To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
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The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children
Well-staged prequel to The Pied Piper lacks emotional charge
[The Belfast Ensemble]
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
CONOR MITCHELL’S children's play The Musician is a prequel to The Pied Piper of Hamelin, known to most through the version by the Brothers Grimm and the poetry of Robert Browning.
Written, directed, composed and choreographed by Mitchell for the Belfast Ensemble, it's also an introduction to operatic style and convention, challenging children to embrace the power of music while also engaging in what is, effectively, a morality tale.
The story is of a boy alone in the world. Into his path steps a strange musician, taunting him with haunting melodies which entrance the boy. He learns to play the stranger’s flute-like pipe and, as his power and musicality grow, so his kind nature is consumed and he responds to the unkindness of others with harsh and devastating consequences.
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DAVID NICHOLSON recommends the staging of this Wagnerian classic minus one or two insignificant quibbles
Although this production was in rehearsal before the playwright’s death, it allows us to pay homage to his life, suggests MARY CONWAY
WILL STONE witnesses an experimental piano concerto inspired by the work of a young Jewish victim of the Nazis
This is a concert of ambition and courage by organist and improviser Wayne Marshall, says SIMON DUFF