperion)
An austere opera
Boris Godunov, Royal Opera
The end of UK drill
A genre based on sensational violence is simply fizzling out
Small chips off an old block
Soulima Stravinsky (Nimbus)
David Bowie was a political shapeshifter
The pop enigma veered between the far right and the right on
Adulterating Amadeus
A new series does an injustice to Mozart, Shaffer, Forman and TV in general
Expensive thrills
Turandot, Royal Opera
Bob Dylan and the mystery of traditional music
In becoming Bob Dylan, Robert Zimmerman entered a mysterious, invisible world
Most Read
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
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.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
Why do we hate industry?
Performative laissez-faire has been a failure. It’s time for a new policy
Don’t panic about “Angry Young Women”
Despite everything, most people are still fairly normal
The Real shooting match
Cue the bogus platitudes that leaders make about sport’s ability to heal divisions
It’s not a level pitch
Where did it all go wrong for Crystal Palace?
Tony Blair cannot escape politics
And our politics cannot escape from Tony Blair
A.E. Housman
The poet is less read than he once was but his deep love of England still resonates
Asset-stripping on campus?
Selling universities to private companies risks destroying their charitable purpose
Grin and bear it
Carelessness and frivolity sabotage any attempt at a serious discussion
Beauty from the ruins of war
Painting gave artists and their viewers a temporary way out of the grim wartime reality
These violent delights
Pagliacci made the murder the true apex of the show
Critical briefing: the Chişinău Declaration
Why the Chişinău Declaration is more of a symbolic gesture than a chance for real reform