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Belters and bohemians: Opera Locos @Sadlers_wells

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At the start of the Opera Locos performance, the announcement says that they really are singing. You could be forgiven for wondering that, given the amplification turns up the backing track and the voices so loud that you can't always tell what's real. But this is a mostly harmless and slightly eccentric blend of opera classics fused with the occasional pop classic. However, recognising the pop tunes would help if you were over a certain age. The most recent of them dates back twenty years. It's currently playing at the Peacock Theatre .  Five performers play out a variety of archetype opera characters. There's the worn-out tenor (Jesús Álvarez), the macho baritone (Enrique Sánchez-Ramos), the eccentric counter-tenor (Michaël Kone), the dreamy soprano (María Rey-Joly) and the wild mezzo-soprano (Mayca Teba). Since my singing days, I haven't recognised these types of performers. However, once, I recall a conductor saying he wanted no mezzo-sopranos singing with the s

In the news during the week

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evening standard , originally uploaded by quarsan . Crossrail, Spice Girls and another Maddy story. London has it all...

News: Doris's Crack on show at the Tate Modern

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Doris Salcedo "Shibboleth" at Tate Modern , originally uploaded by darrenjle15 . All the talk this week has been around Doris Salcedo's Shibboleth (otherwise known as Doris's crack) at the Tate Modern , which chops up the floor of the Turbine Hall to represent the great divide... This photo was taken by a Flickr visitor, but the story today was that two people fell into the crack at a private viewing... But were they pissed? I was at the Tate on the weekend but the crack was under wraps. Now that is on show and people are falling over themselves to get into it, it is on the list of things to do...

Theatre: Parade

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Source: www.donmarwarehouse.com I found myself having a discussion this week with a lady who suggested to me that Parade at the Donmar is the type of music theatre that young men go for. I was thinking about this all last night as I watched this great production. Is there something about (relative) youth that makes one enjoy a music piece about a Jewish factory owner who is accused of raping and murdering a young girl, found guilty and sentenced to death only to have his sentenced commuted but then lynched by an angry mob? Ok so it isn't the happiest night at the theatre but it was so well told, well sung and well staged you didn't mind the lynching and the preaching. You even had to look hard to see the trademark Donmar black brick wall. Looking around the theatre there was an over-representation of young men there interspersed among the usual Donmar types. The story is based on the true story of Leo Frank and the press frenzy that was whipped up by the case. The show works b

This week in the news

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HOT WAX , originally uploaded by the_moog . I hear she was a bit of a babe...

Overheard outside the Scientology Centre on Tottenham Court Road Tuesday Evening

Woman: Oh that was interesting... Man: Yeah it was... Woman: Fancy some KFC?

Hot news this week in London...

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The Brits love their tabloids. , originally uploaded by fueledbycoffee . They may not be able to find her, but she is talking to the Evening Standard about her dad...

Scenes from the East End this week...

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BETHNAL GREEN , originally uploaded by the_moog . Those Bethnal Green rodents are good chameleons...

Theatre: Rhinoceros

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Source: www.royalcourttheatre.com Saturday night I found myself with Fliss at Rhinoceros at the Royal Court . I figured any play where pachyderms spontaneously appear and start running around the stage is my kind of show. Besides, I had studied it in high school so I knew it already. Fliss on the other hand declined to investigate further then knowing it was one of those weird-ass plays that Paul drags her to from time to time, but since it was my birthday she was bound to put up with it. Our evening started out as a comedy of manners as Fliss thought my paté starter for dinner looked like dog food (it did). Well that's those Sloan Square bistros for you. But during the second act the evening had taken its absurdist tone, as she leaned over to me and whispered, "You didn't tell me there was going to be full-frontal nudity in this". Well I didn't know that was going to be the case either. She declined to answer whether it was the first time she had seen a middle-a