Yesterday evening, at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, I saw something which, I can’t help feeling, everyone should go and see. It was a production of Tommy, The Who’s concept album turned fully-fledged musical, given by Ramps on the Moon (directed by Kerry Michael, with choreography by Mark Smith),
Those of you who follow these scribblings with any kind of regularity will know that it’s standard practice for me to post something on a Sunday. And those of you who are good at days of the week and things of that kind will notice that today is not, in
Yesterday afternoon, as I was idly flicking through Twitter, I discovered some photos of Welsh National Opera’s latest print marketing campaign. The blurb draws parallels between well-known musicals, such as Miss Saigon and Rent, and their operatic parallels (both Madam Butterfly and La Bohème feature in WNO’s upcoming season). Some
Just after Christmas, in the aftermath of turkey and mince pies, I reacquainted myself with George Orwell’s masterly 1984. It wasn’t due to any particular desire to equip myself for our bizarre and increasingly dystopian present; rather, it had been very many years since I’d read it, and I felt
At the end of February, The Independent published an article, the sentiment of which I’ve heard repeated in numerous forms and across various platforms over the last few years. The article is called ‘Let’s ban PowerPoint in lectures – it makes students more stupid and professors more boring’. Briefly put,
Before March is entirely overtaken by talks, concerts, and various other exciting things (some of which you’ll find listed over here on the Events page), I’ve been enjoying a quiet weekend at home – the last in while – of trying to get ahead with prep and having a bit
When I was a student at Nottingham University, back in the dim and distant past, I was invited to join a group of friends at a performance of Opera North’s Der Rosenkavalier in town. I’d never seen the show before, and as far as I knew, I didn’t really know
On Wednesday night, I went to a whole new kind of event for me. It was very exciting, and I’m ashamed to say, the first time I had ever seen one live. I went to the Royal Festival Hall to hear Neil Gaiman read from his newly-published Norse Mythology. My
It is a teaching truth universally acknowledged that, if you want to help students to find a way into historical subject matter, finding a way to join it up to their own experience is always useful. However much I enjoy spending time in the nineteenth century, I can’t expect those
Those of you who follow me on Twitter might have seen a particularly effusive tweet I posted on Friday evening, after a stunning evening of music at the Wigmore Hall given by Alice Coote and Julius Drake. It bore the title, ‘I myself am the enemy who must be loved?
