Stan Graham's Leisure Guide for North and West Yorkshire
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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As someone who takes more than a passing interest in interior design, I was looking forward to seeing this exhibition of the books bequeathed to Leeds University by John Bedford, an antiques dealer who made his name in London, where he began his career in the 1960s by opening a stall in a Kensington Antiques…
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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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We are fortunate in this country, to be able to go about or daily lives without much chance of being caught up in a gun battle. There are obviously exceptions, thankfully rare, where criminals have acquired firearms and used them with devastating results, usually against one another, but sometimes, tragically hitting the wrong people. Most…
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Before I begin this review I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year and explain why my site has lain fallow for such a long time. For the two weeks before Christmas I was on an all-inclusive theatre trip. The food was not up to much and the accommodation a bit basic,…
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I knew that the higher education system was in need of further funding, but when I was invited to view some books donated to the University Library I assumed things were more serious than I thought. I was contemplating taking along my old Jeffrey Archer novels or well-thumbed paperback copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover from…
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The cat is out of the bag, Flat Iron is opening its new branch on Lands Lane, Leeds at noon on Thursday, 30th November. The launching of a new enterprise takes meticulous planning so I am sure that, as one of their specialities is Scottish bavette, it is no coincidence that the doors will be…
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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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Tyke It To The Limit 