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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,
Nick Kimberley's rating
Reader rating
Description: David Atherton conducts the orchestra for Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum, Silbury Air and Verses For Ensembles.
Placing Harrison Birtwistle alongside Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood is eccentric, even perverse programming but that’s what the Proms are for.
Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus may be among the greatest contemporary operas but hardly anyone has seen it.
English National Opera premiered it in 1986, and the BBC mounted one performance in 1996. Since then, nothing.
Now, celebrating Birtwistle’s 75th birthday, the Proms came to the rescue but, no doubt fearing audience resistance, offered only the second act.
Still, it felt complete. Tim Hopkins’s rudimentary staging had the singers zombie-walking around the platform.
The score’s complexity requires two conductors (Martyn Brabbins and Ryan Wigglesworth), yet the orchestra is compact, full of subtle detail, electric guitars, for example, repeatedly combining to magical effect with harps.
Surround-sound electronics transformed the Albert Hall into a huge, snarling beast.
Peter Zinovieff’s ponderous libretto makes a simple story obscure but Birtwistle’s music responds superbly, its repetitions and rituals unfolding with cumulative power.
The vocal lines might be better characterised but the singers (amplified) gave everything.
Alan Oke’s Orpheus was the linchpin, while as Hecate, Claron McFadden, perched high in the organ loft, was the embodiment of coloratura hysteria.
Greenwood’s Popcorn Superhet Receiver proved no more than an extended upbeat.
Building from a simple, keening melody, the slow-moving piece is dense with string glissandos that sometimes resemble an angry swarm of wasps, while an extended pizzicato episode reimagines Britten’s Simply Symphony for the dance-floor.
At half the length, it might have been twice as effective.
In between came Stravinsky’s Apollo, still shocking in its antique newness.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra’s playing was rhythmically acute, perhaps more lush, less stern than Stravinsky imagined. The night, however, was Birtwistle’s.
Repeated 24 August on BBC Radio 3, at 2pm (www.bbc.co.uk/proms).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
