Opera
Not mad for it
I Puritani, Royal Opera, Covent Garden
Tasty tunes
The Chocolate Soldier, Opera della Luna, Wilton’s Music Hall
Digging for gold
La fanciulla del West, Opera Holland Park
Jolly boating weather
The Gondoliers, English Touring Opera, Hackney Empire
Mass hysteria
Sancta, Flanders Opera, Antwerp
Sexy sisters and holy hotties
Less Sister Simper, more Attila the Nun
A show to make you afraid of the dark
Opera is the repository of everything crass and depraved in what is laughingly called European “civilisation”
When Kurt was better without Bert
Musical theatre forgets all but the smashiest hits from its past
Vivid nostalgia
The Cunning Little Vixen, Irish National Opera, Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sligo
All’s fair in love
Così fan tutte, English National Opera, Coliseum
Most Read
Tame Impala fails to impress
unconquered by a
taste of Crusader food
Gary Stevenson is wrong about wealth taxes
The popular economist is irritating, but more importantly he is mistaken
What is wrong now was wrong before
Julia Gillard should not pretend that the “unintended consequences” of the gender debate were unknowable
Why they hated Ann Widdecombe
Fair-minded people could agree or disagree with her opinions. Left-wing bigots hated her for not abandoning them
Ethnic minorities are abandoning Labour
It is not just Muslim voters who have been abandoning the Labour Party
It’s time to see Brexit through
The next government must finally drag Britain out of the European Union’s tractor beam
Censors create martyrs
Starmer has stumbled onto the fastest way to increase Hasan Piker’s audience
The right-wing case for social media
X and other platforms can be vital sources of unfashionable information and dissenting opinions
The miracle of the magical migrants
Is a man’s identity is fluid when he steps on British soil, but calcified on African soil?
A day out at Unite the Kingdom
Tommy Robinson’s latest demonstration was a peculiarly hammy affair
From triple lock to price caps
Opinium polling for The Critic reveals the totemic pension policy has entrenched a politics that demands control over growth
From the Desk of Lord Kronsteen
When a sketchwriter faces awkward questions, only a billionaire’s dictated letter of support will do
We must save the right to smoke
Liberals must not put down the sword against paternalism
Spectres of folk
Can the gallery embrace unofficial culture?
Farewell to a gentle jazz-lover
Scholarship trumps zealotry, particularly when it is veiled by modesty
The man who knew too little
Faced with Mandelson, Starmer offers a bold defence: he didn’t know, and that’s what makes him blameless