Category Archives: Cultural Matters

Reign of Tenor

Posted on May 22, 2019 by leslie

Reign of Tenor Review of Andrea Chénier, dramma istorico, music composed by Umberto Giordano, libretto by Luigi Illica, directed by Sir David McVicar, conducted by Daniel Oren, Royal Opera, 20th May 2019, reviewed by Leslie Jones At Contessa de Coigny’s soirée, … Continue reading →

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ENDNOTES: May 2019

Posted on May 16, 2019 by leslie

Endnotes: May 2019 From Meadow to Mayfair – Stuart Millson pays tribute to the English light music tradition The great tone-poems of English music need little introduction: Bax’s epic evocation of Cornish myth and landscape, Tintagel, and Holst’s mysterious Dorset … Continue reading →

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Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea

Posted on April 25, 2019 by leslie

Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea Review of Billy Budd, opera in two acts, music by Benjamin Britten, libretto by E M Forster and Eric Crozier, conducted by Ivor Bolton, directed by Deborah Warner, Royal Opera, 23rd April 2019, reviewed … Continue reading →

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ENDNOTES, April 2019

Posted on April 18, 2019 by leslie

ENDNOTES, April 2019  by Stuart Millson In this edition: musical meditations on death and national decline From Chandos records, come two less-frequently-performed masterpieces by the doyen of English music, Sir Edward Elgar: The Music Makers (written in 1912) and The Spirit … Continue reading →

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Hell has no Limits

Posted on April 14, 2019 by leslie

Hell has no Limits Faust, opera in five acts, music by Charles-François Gounod, libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, conducted by Dan Ettinger, director David McVicar, 5th revival of the 2004 production, Royal Opera, Thursday 11th April 2019, reviewed … Continue reading →

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Two Poems by Velaj

Posted on April 12, 2019 by leslie

Two Poems by Velaj             The Hymn of Madness The old women witch river banks Wetting white sheets of snow And wrapping dead mouse in them God forgive them They do not know what they are … Continue reading →

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Review of Handel’s Berenice

Posted on March 30, 2019 by leslie

Review of Handel’s Berenice  Linbury Theatre, Covent Garden, 27th March 2019, co-production by Royal Opera and London Handel Festival, directed by Adele Thomas, London Handel Orchestra conducted by Laurence Cummings, libretto translated by Selma Dimitrijevic, reviewed by Leslie Jones Bragging … Continue reading →

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Van Gogh and Britain

Posted on March 28, 2019 by leslie

Van Gogh and Britain Van Gogh and Britain, Tate Britain, 27th March 2019, exhibition curated by Carol Jacobi Van Gogh and Britain, edited by Carol Jacobi, Tate Publishing, London, 2019, 240 pp Reviewed by Leslie Jones From 1873-1876, Van Gogh … Continue reading →

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Getting to Know Benno Landsberger

Posted on March 16, 2019 by leslie

Getting to Know Benno Landsberger Luděk Vacín, The Unknown Benno Landsberger: ‘A Biographical Sketch of an Assyriological Altmeister’s Development, Exile, and Personal Life’, (Harrassowitz Verlag, 2018), $45.00. Pp.132 Assyriologists in recent times have ruminated on their own discipline. Historical sketches of notable … Continue reading →

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ENDNOTES, March 2019

Posted on March 15, 2019 by leslie

ENDNOTES, March 2019 In this edition; contemporary British music on the Sheva label: the Danish National Seasonal Songbook, from OUR Recordings; reviewed by Stuart Millson Hector Berlioz, Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem), a concert at St Paul’s, reviewed by Leslie Jones One … Continue reading →

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