For these few brief thoughts I am returning to Oliver Soden's comment recorded at the start of my last Blog, 'The Past and I': 'As with...

'As with all the best setting of poetry, the words were liberated by the music.' The above comment in Gramophone Magazine, by Oliver...

The BBC made quite a splash regarding its Proms' commission 'The Gorgeous Nothings' by Anna Clyne (BBC Proms 30 July 2024). Much was made...

It is no secret that I am not an unequivocal fan of the nation's favourite Roderick Williams, and I must admit to being rather unkind to...

Considering he had not performed regularly in public for more than twenty years, the heart-felt tributes paid to the late Cornish...

‘The Sorcerer’ (Gilbert and Sullivan) Charles Court Opera: Ulverston Festival at The Victoria Hall, Grange Over Sands. Sunday 2nd June...

'Hassan' by James Elroy Flecker is a curious piece, born out of Elroy Flecker's interest in the Turkish language. While studying in the...

"https://www.youtube.com/embed/Dvw5mke8W2o?si=KwlyVhpclw97CQkO" https://youtu.be/3nfQfeWTNK4?si=nMguy-ZMzEgqdzPK...

I have written about cats in song in a previous post, but two weeks in Margate dog-sitting an aristocratic Hungarian Vizsla got me...

A brief up-date on Charles Court Opera's 'The Barber of Seville' at Wilton's Music Hall. A return visit to see the alternative Almaviva...

I have had a few musical 'I was there' moments in my life: I saw Thomas Allen's first 'Billy Budd', I watched the Terfel/Hvorostovsky...

Listening to Herbert Howells’ setting of the Walter de la Mare poem ‘King David’ (BBC Radio 3’s  Essential Classics ‘Song of the Day’ –...

This review of Charles Court Opera’s production of ‘The Barber of Seville’ at Wilton’s Music Hall cannot claim to be in any way objective...

The Oriel Music Trust provided a very useful service in providing recordings of opera, choral and vocal music taken from BBC Radio 3 (or...

This month sees the publication of yet another book demonstrating Thomas Hardy's less than sympathetic treatment of his two wives, (Hardy...

‘Turning the Screw’, Kevin Kelly’s new play now being performed at the King’s Head Theatre, invites obvious comparisons with Alan...

An erudite young friend of mine is walking out with an equally erudite young lady called Julia. I assumed he knew Robert Herrick’s ‘Julia...

All the heavy lifting for this posting is being done by far better writers than I. I just wanted to share two poems that seem to me to be...

In my previous Blog on smoking and singing (‘My Lady Nicotine’), I mentioned that my father suffered from early onset dementia, partly,...