A new production of Hansel and Gretel opened to a full house on Monday night at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and it was met with rapturous applause by the audience, and with almost universal praise from the press the following day. I certainly thought it was a fantastic evening of opera: the production... Continue Reading →
‘Fairy Tales and Opera: The Perfect Match?’ OR ‘Dispelling the Myths that Fantasy Fiction is Lowbrow; that Opera is Elitist’
Norse mythology came to the fore in a big way a couple of years ago when Neil Gaiman released his celebrated book of the same name, but as of yesterday, Francesca Simon’s book, The Monstrous Child, has it rearing it’s deliciously vile and decidedly grotesque head once again. When the YA novel came out in... Continue Reading →
More Than Just a Bookshop…
A few weeks ago, I blogged about the dwindling number of independent bookshops in Bookshops Vs. The Internet: Is This the Reality? Though, prior to coming to Berlin, I’d read about a fantastic example of one that would be situated just under my feet, a couple of blocks north of our apartment. I’m pleased to... Continue Reading →
Dreaming of The Nose: Gogol’s Surreal Short Story
My wife’s work has brought our family out to Berlin for two months as she sings in Die Nase (The Nose) by Shostakovich at the Komische Oper: an opera based on the surrealist Russian short story of the same name by Nikolai Gogol. And so, as I pause from making headway with my sequel to... Continue Reading →