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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Barry Millington's rating
Reader rating
Description: Emmanuel Villaume leads the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as they accompany the Russian soprano and Mexican tenor, described by The Guardian as the "...great golden couple" of opera.
Phone: 0845120 7500
Website: www.barbican.org.uk
Email: info@barbican.org.uk
Trains: Tube/BR: Moorgate/Barbican 
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 9am-8pm, Sun 11am-8pm
Extra info: Food, Pub, Parking
Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon: opera's golden couple
They're the new golden couple of opera, and although any romantic linkage between Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon is strenuously denied, few at the Barbican last night believed it. Certainly they've worked closely together of late: first in a controversially chic production of La Traviata in Salzburg and more recently in Massenet's Manon in Los Angeles, where, as here, they won all hearts.
As evident as their star quality is the rapport, both musical and physical, as duets from Manon, La Boheme and Tchaikovsky's Iolanta demonstrated. Caresses and embraces help to make their characterisation credible: you could believe these two were swept off their feet by each other. That was some achievement because the programme's bittiness was exacerbated by the constant processing on and off stage by singers and conductor (the competent Emmanuel Villaume).
It was also a programme that played to the new development of Netrebko' s voice. She is now tackling more of the heavier Italianate repertoire (Puccini, for example), as well as Massenet and Gounod ) as befits a successor to Callas and Gheorghiu. It's a darker, richer, more interesting tone than that she deployed in bel canto. She also modulates it adroitly and can convey both breathless excitement as Gounod's pleasure-seeking Juliette or inhabit the sombre, elegiac world of a Rachmaninov lament.
Villazon sustains a secure, ringing tone, less variable and nuanced than Netrebko's but still thrilling. His delivery of Lensky's doomladen aria from Eugene Onegin was sturdily eloquent rather than heartbreaking.
In a playful piece of theatre, the operatic lovers Mimi and Rodolfo strolled offstage arm in arm, at the end of their duet from La Boheme, sending their top Cs spinning back into the auditorium. Encores included Bernstein's Tonight and a fancy-dress Verdi Brindisi, complete with piratical hook.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
