Music from the Penguin Cafe
“I am the proprietor of the Penguin Cafe. I will tell you things at random.” These words reverberated around the head of composer Simon Jeffes. This is the sound of someone you love who’s going away and it doesn’t matter…
Browsing: Music
A Tale of Two Operas
Paul Guest reviews two of the operas from The Royal Opera’s spring season, Fidelio and The Tsar’s Bride, which will both be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 this month.
Led Zeppelin IV
My reactions to music are purely emotional: love, hatred or indifference. Music is only important…
Gilliam’s Damnation of Faust
Alex Larman, eagle-eyed journalist and cultural commentator with a voracious hunger for all things splendiferous, visits the ENO to experience Terry Gilliam’s operatic production of The Damnation of Faust.
The Young Elizabeth
Young soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn has had a difficult ride. After gaining a scholarship to study…
Barenboim: A View from the Bridge
Last week, Daniel Barenboim took to the Tate Modern Turbine Hall Bridge to give a one-off, all-Chopin concert with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Our wild-haired, roving music critic Paul Guest reports…
In the Mood for Love: Yumeji’s Theme
He said, our path is not clear. I said, I must find a path without…
Marianne Faithfull: Blazing Away
Marianne Faithfull lived on a wall for almost two years, listening to the smack talk.…
Minnie Riperton: Can You Feel What I’m Saying?
Sex is in the mind; it is the product of a thousand memories and fleeting…
The Pressure, Frankie Knuckles Remix
I’m not a religious person in the conventional sense, but I do believe that the…
The Playboy Opera House
Music critic Paul Guest visits The Royal Opera House to experience the latest performance to cause gasps of horror, shock and delight among West End audiences; the tragic tale of Anna Nicole Smith.
Little Opera House on the Prairie
A breakout movement from the world of opera has emerged from the most unlikely of places; in the back room of a pub in North London. Music critic Paul Guest dishes the dirt on the hottest new opera this side of Covent Garden…