Opera
Pity and terror
A powerful, moving adaptation of Puccini
Verdi shines, despite everything
A gloomy production of a glittering opera
Music to die for
The elegant narrative solution of suicide has had no greater cheerleader than opera
A madman’s guide to Wagner
You don’t have to be crazy to enjoy Wagner, but it helps
Ethics men
Opera directors are utilising programme books to purvey their moral and ethical wisdom
The dead city
Romanticism rising from the rubble
Joyous adventures in the absurd
A new performance of a Janacek opera takes one to the moon and back
Getting wrecked
Dame Ethel Smyth’s opera dated quickly, but it hardly hurts to have another look at it
Wagner rides again
A return to enchanted tradition in Siegfried at Longborough Festival Opera
The original, best and shortest English opera
John Blow, Venus and Adonis; Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas (HGO)
Two-tier justice in Northern Ireland
Why do only some killings deserve investigation?
Death on demand?
Euthanasia offers only bad choices to the most vulnerable patients
Twitter has always been toxic
Bluesky is a reminder of an earlier form of smug spitefulness
Pandæmonium
Better to reign in hell than serve in government
Only the truly privileged can be cultural relativists
It is easy not to judge appalling cultural practices from a distance
The esoterica trap
We should not pollute good causes with unreliable information
Is Donald Trump the new Hillary Clinton?
His campaign is failing to reach out to enough voters
Light in the darkness
In conversation with Nigel Biggar about his career and the work of the Pharos Foundation
Murders for October
Tales from the gothic to the macabre
The age of reason, sliced and diced
No historian wields Ockham’s razor more effectively than J.C.D. Clark
Look on our works, ye voters, and despair
Nothing beside remains except the colossal wreck of the Tory Party
