Author: Admin

In 2009 the Theatre Royal Haymarket mounted the most successful production ever of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. This was followed by the first staged adaptation of Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s. During the creation of these two historic productions, the Theatre Royal opened its doors to a television crew, for the recording of a…

In a delightful departure from conventional programming, San Francisco Opera opens its Summer Season on June 1 with Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s musical masterpiece, Show Boat. At its first Broadway performance in December 1927, Show Boat marked an important milestone in the history of American theater – the confluence of European operetta and…

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony are releasing a CD of their world premiere concert version of Leonard Bernstein’s complete score from the musical West Side Story – which MTT describes as “…. a new and rare opportunity to hear Bernstein’s complete score sung by a sensational young cast and a knock-your-socks-off orchestra”.…

The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte which takes place in New York on Saturday, April 26, will be screened live in cinemas around the world – the latest presentation in the Company’s Live in HD series. Music Director James Levine leads a charismatic cast, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, in…

Mariss Jansons, Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2004, has announced his departure after the conclusion of the 2014-15 season. Much loved by the musicians and audiences alike, Maestro Jansons – only the sixth Chief Conductor in the history of the Concertgebouw – is credited with having been a tremendous inspiration to the…

One of the most interesting books to have come my way recently is a memoir by Tony Cointreau, entitled Ethel Merman, Mother Teresa … and Me – and if the title sounds extraordinary, the book is even more so. “How many people,” reads the blurb, “can count among their closest friends Ethel Merman (the Queen…

Monaco Dance Forum welcomes Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, and a film presentation by Jiří Kylián Productions to the Grimaldi Forum in Monte-Carlo this month. The Geneva Ballet – a company of 22 classically trained dancers from around the world – is known for its neo-classical and contemporary style, and also for its adventurous…

English National Ballet commemorates the centenary of the start of World War I in a production entitled Lest We Forget, now in performance at the Barbican – and the critics have been fulsome in their praise – not only of the production, but of the decision by Artistic Director, Tamara Rojo, to stage it. The…

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra opens a three-city tour of India on Saturday, March 29th, accompanied by composer James MacMillan, violinist Nicola Benedetti and students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In the most ambitious programme of cultural exchange ever undertaken by a British orchestra in India, this tour celebrates the lead-up to the Glasgow…

Just over three years ago, the charity Animal Defenders International undertook an ambitious and highly dangerous operation to rescue 25 lions from a number of circuses in Bolivia, where they had been subjected to a life of appalling misery and cruelty.  The entire rescue operation was filmed by the charity, and in October last year,…