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★★★★ A taste of the slightly unexpected: Cooper, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester - a trusted guide and an imaginative soloist charm the crowd writes @robertbealemcr.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...
Cooper, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a taste of the slightly unexpected
Sir Mark Elder was back on the scene of past triumphs last night as he returned to the Hallé at the Bridgewater Hall – and he has not lost his taste for the slightly unexpected.
theartsdesk.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:22 AM
★★★★ A taste of the slightly unexpected: Cooper, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester - a trusted guide and an imaginative soloist charm the crowd writes @robertbealemcr.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...
★★★★ Searching for Daniel Day-Lewis: review - The actor resurfaces in Anemone, a moody, assured film about a man lost in a wood writes James Saynor theartsdesk.com/film/anemone...
Anemone review - searching for Daniel Day-Lewis
Given that the film industry is a fairly vain business, it follows that every movie is to some extent a vanity project. So it seems churlish to describe this new Daniel Day-Lewis picture, which he co-...
theartsdesk.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:05 AM
★★★★ Searching for Daniel Day-Lewis: review - The actor resurfaces in Anemone, a moody, assured film about a man lost in a wood writes James Saynor theartsdesk.com/film/anemone...
★★★ Sad and Beautiful World: Mavis Staples offers words of wisdom in a gloriously textured post-retirement album writes Liz Thomson theartsdesk.com/new-music/sa...
Sad and Beautiful World: Mavis Staples offers words of wisdom
Mavis Staples, the woman to whom a young Bob Dylan proposed marriage when they met at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival and whose voice he has described as his “favourite voice”. Mavis Staples, who annou...
theartsdesk.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:58 AM
★★★ Sad and Beautiful World: Mavis Staples offers words of wisdom in a gloriously textured post-retirement album writes Liz Thomson theartsdesk.com/new-music/sa...
As Thomas H Green disappears under a mountain of vinyl, this might be the biggest edition yet of his celebrated record round-up: a monster theartsdesk on Vinyl 93 features Led Zeppelin, Blawan, Sylvester, Zaho de Sagazan, Sabres of Paradise, Hot Chip and so much more theartsdesk.com/new-music/th...
theartsdesk on Vinyl 93: Led Zeppelin, Blawan, Sylvester, Zaho de Sagazan, Sabres of Paradise, Hot Chip and more
VINYL OF THE MONTHMartel Zaire (Evil Ideas)
theartsdesk.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:26 PM
As Thomas H Green disappears under a mountain of vinyl, this might be the biggest edition yet of his celebrated record round-up: a monster theartsdesk on Vinyl 93 features Led Zeppelin, Blawan, Sylvester, Zaho de Sagazan, Sabres of Paradise, Hot Chip and so much more theartsdesk.com/new-music/th...
★★★★ Train Dreams is a poignant depiction of one man's odyssey into the American Century writes Helen Hawkins theartsdesk.com/film/train-d...
Train Dreams review - one man's odyssey into the American Century
What defines a life? Money and success? Happiness? Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams employs a narrator, much as Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven did, who fields big questions like those while drawing the ...
theartsdesk.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:01 AM
★★★★ Train Dreams is a poignant depiction of one man's odyssey into the American Century writes Helen Hawkins theartsdesk.com/film/train-d...
★★★★ Vega casts a New York state of mind across a full house of fervent fans: superlative songwriters Suzanne Vega and Katherine Priddy fill the Royal Albert Hall writes @timcumming.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/new-music/su...
Suzanne Vega and Katherine Priddy, Royal Albert Hall review - superlative songwriters
Opening acts don’t always enjoy a full house, but at at the Royal Albert Hall at the end of a UK tour in support of Suzanne Vega and her acclaimed new album Flying with Angels, there was a warm and ge...
theartsdesk.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:58 AM
★★★★ Vega casts a New York state of mind across a full house of fervent fans: superlative songwriters Suzanne Vega and Katherine Priddy fill the Royal Albert Hall writes @timcumming.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/new-music/su...
★★★★ Kali Malone and Drew McDowell generate 'Magnetism' with intergenerational ambience writes @joemuggs.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/new-music/ka...
Kali Malone and Drew McDowell generate 'Magnetism' with intergenerational ambience
It’s weird, right? We’ve somehow stumbled into a world where, for all we’re told that algorithms homogenise music, actually more people than ever are exposed to very, very odd and abstract soundmaking...
theartsdesk.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:52 AM
★★★★ Kali Malone and Drew McDowell generate 'Magnetism' with intergenerational ambience writes @joemuggs.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/new-music/ka...
THE MAKROPULOS CASE @theroyalopera.bsky.social - Adding pointless feminist complications, #KatieMitchell sucks the strangeness from #Janáček’s clash of legalese and eternal life - review @davidnice.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/opera/makrop...
The Makropulos Case, Royal Opera - pointless feminist complications
Janáček described his nature-versus-humanity fable The Cunning Little Vixen as “a merry thing with a sad end”. In which case, the even stranger Makropulos Case is a chattery legal mystery with a trans...
theartsdesk.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:50 AM
THE MAKROPULOS CASE @theroyalopera.bsky.social - Adding pointless feminist complications, #KatieMitchell sucks the strangeness from #Janáček’s clash of legalese and eternal life - review @davidnice.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/opera/makrop...
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A tour-de-force folk-leaning psychedelic album, and a career milestone. Midlake’s A Bridge to Far is out this week on @mrsimonraymonde.bsky.social’s @bellaunion.bsky.social. I’ve looked at it for @theartsdesk.bsky.social: www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/mi...
November 4, 2025 at 8:07 PM
A tour-de-force folk-leaning psychedelic album, and a career milestone. Midlake’s A Bridge to Far is out this week on @mrsimonraymonde.bsky.social’s @bellaunion.bsky.social. I’ve looked at it for @theartsdesk.bsky.social: www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/mi...
Reposted by theartsdesk.com
BENSON BOONE @bensonboone.music-social.com #O2 London - Two hours of backwards-somersaults and British accents in a confetti-drenched spectacle: @katiecolombus.bsky.social is won over by sequins, spectacle and cheeky charm, enjoying both sincerity and showmanship theartsdesk.com/new-music/be...
Benson Boone, O2 London Review - sequins, spectacle and cheeky charm
After cancelling his Birmingham gig an hour before curtain-up due to illness, the anticipatory hype around whether Benson Boone’s London show at The O2 would actually go ahead was almost as electric a...
theartsdesk.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:24 PM
BENSON BOONE @bensonboone.music-social.com #O2 London - Two hours of backwards-somersaults and British accents in a confetti-drenched spectacle: @katiecolombus.bsky.social is won over by sequins, spectacle and cheeky charm, enjoying both sincerity and showmanship theartsdesk.com/new-music/be...
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★★★★ DIE MY LOVE - A magnetic #JenniferLawrence dominates #LynneRamsay's dark psychological drama - Adam Sweeting on a harrowing tale of good lovin' gone bad theartsdesk.com/film/die-my-...
Die My Love review - good lovin' gone bad
Directed by Lynne Ramsay and based on the book by Ariana Harwicz, Die My Love is an unsettling dive into the disturbed psyche of Grace, played with mercurial brilliance by Jennifer Lawrence. Grace is ...
theartsdesk.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:20 PM
★★★★ DIE MY LOVE - A magnetic #JenniferLawrence dominates #LynneRamsay's dark psychological drama - Adam Sweeting on a harrowing tale of good lovin' gone bad theartsdesk.com/film/die-my-...
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#FirstPerson: KEREM HASAN on the transformative experience of conducting #JakeHeggie's DEAD MEN WALKING - #EnglishNationalOpera #ENO production of a 21st century milestone has been a tough journey, says the musician www.theartsdesk.com/opera/first-...
November 4, 2025 at 11:36 AM
#FirstPerson: KEREM HASAN on the transformative experience of conducting #JakeHeggie's DEAD MEN WALKING - #EnglishNationalOpera #ENO production of a 21st century milestone has been a tough journey, says the musician www.theartsdesk.com/opera/first-...
OTHELLO #TheatreRoyalHaymarket - #DavidHarewood and #TobyJones at odds in a production with a surprising mix of stateliness and ironic humour - review by Heather Neill www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/othe...
Othello, Theatre Royal, Haymarket review - a surprising mix of stateliness and ironic humour
Perspectives on Shakespeare's tragedy have changed over the decades. As Nonso Anozie said when playing the title role for Cheek by Jowl in 2004, white actors once "concentrated on their perception of ...
www.theartsdesk.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:09 AM
OTHELLO #TheatreRoyalHaymarket - #DavidHarewood and #TobyJones at odds in a production with a surprising mix of stateliness and ironic humour - review by Heather Neill www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/othe...
'After more than two decades in existence, firing on all cylinders - astonishing' ★★★★ #Midlake A BRIDGE TO FAR - The Denton, Texas sextet fashions a career milestone with this tour-de-force folk-leaning psychedelic album, says @kierontyler.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/new-music/mi...
Midlake's 'A Bridge to Far' is a tour-de-force folk-leaning psychedelic album
“Climb upon a bridge to far, go anywhere your heart desires.” The key phrase from the title track of Midlake’s sixth studio album conveys the perception that anything is within reach should an appropr...
theartsdesk.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:32 PM
'After more than two decades in existence, firing on all cylinders - astonishing' ★★★★ #Midlake A BRIDGE TO FAR - The Denton, Texas sextet fashions a career milestone with this tour-de-force folk-leaning psychedelic album, says @kierontyler.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/new-music/mi...
BENSON BOONE @bensonboone.music-social.com #O2 London - Two hours of backwards-somersaults and British accents in a confetti-drenched spectacle: @katiecolombus.bsky.social is won over by sequins, spectacle and cheeky charm, enjoying both sincerity and showmanship theartsdesk.com/new-music/be...
Benson Boone, O2 London Review - sequins, spectacle and cheeky charm
After cancelling his Birmingham gig an hour before curtain-up due to illness, the anticipatory hype around whether Benson Boone’s London show at The O2 would actually go ahead was almost as electric a...
theartsdesk.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:24 PM
BENSON BOONE @bensonboone.music-social.com #O2 London - Two hours of backwards-somersaults and British accents in a confetti-drenched spectacle: @katiecolombus.bsky.social is won over by sequins, spectacle and cheeky charm, enjoying both sincerity and showmanship theartsdesk.com/new-music/be...
★★★★ DIE MY LOVE - A magnetic #JenniferLawrence dominates #LynneRamsay's dark psychological drama - Adam Sweeting on a harrowing tale of good lovin' gone bad theartsdesk.com/film/die-my-...
Die My Love review - good lovin' gone bad
Directed by Lynne Ramsay and based on the book by Ariana Harwicz, Die My Love is an unsettling dive into the disturbed psyche of Grace, played with mercurial brilliance by Jennifer Lawrence. Grace is ...
theartsdesk.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:20 PM
★★★★ DIE MY LOVE - A magnetic #JenniferLawrence dominates #LynneRamsay's dark psychological drama - Adam Sweeting on a harrowing tale of good lovin' gone bad theartsdesk.com/film/die-my-...
#FirstPerson: KEREM HASAN on the transformative experience of conducting #JakeHeggie's DEAD MEN WALKING - #EnglishNationalOpera #ENO production of a 21st century milestone has been a tough journey, says the musician www.theartsdesk.com/opera/first-...
November 4, 2025 at 11:36 AM
#FirstPerson: KEREM HASAN on the transformative experience of conducting #JakeHeggie's DEAD MEN WALKING - #EnglishNationalOpera #ENO production of a 21st century milestone has been a tough journey, says the musician www.theartsdesk.com/opera/first-...
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★★★★ MACBETH #RoyalShakespeareCompany Stratford - Glaswegian gangs and ghoulies prove gripping, but #SamHeughan's Macbeth cannot quite find a home in a mobster pub, run by Lady Mac as a safe house for the local Godfather and his Capos, says @garynaylor85.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/theatre/macb...
Macbeth, RSC, Stratford review - Glaswegian gangs and ghoulies prove gripping
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s so very different about Belfast and Glasgow, both of which I have visited in the last few weeks, compared to, say, Manchester or Birmingham. Sure, there’s the arch...
theartsdesk.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:28 PM
★★★★ MACBETH #RoyalShakespeareCompany Stratford - Glaswegian gangs and ghoulies prove gripping, but #SamHeughan's Macbeth cannot quite find a home in a mobster pub, run by Lady Mac as a safe house for the local Godfather and his Capos, says @garynaylor85.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/theatre/macb...
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★★★★ Sananda Maitreya @sanandamaitreya.bsky.social #TownHallBirmingham - The return of the artist formerly known as #TerrenceTrentDArby shows that the 80s megastar still has the chops, says Guy Oddy www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/sa...
Sananda Maitreya, Town Hall, Birmingham review - 80s megastar still has the chops
During a false start to “Billy Don’t Fall”, on Sunday night at Birmingham’s iconic Town Hall, Sananda Maitreya took the opportunity to address the packed house before him. He noted that there’s now a ...
www.theartsdesk.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:51 PM
★★★★ Sananda Maitreya @sanandamaitreya.bsky.social #TownHallBirmingham - The return of the artist formerly known as #TerrenceTrentDArby shows that the 80s megastar still has the chops, says Guy Oddy www.theartsdesk.com/new-music/sa...
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MADAMA BUTTERFLY @irishnationalopera.bsky.social - Visual and vocal wings, earthbound soul - #CelineByrne sings gorgeously but doesn’t round out a great operatic character study - review by @davidnice.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/opera/madama...
Madama Butterfly, Irish National Opera review - visual and vocal wings, earthbound soul
Emotional truth backed up by musical sophistication is what saves Puccini’s drama about a geisha deserted by an American officer from mawkishness. Director Daisy Evans has a very good idea for getting...
www.theartsdesk.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:11 AM
MADAMA BUTTERFLY @irishnationalopera.bsky.social - Visual and vocal wings, earthbound soul - #CelineByrne sings gorgeously but doesn’t round out a great operatic character study - review by @davidnice.bsky.social www.theartsdesk.com/opera/madama...
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★★★★★ #Hallé #JohnAdams festival, @bridgewaterhall.bsky.social / @rncmlive.bsky.social Manchester - From 1980 to 2025 with the West Coast’s pied piper and his eager following, standing ovations for today's music - review @robertbealemcr.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...
Hallé John Adams festival, Bridgewater Hall / RNCM, Manchester review - standing ovations for today's music
Am I dreaming? Did I really see a living composer of contemporary music given a prolonged standing ovation for conducting his own works in the Bridgewater Hall, twice over?
theartsdesk.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:12 AM
★★★★★ #Hallé #JohnAdams festival, @bridgewaterhall.bsky.social / @rncmlive.bsky.social Manchester - From 1980 to 2025 with the West Coast’s pied piper and his eager following, standing ovations for today's music - review @robertbealemcr.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...
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'A tasty, burlesque-rockin' debut' ★★★★ #Luvcat VICIOUS DELICIOUS - Contagious yarns of lust and nightlife adventure from new pop minx - Thomas H Green enjoys an album littered with fabulous couplets delivered with just the right degree of dry sass theartsdesk.com/new-music/vi...
'Vicious Delicious' is a tasty, burlesque-rockin' debut from pop hellion Luvcat
Three of last year’s finest singles were by Luvcat, a classy-but-naughty Eartha Kitt-style bad girl steeped in burlesque-rock’n’roll spirit. In fact, she’s the wanton basque’n’fishnets persona that, d...
theartsdesk.com
November 2, 2025 at 7:54 PM
'A tasty, burlesque-rockin' debut' ★★★★ #Luvcat VICIOUS DELICIOUS - Contagious yarns of lust and nightlife adventure from new pop minx - Thomas H Green enjoys an album littered with fabulous couplets delivered with just the right degree of dry sass theartsdesk.com/new-music/vi...
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★★★★★ MR SCORSESE @martinscorsese.bsky.social #AppleTV - #RebeccaMiller musters a stellar roster of articulate talking heads for this thorough portrait, a perfectly pitched documentary series with fascinating insight, says Helen Hawkins theartsdesk.com/tv/mr-scorse...
Mr Scorsese, Apple TV review - perfectly pitched documentary series with fascinating insights
This five-parter by Rebecca Miller is essential viewing for any Martin Scorsese fan – and for anybody who wants to understand the process of movie-making, full stop. Miller has interviewed all the key...
theartsdesk.com
November 2, 2025 at 7:27 PM
★★★★★ MR SCORSESE @martinscorsese.bsky.social #AppleTV - #RebeccaMiller musters a stellar roster of articulate talking heads for this thorough portrait, a perfectly pitched documentary series with fascinating insight, says Helen Hawkins theartsdesk.com/tv/mr-scorse...
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#WexfordFestivalOpera 2025 - Two strong productions, mostly fine casting, and a star is born - @davidnice.bsky.social takes in four operas and an outstanding lunchtime recital in two days #Letrouvère #LydiaGrindatto #TheDwarf #Deidamia #IlviaggioaReims theartsdesk.com/opera/theart...
theartsdesk at Wexford Festival Opera 2025 - two strong productions, mostly fine casting, and a star is born
A drawback of choosing relatively or very obscure operas, as they've been mostly doing in Wexford Festival since 1951, is that the audiences probably won’t come out humming the tunes. That changed thi...
theartsdesk.com
November 2, 2025 at 7:17 PM
#WexfordFestivalOpera 2025 - Two strong productions, mostly fine casting, and a star is born - @davidnice.bsky.social takes in four operas and an outstanding lunchtime recital in two days #Letrouvère #LydiaGrindatto #TheDwarf #Deidamia #IlviaggioaReims theartsdesk.com/opera/theart...
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★★★★★ #Bach's B minor Mass #IrishBaroqueOrchestra #PeterWhelan #ChristChurchCathedralDublin - Perfect ensemble runs the gamut of a supreme masterpiece, encompassing everything human and divine - 'it simply doesn’t get better than this', says @davidnice.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...
Bach's B minor Mass, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whelan, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin - everything human and divine
The greatest procession of mass movements ever composed merits the best line-up of soloists, both vocal and instrumental, as well as the perfect ensemble – small in size, big and rich in sound where n...
theartsdesk.com
November 2, 2025 at 7:09 PM
★★★★★ #Bach's B minor Mass #IrishBaroqueOrchestra #PeterWhelan #ChristChurchCathedralDublin - Perfect ensemble runs the gamut of a supreme masterpiece, encompassing everything human and divine - 'it simply doesn’t get better than this', says @davidnice.bsky.social theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...