Neue Kritikenmehr...
Kopernikus revival finds inspiration – and cliché – in the afterlife
Composer Claude Vivier approaches the unknowable with a text delivered by a septet of vocalists in a language of his own invention. But the new production adds overly literal video, trading abstraction for the obvious.
Mystical motherhood at Grimeborn
A double bill from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Tarik O'Regan gives us two unsettling portraits of women whose lives have been indelibly touched by the eternal: an unamed Victorian medium, and the Virgin Mary.
Edinburgh International Festival: Philip Glass' La Belle et la Bête
Philip Glass’ ability to draw an audience of massively varied age groups is impressive. The event in question, which ran for two nights, certainly addressed the Edinburgh International Festival 2013’s theme of how artists engage with technology.
Philip Glass' La Belle et la Bête in San Francisco
When I first saw Jean Cocteau’s 1946 cinematic masterpiece La Belle et la Bête on DVD several years ago, its visual storytelling made such a strong impression that a few of its images became unforgettably burned into my memory: disembodied hands grasping candles, statues that blinked, and the Beast himself, a giant kitty-cat who was more pathetic and sad than terrifying.