Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
In the words of that esteemed philosopher and New York Yankees baseball catcher in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Yogi Berra, ‘It’s like déjà vu all over again.’ My last visit to a lunchtime concert at Dewsbury Town Hall was to see ‘Baritone, Soprano and Piano’ during which we were treated to a vocal version…
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As I have said before, dance is a language that has always been a mystery to me. When the beat hits my feet I am always the first on the floor and the last one off it, but that is a more primitive version of physical expression than the amazing performances I witnessed in this…
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As a Yorkshireman I do like a bargain, and here we have a buy one, get one free from Opera North. Cavalleria rusticana is only a short opera, lasting just over an hour, so it is usually twinned with another concise work, normally Pagliacci, but tonight it was given a change of partner and performed…
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I think that I have found my favourite opera so far, and this is it! OK, the work itself is the usual bonkers story which is so daft as to make you wonder what exactly Mozart was on when he wrote it, but the music, staging, singing and acting were so amazing that I could…
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It was lovely to get back to Dewsbury Town Hall for one of their lunchtime concerts. It is like going to a gig at the village fete or the WI, with home-made soup, sandwiches and cake, followed by a presentation. Instead for a ‘humorous’ speech from the vicar, however, we were treated to a trio…
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Last Thursday saw the latest in the Distilled series of concerts. Sadly we didn’t get a complimentary dram to see us through the evening, but something just as intoxicating in Mahler’s 4th Symphony. The name of the event signifies that the work has been distilled into a chamber piece using a much smaller group of…
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Boy bands come and boy bands go but Take That seem to last forever, albeit in truncated form, with two of the original members having left – one of them twice! They were formed in 1990 in Manchester and have had 28 top 40 singles, including 12 number ones, as well as eight number one…
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I feel as though I can now regard myself as a seasoned theatre writer after my visit to this show. It is the first one where I have been to both the world premier and the second version, which is described in the programme as, ‘featuring a re-imagined book and new music.’ The difference between…
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I saw Penguin Cafe for the first time last September when I was so impressed that I made a mental note to watch out for their return. Just over a year later and here they are again, this time with an extra member of the band who began by playing balafon, an African version of…
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I approached this evening with mixed feelings. I saw the film with my mum and dad as a seven-year-old when it was first released and I was bored stiff for most of the two and a quarter hours. The songs were good but the plot, what there is of it, left me cold. When I…
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Tyke It To The Limit 