CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
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Handel makes war
With Europe disunited and in the throes of war DAVID YEARSLEY looks at George Frideric Handel opera Rinaldo composed when conflict engulfed the Old Continent in the 18th century
TONY BURKE speaks to JOEL McIVER, co-author of the biography of bluesman John Mayall
A misfit couple unhappily ever after, a dead man walking, dodgy journos, and trench art trucking
New releases from Javon Jackson, IZE Trio, and Mal Waldron Trio
PAUL DONOVAN applauds an intriguing multi-layered depiction, dominated by a stunning impersonation of Marilyn herself
EWAN CAMERON marvels at the impossible ambition, realised with dreamlike finesse of translating Italo Calvino to the stage
LAST Thursday began for me before dawn when I awoke, went downstairs and watched footage of the night sky above Kiev lit up with the bursts of artillery fire. Looking out through the kitchen window, I imagined the long dark hill west of Ithaca illuminated by exploding shells.
I was as reluctant as the morning, but when the time came an hour later, I climbed one of those icy hills to the Cornell campus to teach my morning class, this one devoted to George Friedrich Handel’s first London opera, Rinaldo. Why bother with such escapist nonsense, however beautiful and thrilling?
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