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An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
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Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Fiona Maddocks's rating
Reader rating
You can write off the work of Philip Glass as repetitive, punchy minimalism stuck in time past, or you can open your ears and discover the subtlety and astonishing beauty in the music of a composer in his 70s still finding new things to say.
Glass’s bewitching 2005 opera Waiting for the Barbarians was given its UK premiere last night in a sold-out performance at the Barbican.
Based on JM Coetzee’s novel of the same name, the piece explores — to a conversational libretto by Christopher Hampton — the struggle between oppressor and oppressed, duty and conscience. A Magistrate (Richard Salter) decides to take care of a barbarian girl, blind, tortured and crippled. For his humane action, he is branded a traitor.
We are not told the time or the place. As ever with Glass, this is our history and all history, but we sense the backdrop is Iraq.
Dennis Russell Davies, a long-term Glass associate, conducted the well-drilled Orchestra of Erfurt Theatre, where the work was first performed.
An eloquent cast, led by Salter and Eugene Perry, captured the mood of elegiac, detached clarity, made powerful by a score which holds much in reserve.
Variety is created from a narrow range of material, like patterns made from earth and sand. The chorus, often wordless, adds further texture.
Yes, the hallmark arpeggio figures, throbbing brass and falling flute figurations were there but only as a starting point for extended melody and sensuous orchestral colour.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Dear Mr. Evans,
In your reader review of 'Waiting for the Barbarians' at the Barbican you say we were 'waaay too slow'. In fact, Denis Russell Davies is in cahoots with Philip Glass and I think should be trusted to choose the right tempi.
There are not many tempo changes and there is anyway not much written variation in dynamics. I think you may have been expecting a John Adams piece? Actually, we had a lovely time performing in the splendid Barbican Hall and the audience seemed, if applause is anything to go by, to have appreciated our 'flat' efforts. By the way, the musicians received no overtime for their performance. Perhaps we have lived with the piece long enough now to appreciate its understated power. I am otherwise a Schoenberg fan so this has surprised me. Perhaps you could listen to the live recording and let the piece get to you, it's worth it I reckon although the performance on CD is less differentiated than what we did at the Barbican, because of course we were recorded live on a large opera stage.
- Richard Salter, Munich Germany
Waaay too slow - lost all Glass character. performance was flat - lack of meaningful tempo change, and a lack of dynamics. At least the musicians' got their overtime for finishing 15 mins later than they should have.
- Dylan Evans, London, UK
