Martin Kettle's Blog, page 40
August 4, 2019
Prom 20: Kuusisto / BBCSSO / Dausgaard review – strikingly unusual twists
Royal Albert Hall, London
A new take on Sibelius is played with tremendous conviction by the Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Sibelius’s violin concerto and his Fifth Symphony are among his most admired and frequently performed works. So Thomas Dausgaard and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra could easily have left it at that for their Saturday evening Prom programme. This being the Proms, however, they offered two strikingly unusual twists.
The more substantial was to play the Fifth Symphony in its original 1915 version rather than the familiar final 1919 revision. Remarkably, given that Osmo Vänskä made a pioneer recording of the original score in 1995, this was the first time that the earlier version has ever been performed in this country. Once heard, however, it transforms one’s view of the final work. Dausgaard and the BBCSSO played it with tremendous conviction.
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August 1, 2019
A Brighton drag artist in Bayreuth would not have fazed Wagner | Martin Kettle
The German composer was all in favour of innovation, unlike the operatic conservatives who booed Le Gateau Chocolat
Picture this. A black British drag artist, all decked out in a blond wig, high heels, pink tights and a tutu, takes a curtain call at the Bayreuth festival and is vigorously booed – and later horribly trolled – by the so-called Wagnerian ultras in an exclusive black-tie audience that includes the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, herself.
This is not fake news or some invented nightmare hallucination. On the contrary, such an event actually took place last week at Richard Wagner’s own theatre in Bavaria, where lovers of the composer flock each summer to hear his works at what is without question the most written about opera festival of them all.
Related: From hip-hop theatre to bearded drag, cabaret is open to everyone
Continue reading...Boris Johnson: the UK tour – Politics Weekly podcast
Jessica Elgot is joined in the studio by Katy Balls, Martin Kettle and Stephanie Lloyd to discuss Boris Johnson’s trip to Northern Ireland and no-deal Brexit planning
During his first week, Boris Johnson hasn’t been arranging the seating plan in his new office, instead he’s done a tour of the UK, cuddled chickens, had a friendly phone call with Donald Trump and then headed for Belfast to discuss the restoration of power-sharing. All while continuing to promise increases in no-deal spending, extra police and more cash for schools. Many in Westminster have been asking: is this, in fact, an election campaign?
Joining Jessica Elgot to discuss these issues are Martin Kettle from the Guardian, Katy Balls from the Spectator and Stephanie Lloyd from Labour pressure group Progress.
Continue reading...July 31, 2019
How Boris Johnson could trigger the breakup of the United Kingdom | Martin Kettle
The prime minister may end up doing more for Welsh independence than the nationalist hero Owain Glyndŵr
In a distant echo of a medieval monarch’s royal progress around the realm, Boris Johnson has been journeying on a prime ministerial grand tour around the country to show his new subjects who is boss. Last weekend it was northern England; on Monday, Scotland; Tuesday was Wales day and Wednesday was the turn of Northern Ireland.
These visits contained none of the celebratory pageants that would have been expected in the middle ages. Instead, the new leader was whisked in and then out again. Much of the tour has been controlled. Journalists were mostly kept at a distance. In the streets, boos seem to have been more common than cheers.
It is hard to dispute the widening gulf between current reality and the rhetoric of Johnson’s ‘awesome foursome'
Related: Johnson refuses to give details on his no-deal Brexit plans for farming
Continue reading...July 29, 2019
Boris Johnson doesn’t really care about Scotland – he’s pushing it away | Martin Kettle
Like Theresa May before him in 2016, Boris Johnson has made the journey to Scotland very early in his prime ministership. Johnson went north this week to try to show how much he cares about what May called “our beloved union” and what he characteristically calls the “awesome foursome”. Like May, Johnson did this not because Scotland is inscribed on his heart, but because Brexit is threatening to revive the clamour for Scottish independence. If ever there was a case of trying to shut the political stable door after the horse has bolted, this is it.
Continue reading...July 25, 2019
This is no normal transition of power. It’s a hard Brexit coup | Martin Kettle
The passing of Theresa May and the ascension of Boris Johnson may have appeared, to the casual observer, as a colourful but nevertheless essentially conventional piece of British political continuity. The public decencies, insofar as such words can ever be used in connection with Johnson, were in place. The dignified but hapless former prime minister departed to the echo of the now traditional round of applause from MPs. The outgoing leader’s car entered Buckingham Palace to the solemn lilt of Huw Edwards’s commentary as her successor waited in the wings to kiss hands. On the face of things, these were the familiar rituals of peaceful transition in British politics.
Related: Our writers give their verdict on Boris Johnson’s new cabinet | The panel
Continue reading...July 10, 2019
Kim Darroch has resigned. Now Britain risks becoming a vassal of the US | Martin Kettle
The chief of Britain’s Foreign Office does nothing casually. He is a past master at saying nothing unintended in public. So when the Foreign Office permanent secretary, Simon McDonald, went before MPs this lunchtime after the devastating resignation of Britain’s Washington ambassador, Kim Darroch, his incisive directness was a revelation. It was the most eloquent evidence possible that the Darroch affair is not just a diplomatic storm but an existential challenge to Britain’s entire foreign policy.
What precedent was there, the foreign affairs committee chair Tom Tugendhat asked McDonald straight off, for the head of state of a friendly government to do what Donald Trump has done this week and make it impossible for Britain’s senior representative in that country to do his job? McDonald’s answer was monosyllabic, crisp and explosive. “None,” he said.
Related: How can Kim Darroch represent Britain in Trump’s Washington now? | Simon Jenkins
Related: Kim Darroch: effectively sacked by Johnson on the orders of Trump
Continue reading...July 9, 2019
Boris Johnson displays why he will be most ill-qualified PM of modern times | Martin Kettle
Smirks, smugness and self-love will not deter predominantly rightwing, old, white and male Tory voters
Tuesday night’s televised debate on ITV between Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson is the only chance the public will get to see the two candidates to succeed Theresa May argue their points head-to-head. But it won’t change anything.
Related: We’d be better off picking someone at random and giving them keys to No 10 | John Crace
Continue reading...July 3, 2019
It’s the autumn of 2020 and no-deal Britain is on its knees… | Martin Kettle
It was Sunday 1 November 2020. The helicopter carrying his hush-hush VIP visitor was expected soon. Staring through the Chequers windows at the lawn where the unmarked Sea King would soon land, prime minister Boris Johnson could hardly believe what he was about to do.
Even by his standards, it had been a year of scrapes, of winging it and of close-run things that would have destroyed another leader. In the summer of 2019 he had defeated Jeremy Hunt by an unexpectedly narrow margin. A year ago he had led Britain out of the European Union without a deal.
Related: The EU has nominated new leaders – but there will be no Brexit breakthrough | Anand Menon
Continue reading...July 2, 2019
The Marriage of Figaro review – zippy Mozart for the #metoo era with gender swap
Royal Opera House, London
This revival of David McVicar’s wonderful 2006 production sees an uneven cast and John Eliot Gardiner’s conducting sometimes too overbearing
A good performance of Le Nozze di Figaro always has more going for it than most other operatic experiences. The latest Covent Garden revival of David McVicar’s 2006 production is like that. It’s Figaro, so it’s wonderful. But that doesn’t mean it is without problems.
McVicar’s staging, updated to the 1820s, is one example. The indoor scenes are taut and full of social insights. The servants are rarely out of sight or mind. And this is very much a reading for the #MeToo era. But there is a dramatic slackness in the always difficult nocturnal final act, which means the opera loses its way until Mozart comes to the rescue in the transcendent final scene.
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