In Midnight at the Never Get, time is not a straightforward thing. It’s never clear what’s real and what’s fiction, how old the characters are, or what decade we’re in. We’re hearing Gershwin-esque jazz standards, but also references to “peaceniks” and Woody Allen.…
It's an outstanding win for Spain in the World Cup – and for the sizzling Spanish National Orchestra in their BBC Proms debut. Both display tremendous talent and teamwork in their respective fields on a night to remember.…
Finally, prog gets its Prom. The BBC's heart is unarguably in the right place in handing the genre's back catalogue to their Concert Orchestra, in tribute to a 'pioneering, British-driven movement' rendered, as the billing has it, 'on an orchestral scale'. And yet the result falls a fair way short o…
Richard Strauss's opera within an opera, Ariadne aux Naxos, is a curious beast: a hybrid of spoken word and singing, a mix of musical influences and themes which ask whether high art can ever mix with popular entertainment. Two rival musical companies – a burlesque group and a serious opera compan…
Black Dyke Band brings its popular programme of classics and movie music, written or arranged for brass, to the BBC Proms. Showcasing their industrial roots and professional virtuosity, they prove why they are 'the best-known brass band in the world'.…
The Royal Ballet School annual Royal Opera House matinee is a big deal, but perhaps this year more than ever. 2026 marks the centenary of the school, and considering this when watching the performance amplifies what we see on the stage even more than usual. …
If the Last Night is about waving Union Jacks until arms ache, the First Night had some of that feeling too — albeit a different flag. The Proms this time around will commemorate the 250th anniversary of United States declaring bye-bye to Blighty and plotting its own course into history. Before th…
After their appearance at the London Coliseum in 2024, the State Ballet of Georgia return to the capital with a brand new version of Swan Lake. The Tbilisi-based company’s draw is its artistic director, the venerated ballerina Nina Ananiashvili, who performed in the Bolshoi and American Ballet C…
During his near-half century leading the FBI, J Edgar Hoover used illegal surveillance techniques on thousands of Americans allegedly connected with communism, curbed the influence of civil rights leaders, and caused damage to the US labour movement from which it has never recovered. A high-camp com…
What does home mean to you? Is it the place, the people, the bricks and mortar? Liz Richardson's autobiographical one-woman show is a gentle look at what home means to your identity and how the environment of your childhood can influence your later life.…
Fans of legendary rock band Queen can look forward to another ‘kind of magic’ in 2025 when the official tribute band, Queen Extravaganza, tours the...
