Opera Review
Bane sailing
There’s got to be some sort of price to pay for being so fabulous
Can arias ever be the reel deal?
Most film adaptations have been pale imitations weighed down with charmless music
Tawdry tales
The Tales of Hoffmann, Royal Opera House
Good, mostly clean, fun
The Boys from Syracuse, Upstairs at the Gatehouse
A full Platée
A daring production of a daring work
Making art of the Holocaust
As dramatic opera, The Passenger inhabits a grey zone of guard–prisoner relations
Loony tunes
Opera begs leave to celebrate lunacy in a different way
Off with the fairies
Unsurprisingly, the most brilliant of all English music-theatre pieces are mostly overlooked
Operettas for the apocalypse
As we career merrily ever deeper into the end-times, what is the appropriate soundtrack for civilisational collapse?
Divine trickery
Jephtha, Royal Opera House
Most Read
A shameful Bill
Labour is spectacularly failing the British people on immigration
The hitch with the Hitch
How Christopher Hitchens brought me back to Christ
The ties that bind
A revived society tie has raised thousands for hedgehogs — and reminds us what Britain has lost with the decline of the club tie
Going Green
A day out with Zack Polanski and friends
Against Northernism
“Northernism” is a superficial form of cultural branding, not a serious political project
What is anger for?
If young women are going to be radical, they need to make it worth it
Britain in 1776
What does it mean to be living through history?
The problem with Palantir
The software company is attempting to redefine politics for the worse
Labour’s mercurial kingmaker
The eventful career of Josh Simons, the man who gave up his seat for Andy Burnham
Time for change?
A new book might overstate the durability of Trumpian politics
Dismantle the infrastructure of censoriousness
Digital technology and private intelligence are bolstering cultural censoriousness in universities
AI, religion and AI religion
Pope Leo is right to push back against the prophets of AI supremacy and AI doom
A step forward for academic freedom
It is time to take the fight to censoriousness in higher education
Right-wing fight night
A debate over the future of right-wing politics in Britain offered little heat and less light
All the single ladies
Instead of trying to persuade reluctant women into motherhood, policymakers should focus on helping enthusiastic parents have larger families
The judge’s verdict
Much of what is passed off as sport is no such thing