An occasional theme which, nevertheless, seems worth singling out.
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On Melancholy and the humour of the night »
August 21st, 2001 | Posted in: Music, Articles GeneralOn Harrison Birtwistle and Melancholia. An article derived from a lecture given for the Roche foundation before the premiere of Birtwistle’s ‘Night’s Black Bird’, Lucerne, Switzerland, 21 August, 2004.
Facing up to the subterranean stream: the challenge of Robin Blaser’s libretto »
August 1st, 2001 | Posted in: Literature, Music, Articles in Books, Articles GeneralAbout the libretto, by Robin Blaser, of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera, ‘The Last Supper’. Written for Glyndbourne Festival Opera, the first version was published in the seasonal programme book, Glyndbourne 2001, pp. 174-9.
Resist Me, Make Me Strong - On Chris Cutler »
November 11th, 1995 | Posted in: Czecho-Slovakia, Music, Articles GeneralAbout Chris Cutler, percussionist, lyricist, publisher, and the contrary entrepreneur behind ReR Megacorp. Published in the Guardian (Weekend section), 11 November 1995.
Bob Dylan Comes to Vladimir Merta’s Town »
March 23rd, 1995 | Posted in: Czecho-Slovakia, Music, Articles GeneralIn March 1995, Bob Dylan launched a European tour at the House of Culture in Prague. I went to the concert with Vladimir Merta, a leading song writer with the cultural opposition before the Velvet Revolution. Published in the Guardian, 23 March 1995
Don Giovanni (and business planning) come to the Hackney Empire »
February 27th, 1993 | Posted in: Enthusiasms, Music, Articles GeneralThe Hackney Empire is now splendidly refurbished, but in the early nineties, when the place was ‘managed’ by the heroically unorthodox Roland Muldoon, you could glimpse the sky through holes in the roof. It was encounters like this that persuaded me to give up on my accidental life as a ‘consultant’ to arts and voluntary organisations. Consultants may know the cost of roofs but they rarely see the sky at all. Thank you, Roland. . . Published in the Guardian, 27 February 1993.