Arts
Dazzled by Balanchine
A trio of dazzling scores, the soft clack of gemstones on hips and collarbones, a glittering parure of solos, duets…
Poetry in motion
Films can be poetry — or like poetry; or poetic, at least — but can poetry ever be film? That…
The future of Today
I wonder what Sarah Sands will do to Radio 4’s Today programme? She is the first editor in more than…
Bob Dylan: Triplicate
Having seen Bob Dylan play live a few years ago, I’m pretty sure he is not the first person I…
Blowing the bloody doors off
As we waited for curtain-up on Scottish Opera’s new production of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle a member of staff walked out…
Piers Lane
Cyclone Debbie caused the cancellation of the announcement ceremony in Townsville for this year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music but…
A woman of genius
‘Your favourite virtue?’ ‘I don’t have any: they are all boring,’ wrote the 21-year-old Camille Claudel in a Victorian album…
Home is where the art is
The house in which I lived in Tokyo was built by my landlady, a former geisha. It stood on a…
Age as allegory
Sky Atlantic — available only to Sky customers — has the cunning/infuriating policy of broadcasting the kind of programmes most…
Kill the DJ
Don Juan in Soho rehashes an old Spanish yarn about a sexual glutton ruined by his appetite. Setting the story…
Orb
Photographs of contemporary dance can look like advertisements for underwear; frequently the dancers seem to be clad in their knickers.…
Major to minor
Ghost in the Shell is the Hollywood live-action remake of the 1995 Japanese anime of the same name and it’s…
A word in your ear
Do you, or do you not, fork out for an audioguide — one of those necklace-like, strappy contraptions you’re offered…
Cut it out
How do you make a work of art? One method is to cut things up and stick them back together…
Ed’s diner
In a world where politicians can turn into newspaper editors and former newspaper editors can seize the most coveted job…
Rued awakening
It’s always promising when the orchestra won’t fit on the stage. For the UK première, some 97 years after it…
LA story
BREAKING NEWS: ‘Enjoyable play found at Royal Court.’ Generally, the Court likes to send its customers home feeling depressed, guilty,…
Oh! What a lovely Waugh
Jack Whitehall could have been perfectly awful as Paul Pennyfeather in Decline and Fall (BBC1, Fridays). He has spent most…
Death becomes her
Opera is littered with the bodies of abandoned women. Step over Dido and Gilda, and you’ll still stumble into Donna…
Hollywood goes East
It’s kind of surreal being here.’ The general sentiment, no doubt, of most people on planet Earth right now, but…
Bravura bling
There was a nasty sound of pens being sharpened last week as Royal Ballet runaway Sergei Polunin prepared to unveil…
Internal affairs
Over 20 years ago I wrote about Giambattista Tiepolo in The Spectator. Shortly afterwards I went to visit Howard Hodgkin…
Hide and seek
Two films for you this week, one of which is surprisingly good and one of which does not surprise in…
Going underground
When Wireless Nights hit the Radio 4 airwaves in the spring of 2012, I was not at all sure about…
Let’s hear it for the boys
Girls creator Lena Dunham has received criticism from all sides. Detractors on the right see her as an exhibitionist provocateur.…
