The English Touring Opera, ‘the leading touring opera company in the UK’, are currently performing three productions, including Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth. Verdi’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s play premiered in Florence, 1847; a revised version was then first performed in Paris in 1865. Having never read Macbeth (I know, I know) or even heard of Verdi (classical…
Arts
Review: Cendrillon at the Norwich Theatre Royal
The renowned opera house Glyndebourne is currently touring Cendrillon (Cinderella), a French opera that saw its premiere performance in 1899, Paris. Having wanted to go to an opera for some time, and due to the fact I’m learning, slowly but surely, to speak French, I was quick to take up the opportunity to review Cendrillon…
Arts
Book review: Things to Make and Break
Though it’s incredibly frustrating for some, I’ve always adored what I call ‘snapshot’ stories, which only reveal a small piece of a bigger – but ultimately non-existence – picture; the rest is up to us, the readers, to conjure up. In Things to Make and Break, May-Lan Tan takes this notion of ‘snapshotting’ to a…
Arts
Venue reviews: Fun Home
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is a graphic memoir first published in 2006. It traces her life prior to and surrounding her father’s death; featuring her troubled childhood, realising that she’s a lesbian and coming out, and learning that her father was gay and had affairs with – sometimes underage – men. Having encountered the book…