Sarah Vaughan Centennial – Jazz at Lincoln Center Click here to join Click here to hear Misty When I make my list for Desert Island Discs, which I revise at least once a week in the hope that one day I'll be invited onto the long-running BBC radio programme, there’s one entry that never changes. It’s Sarah Vaughan’s Misty. Here’s a 1964 live video of it from Sweden. Irresistible. The power, range, and flexibility of her voice made Sarah Vaughan one of the greatest singers in jazz. With her rich, controlled tone and vibrato, she could create astounding performances on jazz standards, often ..read more

Dead Man Walking - Met Opera On Demand    Click here to watch ​ One of the the Met Opera ‘s most surprising hits in recent seasons has been Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s searing Dead Man Walking. The Met has just made it available online via their invaluable MetOperaOnDemand platform.   The Met Opera has been suffering since Covid from the same ills as most other opera companies, smaller audiences, higher prices, the need to dip into their previously enormous reserve fund, and the public’s apparent ennui with the great 19th century warhorses which have been their bread and ..read more

Frederick Ashton’s Tales of Beatrix Potter – Royal Ballet Click here for tickets Want to see a bunny dance? Of course you do. It’s Easter and here’s the bunny. This is Frederick Ashton’s adorable ballet which he made for a film in 1971, here in a 1992 stage production for the Royal Ballet by Anthony Dowell. Tales of Beatrix Potter brings alive, with rich characterisation and invention, the famous images and stories of Beatrix Potter. Swept up in the ballet's childlike exuberance, the entire cast delivers outstanding portrayals of such colourful figures as Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mr Jeremy Fish ..read more

Annie - 1977 ​Click here to watch My first goddaughter (I have lots but she was the first) is now a grown up professional, a partner in a big firm, but she’s always been an actor manque. At the age of three she was taken to her first musical. Annie. All the little girls on the stage, singing, looked like somewhere she should be, so she ran down the aisle to join them, with her father in hot but distant pursuit. She did not take kindly to being thwarted in her quest for stardom. In fairness, Annie has that effect on many little girls and many big girls too. Its score, by Strouse and Charnin ..read more

Sea of Troubles – Yorke Dance Project Click here for tix Yorke Dance Project's made-for-film production of Sir Kenneth MacMillan's Sea of Troubles breathes new life into an acclaimed classic. In 1988, choreographer Kenneth MacMillan captivated audiences with his emotionally charged interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet In 2017, the Yorke Dance Project revived the work, creating an atmospheric film adaptation that tastefully enhances MacMillan's vision of Hamlet's turbulent world. Directed by the documentary director David Stewart, this visually stunning production brings MacMil ..read more

The Father and the Assassin – National Theatre Click here for tickets This brilliantly entertaining historical drama has just become available online from the National Theatre. Its two protagonists are Mahatma Gandhi: lawyer, champion of non-violence, beloved leader of millions, father of his country, and the man who killed him,  Nathuram Godse who, except for that one act of violent protest, might have disappeared from history without trace. It traces Godse’s life over 30 years during India’s fight for independence when he went from being a devout follower of Gandhi, until his radica ..read more

Yayoi Kusama – Infiniti Click here to watch This is one of the best documentaries about an artist that I’ve seen. Now 94, Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, and is also active in painting, performance, video art, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. Although she’s very famous in the modern art world, I wasn’t familiar with her work – except for her obsession with polkadots – but quickly became absorbed by this film’s ability to recreate the atmosphere in which she struggled and then flourished. Kusama wasn't always th ..read more

Seiji Ozawa conducts Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, and Stravinsky Click here to watch  ​ The "captivating, transformative" conductor Seiji Ozawa (New York Times) died last week at 88, following a barrier-breaking career at the top of his profession. A one-time student of Herbert von Karajan and assistant under Leonard Bernstein, Ozawa became the first Japanese conductor to attain superstar status and lead the world's greatest ensembles, including a record 29-year tenure at the head of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It would take hundreds of thousands of words to begi ..read more

Renoir’s The Umbrellas - National Gallery  Click here to watch Join us for a rainy day in Paris as National Gallery Educator, Belle Smith, introduces us to The Umbrellas (about 1881–6) by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919). It was presented at an Impressionist exhibition in New York in 1886. Immerse yourself in the crowd beneath their brollies. Observe how their hands and feet intertwine in the composition of bright oranges, blues and greens. What do you think the expressions of the young woman and little girl, looking out at us from the picture, are saying? And why d ..read more

Chita Rivera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DlCbVELkS8&t=171s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9udhojGtO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJWBJgXuhcc   A Broadway legend left us this week when Chita Rivera died at 91. In an era when every singer, dancer and actor talked about becoming “an all-round entertainer”, Chita really was. Although she did movies and television and cabaret, she was the quintessential Broadway stage leading lady. Chita was the original everything and if we may be forgiven for our memories connecting primarily with her Anita in the original cast of West Side ..read more