Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
British Shakespearean actor John Neville had died at the age of 86. He served in World War II, afterwards studying at RADA, and his career took off shortly thereafter. Neville worked closely with Richard Burton, alternating the roles of Iago and Othello with him in 1956 at London’s Old Vic. He also worked with the nation’s favourite, Dame Judi Dench, in a 1957 performance of Hamlet, where he played the title role, not to mention countless TV and film performances.
Shelagh Delaney, the Salford playwright known for her groundbreaking 1958 play A Taste of Honey, has also died at the age of 71. Although she did write after A Taste of Honey, her plays never received the same critical acclaim as her first work. It was seen as revolutionary at the time: contrasting sharply with the typical middle class drawing room dramas that dominated the theatrical climate. Her plays have permeated into pop culture, The Smiths using lines from her plays for their lyrics.
One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean opened on Monday night at the Adelphi Theatre in London to rave reviews. Michael Billington of the Guardian gave it five stars, and the general consensus is that Corden as the lead role is brilliant, and it well deserves its upcoming transfer to Broadway. Bean notes that he shall have to alter the script for an American audience, saying that they won’t get the cricket references.
Political and contemporary opera seems to be a the most popular new genre, as Bonnie Greer writes an opera called Initally Yes, based on her experiences with Nick Griffin on the TV panel show Question Time. Opening this week at the Royal Opera House, she says she hopes that she can reinstate opera’s status as a ‘populist medium’. She also said that she doesn’t think she gave Griffin a hard enough time when she was on the show. Similarly, English National Opera caused an uproar when they released information that there will be a performance of The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams in early 2012, based on the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship ‘Achille Lauro’ in 1985. Perhaps opera is seen as too sensitive a medium for political debate?
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