Rare Chance To Bag A Bargain At Opera North’s Costume Sale
Anyone who has ever fancied dressing like an opera diva or adding some drama to their wardrobe will want to head to Opera North in the heart of Leeds next month for the first sale of costumes from the company’s archives since 2005.
Albums: Taylor Swift The Tortured Poets Department.
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Named after a chat group Joe Alwyn has with Paul Mescal,The Tortured Poets Department is very much a break-up album, yet, in true Swift style, it is difficult to decipher which of the lyrics fully relate to reality and which have been crafted in the realms of storytelling. The album's title track, with its nods to Patti Smith and Dylan Thomas, clearly connects several moments to her and Alwyn.
Classical Music: Robert Schumann: Piano Works
This double CD set features Llyr Williams' performances. Somehow, given his distinguished career, I have failed to encounter Williams before. Where have I been? His playing is precise and captures something of the Romantic period. The recording quality is excellent.
Classical Music: Brahms & Busoni
Brahms & Busoni Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto, Op. 77; Ferruccio Busoni Violin Concerto, Op.
Albums: The Feeling San Vito
Album opener, War’s Not Won, shows that the band have never lost sight of the sound that made them household names – with the strongest echoes of their debut album since it was released – yet, the whole record takes this winning formula and reinvigorates and redesigns it with killer effect.
Poem Of The Week: Off Duty By Katie Donovan
Off Duty Is my face just right, am I looking as a widow should? I pass the funeral parlour where four weeks ago the ceremony unfurled. Now I’m laughing with the children. The director of the solemn place is lolling out front, sucking on a cigarette.
Scarborough Calling: Part Three - A Pub At The Gates Of Paradise
After ascending to Paradise, I pay my respects to Anne Brontë, buried here in 1849, and stand amidst the daffodils in the grounds of St Mary’s Church. From here is a magnificent view over the red pantiles of the Old Town down to the harbour, and a quite stupendous vista stretching to Flamborough Head’s chalky cliffs.
Albums: Compilation - Now 117
Now music compilations are always a good indicator of what is current in the UK singles charts. Since the series premiered in 1983, the compilation series has spawned various configurations
Classical Music: Chopin Obsession By Marina Arsenijevic
Her obsession with Chopin means the subtleties of his miniatures shine from a pianist who appreciates the fine detail; this glorious album takes us on a wonderful journey through some of his best and least-known piano works.
Why Tess?
Charlotte Moony and Alex Harvey, artistic directors of Ockham’s Razor talk about bringing the classic Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles to the stage in a ground-breaking circus adaptation at York Theatre Royal from 8-11 May. “Since we started telling people that our next show would be an adaption of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the D’Urbervi…
Silver Screen Weekly - What's Coming Up At The Cinema From Friday 19th April
Our film critic and media correspondent has been looking and trawling the new releases. Here's what you can see on the big screen this week. From Friday 19th April Abigail (15) Home invasion with a toothy twist.
Bread And Roses: Jennie Lee At Bingley Little Theatre
Lindsay Rodden’s vibrantly entertaining and biographically literate reading of the life of Jennie Lee once again gives notice of Mikron Theatre Company’s commitment to voicing the voiceless - especially women. If the socialist firebrand and daughter of a Scots miner has been consigned to the historical margins it might be because she languishes in the shadow of her husband, Aneurin Bevan.
Yorkshire Writers Retreat To Host Crime Writing Weekend
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Highly experienced criminal psychologist, guest lecturer, radio host, podcaster, and writer Linda Sage is teaming up with Writers Retreat UK in Beal, North Yorkshire, to host a weekend crime writing residential from 20-22 September. Linda has spent forty years working with some of the UK’s most notorious criminals, including the Kray twins, Charles Bronson and Myra Hindley.
Shortlist Announced For 2024 CrimeFest Awards
CrimeFest, a European crime writing convention, has announced the shortlists for its annual awards. The awards began 16 years ago when CrimeFest launched in 2008; they honour the best crime books released in the UK in the last year, and feature the hotly-contended Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award which offers a £1,000 cash prize.
Shifting Perspectives: A Symposium Of Inclusive Dance Practice In Leeds
A brand new dance company launches in Leeds, created to break down barriers and nurture a dance culture where everyone feels recognised. Unbound Dance Theatre launches with a special symposium event Shifting Perspectives at Yorkshire Dance Leeds on Friday 26 April.
Emma Sparks Joy With New Art Exhibition
Abstract impressionist painter Emma Butler is to bring her vibrant, colourful landscapes to Darlington with the opening of her first solo exhibition. Entitled Joy, Emma will showcase her beautifully bold work at Gallerina, in Darlington, which is home to some of the country’s best contemporary fine artists.
Poem Of The Week: Cargoes By John Masefield (1878-1967)
Cargoes Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir, Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine, With a cargo of ivory, And apes and peacocks, Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine. Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus, Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores, With a cargo of diamonds, Emeralds, amethysts, Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.
Northern Aldborough Festival Tickets On Sale
Tickets are still available for Yorkshire’s leading classical music festival, the Northern Aldborough Festival; 2024 marks the festival’s 30th anniversary. A charity, its mission is to bring a high-end live music to its rural location, making the sleepy village that was once a prosperous Roman capital, an unlikely epicentre for classical music.
Call-Out For Volunteers To Help Shape York’s Next Large-scale Community Theatre Production
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York Theatre Royal has announced that a new large-scale community production will take place during the summer of 2025. Focusing on the life of York social reformer and philanthropist Seebohm Rowntree, research volunteers are being sought to delve into the fascinating history of the period and the life of this famous York figure to shape the theme of the production.
Take That - This Life On Tour
When Take That reunited in 2006 after their breakup, the group returned stronger and more popular than before. Now with Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, and Howard Donald seemingly back for good, the trio arrived at Sheffield Arena for the start of their This Life tour—a mammoth 41-date outing across the country, selling over 700,000 tickets in the process.
Silver Screen Weekly - What's Coming Up At The Cinema From Friday 12th April
Our film critic and media correspondent has been looking and trawling the new releases. Here's what you can see on the big screen this week. From Friday 12th April Back To Black (12a) Marisa Abela is Amy Winehouse in this biopic from director Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy).
Classical Music: Path to the Moon
The multiple contributors to this CD demand supplementary listening just as the paintings demand supplementary viewing, but I will be narrowing the field down to just four: Korngold, Takemitsu, Lilli Boulanger, and Nina Simone (Jonathan King). These are selected for no more elevated reason than that they have destroyed fewer forests than the likes of Debussy or Britten.
Scarborough Calling: Part Two
Anytime in the last hundred years or so the person walking up Ramshill, on the Filey Road, is likely to have experienced a heady endorphin rush. They call it the ‘chocolate sensation’, when the senses are joyously flooded by the merest waft of the cocoa bean.
Classical Music: Tchaikovsky & Korngold String Sextets
The interaction between the standard sextet combination of two violins, two violas, and two cellos is irresistibly charismatic. The intricacies of both scores are produced with acumination, enabling the harmonic language to be savoured.
Joseph Marcell Q&A – The School For Scandal
Joseph Marcell was most recently seen in Chiwetel Ejiofor’s debut feature film, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind. TV credits include Mammoth and I Hate You, both for the BBC and he is soon be seen in Candice Carty-William’s Queenie on Channel 4.
Albums: Lyra.
Opening with the slick America, it is clear that Lyra has the production values to make it on the international stage, but it is with the Rihanna-driven Drink Me Up that the album kicks into fifth gear.
Albums: James Yummy
The lead single from the album, Is This Love, opens this strong and stellar set of new songs. Questioning the meaning of love, the track is James firing on all cylinders, sounding fresh and invigorating with a joyful aplomb.
Spying Is Lying: The Traitor By Ava Glass
It makes a change to enter the world of spies and spying; fast action, drama and tension with a good old fashioned Russian enemy who needs to be stopped when all efforts to thwart him are, in turn, thwarted by a traitor, at the very heart of British Intelligence.
Acclaimed Symphony Orchestra Launches Harrogate’s New Summer Festival Season
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) will launch this year’s Harrogate Music Festival with a grand opening night performance at the stunning Royal Hall. The concert, hosted by Harrogate International Festivals, takes place on 8 June and kicks off a thrilling summer season featuring the best in classical and chamber music.
Classical Music: Gabríel Ólafs
This short, four-minute work captures his enthusiasm, using cello and piano effectively, to create a beautiful, lilting melody with such an efficacious orchestration.