Opera
Shock of the new
People are terrified of modernity’s great gift: the sudden freedom to make appalling noise, says Robert Thicknesse
Cheer leaders
Opera unswervingly believes in the potential for a divine spark in humans, says Robert Thicknesse
Do not go gently
Opera has treated the subject of cancelling the pleasures of others in some depth
How about some vistas of beauty?
Covent Garden’s first post-lockdown offering is in a long, grim tradition
Sex tips from Semele
Opera was the tinder of Renaissance Venice, says Robert Thicknesse
Wagner, restless provocateur
Wagner’s sexual ambiguity spoke to Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley and Thomas Mann, says Norman Lebrecht
Met with disappointment: a quiet season for postmodern New York
Manhattan’s cultural landscape faces more tough times ahead with the cancellation of the Met’s 2020/2021 season
A grim chorus of philistines
Rishi’s £1.57 Billion handout to the arts sector is the last good news it’ll ever hear, says Robert Thicknesse
To the streets, via the Crush Bar
Robert Thicknesse on Opera
An opera critic in lockdown
The critic, like a used-up traveller in ladies’ corsetry in a Fifties film, is enjoying a happy furlough
The downfall of the podcast-industrial complex
How did some of our finest podcasters get the election so wrong?
The future that never came
Post-war London was saved from a modernist masterplan
We are missing the important point on procurement
Systemic dysfunction is far more important than individual failures
Perfect victims and a tale of two films
Don’t idealise victims — listen to them
The age of reason, sliced and diced
No historian wields Ockham’s razor more effectively than J.C.D. Clark
The nurseryfication of culture
Alienation has encouraged the normalisation of childishness
Fabian fry-up
After last night’s disco, a very hungover conference is ready for a hearty plate of social democracy
For Heaven’s sake, not Robert Jenrick
He’s the ideal candidate if you want the Conservatives to lose
The kindest of ghosts
A new history of childhood reading is a treasure
A passionate battler for buildings
A manichaean choice between the organic adaptation of old buildings and the beauty of the new
Procedural Man
The Process is good, the Process is correct, no matter what, trust the Process
