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Articles by Michael Stuart

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About Michael Stuart

After university, Michael spent twelve years working for MELODY MAKER before going freelance. He claims to keep doing it because it is all he knows. More Posts

Cosi fan tutte ( Glyndebourne) & opera v musicals

Last night I saw Cosi fan tutte at Glyndebourne. It was the third cooperation between Mozart and the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. It might be termed opera buffa (comic opera) as it’s light-hearted, even silly, and unlikely to resonate with a modern audience. The story is of two soldier [...]

August 11, 2021 // 0 Comments

The genesis of a song

The creative process of composing a song has always fascinated me. From Schubert to Sheehan some people can compose, most cannot. Some 50 years ago on a family holiday in Rhodes Greece I met the  successful songwriter Peter Callander. His most famous composition was The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde. [...]

April 22, 2021 // 0 Comments

New Year’s Day Concert/Vienna Philarmonic

Yesterday I wrote of an institution little known in this country, Dinner for One.   Today I write of a concert known throughout the world, the traditional one of the Vienna Philharmonic on New Years Day, normally held at the Schoenbrunn Palace but this year in their concert hall. Tickets are gold [...]

January 2, 2021 // 0 Comments

Dinner for One

Many years ago I was asked to advise on a copyright issue by the widow of the comedian Freddie Frinton. Her late husband had the rights passed to her of a sketch he put on in music hall in Blackpool called Dinner for One. The film of this is played every year on German TV and other countries and is [...]

January 1, 2021 // 0 Comments

The day I finally got “The Boss”

This is another in my occasional series of musical items I have either discovered or returned to in the period since the Covid-19 pandemic began its tiresome journey around the world. Bruce Springsteen needs no introduction – he’s one of the USA’s all-time biggest musical icons and I’m not [...]

August 31, 2020 // 0 Comments

The legend of Brian Wilson – and perhaps what might have been

Another in my series referencing music and musicians – mostly from eras that Rusters generally will be familiar with and/or recall with affection – with assistance from videos or other items that I’ve found online since the Covid-19 crisis hit the world. It could be argued that the culture of [...]

August 13, 2020 // 0 Comments

A tutor who gets his message across well

Here’s another in my occasional series of musical ‘treats’ that I have come across whilst doodling around on the internet since the coronavirus pandemic and the UK lockdown began. Despite having spent the bulk of my working life in and around the music industry I don’t have [...]

August 9, 2020 // 0 Comments

Book review: Utopia Avenue (Part 2)

This is the second part (of two) of my review of Utopia Avenue, the latest novel by David Mitchell just released in the UK. To build upon the themes I touched upon in Part One, I must register that normally I avoid fiction like the plague and hitherto had neither been aware of Mitchell’s [...]

July 29, 2020 // 0 Comments

Book Review: Utopia Avenue (Part 1)

This is a book review with a  difference – a statement I should not be permitted to make here without supplying some sort of justification and I begin by seeking to supply a two-pronged one. Firstly, it arises as a result of one of the ‘signs of our times’ – an online Zoom one-to-one [...]

July 28, 2020 // 0 Comments

Peter Green RIP

Overnight, no doubt like many of my vintage with an interest in popular music, I was deeply saddened to learn the news that guitarist Peter Green had died at the age of 73. In penning this piece I shall leave others who take the trouble to go public with their appreciations – not least media [...]

July 26, 2020 // 0 Comments

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