Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
The problem with jokes, unlike music, is that they are great to hear once, but the more they are repeated the more irritating they become. Having this concert on May the Fourth did nothing to change my mind on that, but it did allow me to indulge in a totally unscientific and subjective experiment. I…
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If you doubt the power of music then let me tell you that the medium has done something that even God has failed to do – get me to go to church on a Sunday! I have become quite the fan of Leeds Baroque Choir and Orchestra since being introduced to them by a friend…
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To mark Bradford’s tenure as UK City of Culture, Opera North decided to spread the love and stage the first two performances of the 2025 Tour of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra at St Georges Hall, handily situated across the road from the Interchange. I say ‘staged’ advisedly, as that is the term used to describe the…
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As someone who describes himself as a lapsed atheist, it was strange to find myself listening to religious music on a Sunday. The reason for my attendance was to witness the first of the year’s events marking the 25th Anniversary Season of Leeds Baroque Choir and Orchestra. I do like Baroque music but associate it…
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Jane Eyre was not a novel on the reading list of a slum kid from East Leeds in the 1950s even though it was written by a Yorkshirewoman about an orphan girl who grew up in hardship. My first encounter with Ms Eyre was a television adaptation in 1963 on a small black and white…
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Somebody, somewhere, must be taking notice of the stuff I write because, after complaining about the inability to catch the names of a lot of the pieces played in concerts due to their being in a foreign language or the lack of a programme/set list – neither being the fault of Howard Assembly Room –…
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After my overdose of The Magic Flute, it is folk music which seems to have filled the void. I pointed out that the artists on last week’s gig were individual performers, being support and main act, here we had two artists who were a duo, but also appeared singly as their own warm-up. Kerching! Aidan…
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For once I went to a concert at the spectacular Howard Assembly Room knowing what I was going to get, rather than opening myself up to a form of music with which I was not familiar. I have always enjoyed the music of Django Reinhardt and his long-time musical partner, Stéphane Grappelli, co-founders of the…
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Well, that’s that then. I have completed the Grand Slam of The Magic Flute. I have seen the September 2024 production, the February 2025 one, which was the same but with a few cast changes, the free, 40-minute pop-up version performed in Holbeck Working Men’s Club in June, 2021, The 30-minute rendering in County Arcade,…
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Now here’s something I have never done before – seen the same production twice. For those of you who are paying attention, you will notice that I have copied my original review and posted it next to this. I thought it would save you scrolling to last September, when The Magic Flute began its run.…
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Tyke It To The Limit 