MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Not for the likes of us? Oh yes, they are
LYNNE WALSH takes issue with the idea that the arts aren't for 'ordinary people'
A dress rehearsal of Opera North's Madama Butterfly
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
“RUGBY union is a middle-class sport,” a leftie friend told me recently. I should prefer football, he insisted, which is “working-class opera.”
Now, apart from repudiating his daft claim — as a rugby fan, I’m an old Arms Park groundling, rather than a Twickers toff — he got me thinking. Why isn’t opera “working class”?
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