THINK of Bizet’s Carmen and you think of sultry heat, intense colour and tangible passion … or at least, I do. So Jonathan Miller’s touring production for Mid-Wales opera comes as a bit of a surprise, on many levels. Of course the timeless story can be set in all sorts of periods, and here in…
THEREMINS seem to be everywhere this year: Rick Wakeman and Bill Bailey have both played them on recent tours and the whining electronic hands-free instrument used in the theme tune to Midsomer Murders also features as part of the live soundtrack to Abram Room’s 1929 film The Ghost That Never Returns, shown as part of…
WORD has it that Dramatic Productions’ latest show, Oscar Wilde’s enduring comedy The Importance of Being Earnest was beset with problems with both actors and director unavoidably dropping out. A play that should have been an absolute joy to rehearse must have had some exceedingly anxious moments. It was clear from Dramatic Productions’ opening night…
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, leader Amyn Merchant Kirill Karabits: Conductor Robert Levin, Piano PROKOFIEV: Symphony No 1 “Classical” BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C R STRAUSS: Also Sprach Zarathustra The next CD in the BSO’s much-praised cycle of Prokofiev symphonies will consist of the first two symphonies and the Sinfonietta. We had heard a memorable…
BATH Light Opera Group’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar marks the Society’s entry into the glittering world of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Originally written as a rock opera album, it exploded onto the Broadway stage in 1971 before transferring to the West End the following year where it ran for eight years. The…
COUNTRY singers have the traditional reputation of whining out cliched down-home wisdom, very little of which has any relevance to the stiff-upper-lipped Brits. But lordy how things have changed. Not only in our post-Diana society do we vie with family, friends and neighbours to show ever more open and intimate expressions of affection, love and…
THE conspiracy and cock-up theories of history collide in the story of Anne Frank and her family and her diary. The grotesque “final solution” of the Holocaust, the industrialised slaughter of European Jewry by the Nazis, was carefully planned. But it was a succession of unplanned events and accidents – the gift of a diary to…
PETER Whelan’s 1982 play The Accrington Pals is a perfect choice for this year, the anniversary of the start of World War One, and I doubt that you’ll see a better production than that at Wells Little Theatre until 27th September. It’s the third time in a decade that the play has been performed by…
TWO enchanted hours flew by as Oddity Theatre’s cast of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe took to the stage in Warminster’s Athenaeum Centre. The confidence and enthusiasm showed by the children in particular were a huge credit to the direction of Luke Willmore, who brought CS Lewis’ famous story to life with a…
THE Bunbury Company of Players, typical of so many amateur companies the length and breadth of England, has been performing Anthony Scottney’s production of Oscar Wilde’s “perfect comedy”, The Importance of Being Earnest, for decades. Save for one newly deceased member of their number, the cast has remained the same throughout the years, and has…