Arts
What was Neil Armstrong like? A complete bore if First Man is anything to go by
Damien Chazelle’s First Man is a biographical drama that follows Neil Armstrong in the decade leading up to the Apollo…
Pinter comes across as an eccentric lightweight scribbler: Pinter Two reviewed
Pinter Two, the second leg of the Pinter season, offers us a pair of one-act comedies. The Lover is a…
The new Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker is a delight – but the script isn't
You won’t be aware of this because the BBC has been keeping it very quiet. But the new Doctor Who…
Why Mayerling is a #MeToo minefield
Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling is a #MeToo minefield. Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary is a serial seducer, a man of many…
I genuinely liked Siegfried – which almost never happens: Royal Opera's Ring cycle reviewed
‘On Brünnhilde’s rock I drew the breath that called your name; so swift was my journey here.’ It’s Act Two…
What’s not to like about Christine and the Queens? Her music
Grade: B– Ooh goody — a parade to rain on! You wouldn’t believe the hyperbole expended by the rock critics…
Bellini vs Mantegna – whose team are you on?
Laura Freeman on Mantegna and Bellini, two brothers-in-law whose contrasting art pitched drama against devotion
After 1980 Pinter began to write like a student troll: Pinter at the Pinter reviewed
The drop-curtain resembles a granite slab on which the genius’s name has been carved for all time. The festival of…
Impeccably – and intriguingly – unclear: BBC1’s The Cry reviewed
It’s a radical thought I know, but I sometimes wonder what it would be like if a new TV thriller…
![A woman-child of dangerous assurance: Allison Cook as Salome in Adena Jacobs’s new production for English National Opera. [Catherine Ashmore]](https://spectator.imgix.net/content/uploads/2018/10/6Octopera.jpg?auto=compress,enhance,format&crop=faces,entropy,edges&fit=crop&w=410&h=275)
A fascinating failure, but a failure nonetheless: ENO’s Salome reviewed
Yes, Oscar Wilde never wrote it. No, Strauss didn’t intend it. In fact, the composer famously demanded the Dance of…
Lady Gaga is a revelation: A Star is Born reviewed
This version of A Star Is Born, starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, is the fourth iteration (Janet Gaynor and…
A week of extraordinarily direct and honest radio on the World Service
The most inspiring voice on radio this week belongs to Hetty Werkendam, or rather to her 15-year-old self as she…
William Forsythe on the day the US government threatened to arrest him
Emma Byrne meets the choreographer who has done more than any other to push the limits of what ballet might be
No one would want this gig to be the final memory of them: Soft Cell at the O2 reviewed
When Soft Cell first appeared on Top of the Pops in summer 1981, miming along to their version of Gloria…
Brett Anderson on fame, fear and hitting 50
Brett Anderson talks to Michael Hann about fame, fear and hitting 50
There's almost nothing in this Hayward show – and that's the point
A reflection on still water was perhaps the first picture that Homo sapiens ever encountered. The importance of mirrors in…
Angela Carter was a master of radio drama
The writer Angela Carter (born in 1940) grew up listening to the wireless, her love of stories, magic and the…
Glenn Close rescues this clumsy new adaptation: The Wife reviewed
The Wife is an adaptation of the Meg Wolitzer novel (2003) and stars Glenn Close. Her performance is better than…
Opera North’s Tosca will leave you quivering
At the end of Act Two of Tosca there are some 30 bars of orchestral music — accompaniment to a…
The Old Vic’s Sylvia may be the new Les Mis
Sylvia, the Old Vic’s musical about the Pankhurst clan, has had a troubled nativity. Illness struck the cast during rehearsals.…
Forget the BBC – only Channel 5 does proper documentaries these days
What a load of utter tripe Bodyguard (BBC1, Sundays) was. Admittedly, I came to it late having missed all the…
Bravura piss-taking from Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
‘Ballet is woman’ insisted George Balanchine, but ballet can also be a big man in a dress as any fan…
A brief history of unicorns
A brief history of unicorns by Laura Freeman
The night I kissed Harold Pinter
Craig Raine remembers Harold Pinter
Rattle’s recapitulation: LSO/Simon Rattle at Barbican reviewed
A pregnant silence, a peaty belch from the tuba, and the scrape of brass on brass as gears lock into…
