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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I am often astounded by where artists get ideas for their work but this exhibition had even me surprised. The name for the branch in question is Bioart and is a marriage between art and science, with, as its name suggests, a leaning towards biology. As Edward Appleyard, Chief Executive of Thackray Museum of Medicine,…
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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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imitating the dog have made their name by staging productions which do not conform to the norm, even their name has no upper case letters. I find that last fact extremely irritating but the first one usually compensates by stretching the audience’s intellectual boundaries. This piece was no different in that the telling of the…
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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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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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Tyke It To The Limit 