Shibuya
June 5, 2010Baggage cart
June 2, 2010
Avion Travel
May 31, 2010The highly-respected Avion Travel ensemble are back in the capital for one date at the enterprising La Palma club. Vocalist Peppe Servillo and Co had been everyone’s favourite unknown band for years until recent Sanremo song festivals, when their blend of Weill and traditional Mediterranean rhythms swept the board of critics’ special awards and attracted Michael Nyman’s attention. Musically inventive and with great theatrical appeal, Avion Travel provides a mannered and eye-catching performance. Also performing with the band tonight is top actor Fabrizio Bentivoglio.
Folk-Whisky Festival
May 28, 2010For over two weeks Moscow clubs and bars will be full of Scottish music and whisky. Moscow’s Celt lovers have organised a local Highland Games for a number of years but this year Famous Grouse whisky will be on tap at 10 different venues along with Scottish musicians. Organisers will also be running a quiz on Scottish history and culture with prizes for the winners. Watch out for one famous local Celt-mad Russian – he’s easy to recognise as he has a ginger beard, plays the bagpipes and wears a kilt.
Old Times
May 25, 2010Harold Pinter’s ‘Old Times’ sees a man sequestering his wife in a country house when her best and only friend from 20 years ago arrives. The usual Pinteresque wit and undercurrent apply when both friend and husband compete for the wife’s affections. The conclusion is unexpectedly devastating. The play is touching, funny and totally engrossing and is surely one of Pinter’s finest moments. This production directed by Aarne Neeme. stars Greta Scacchi.
Blind Boys of Alabama + David Lindley
May 22, 2010It is almost buried amidst the Jazz Fest music overkill, but this concert by the gospel legends the Blind Boys of Alabama and studio musician and producer extraordinaire, David Lindley, is not to be missed. The Blind Boys have been together since 1939 singing African American gospel infused with every music influence of the 20th century. Lindley, known as the magician behind Jackson Browne’s early hits, collaborated on the group’s newest album ‘Spirit of the Century’, which is coming out in April.
Tosca
May 17, 2010Puccini made the main characters of his 1900 romantic melodrama revolutionaries fighting an authoritarian government in Rome, so it’s hardly surprising that one of its more popular interpretations today involves setting it in the same city during the Nazi occupation. Mark Lamos’s production emphasises the political repression, and the stylists go to down depicting police chief Scarpia’s goons as the Gestapo. This version with its accentuated torture, firing squads and contemporary allusions provides a fascinating variation on an opera standard.
Serpentine Gallery
May 16, 2010Kensington Gardens (nr Albert Memorial), W2 (020 7402 6075)
Lancaster Gate or South Kensington tube. Open 10am-6pm daily. Admission free.
Website: http://www.serpentinegallery.org
The Serpentine has
pursued an independent and lively curatorial policy that has won it
many regular visitors. It is housed in a tranquil former tea pavilion
with french windows looking out on to Hyde Park, imbuing the
exhibitions with varying qualities of natural light (depending on the
weather). In 2000 the Serpentine, in collaboration with the Natural
History Museum, will present The Greenhouse Effect ,
a major exhibition of work by 20 young international artists exploring
how art can reinvent or recreate the ‘natural’ world (3 Apr-28 May).
Other planned events include a solo exhibition of Cuban conceptual
artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres to coincide with the gallery’s 30th birthday gala (2 June-16 July) and a show of new work by the American painter Brice Marden (Nov-Jan 2001).
Comedy Brewhouse
May 15, 2010Camden Head, 2 Camden Walk, Camden Passage, N1 (020 7359 0851)
Angel tube. Performances 9pm Fri, Sat. Admission ?5; ?4 students, OAPs, ES40s.
Improv from the Laughing Cavaliers plus a selection of newish stand-ups.
Buena Vista Social Club
May 5, 2010With the help of director Wim Wenders and musician Ry Cooder, the sounds Cuba’s golden age in the 1940s and 1950s which had long been forgotten were unearthed and went on to take the world by storm. Three of these hidden treasures – vocalists Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portundo and pianist Ruben Gonzalez, who featured in Wender’s hit film – revel in the renaissance by bringing their upbeat music to Hong Kong audiences. A must-see.
