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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

Private Passions (Radio 3)

Desert Island Discs has declined in presentation and appeal yet the idea of a subject  talking about himself/herself accompanied by a choice of music is a clever one. Roy Plomley envisioned the programme as a music one. He would discuss the choice over lunch with the castaway at his club, even [...]

April 6, 2020 // 0 Comments

Frank Sinatra Documentary

This documentary directed by Alex Gibney – fully titled as Sinatra – All or Nothing At All and available on Netflix – gives a full and fair account of the 20th Century’s most famous vocalist. In fact there are three Sinatras; the singer, actor and man. The trajectory of his [...]

March 27, 2020 // 0 Comments

The business side of it

For musical Rusters – or even just those fascinated by the music industry, here’s an editorial that appears today upon the website of – THE [...]

March 11, 2020 // 0 Comments

Pay your TV licence … or else

Yesterday I received the renewal demand for my BBC licence costing £154. Under “what else do you need to know” is: “The licence fee must be paid”. I am from that class of person – white middle class, heterosexual – that the BBC no longer want but that does not stop them [...]

February 6, 2020 // 1 Comment

Farewell to a member of the Fab Two

Overnight came the sad news of the death of Neil Innes – a talented musician, humourist, former stalwart of the Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band, Monty Python collaborator and all round good egg – at the age of 75. One way or another, had the cards fallen his way, he could easily have become one [...]

December 31, 2019 // 0 Comments

The festive spirit

Here’s a bit of fun for this time of year. Sometimes I go on the YouTube website in order to entertain myself or remind myself of musical or other performances from the past. Like many websites, YouTube continually ‘remembers’ the choices you make and then offers you new items, on [...]

December 28, 2019 // 0 Comments

Wimpole Street’s song traditions

You think of Wimpole Street more of a medical quarter than Tin Pan Alley but it can lay claim to two famous songs. The first is Yesterday composed by Paul McCartney when he lived in a flat there with Jane Asher whose father was a famous consultant. The tune came to him in a dream which posed a [...]

December 25, 2019 // 0 Comments

Fidelio

In the music course at which I am an irregular attender we have been studying Beethoven. He only wrote one opera which is surprising as the other three major composers of the Viennese School – Haydn, Mozart and Schubert wrote many. He was not short of librettos and many music scholars are [...]

November 21, 2019 // 0 Comments

Elisir D’Amore/ Glyndebourne on tour

After the road crash that was Rigoletto my faith in Glyndebourne was restored last night by its production of Donizetti’s comic opera Elisir d’Amore. It was respectful of the text of the story, had a good set and the singing was excellent, especially the South Korean tenor Sehoon Moon as [...]

October 23, 2019 // 0 Comments

Rigoletto/ Glyndebourne on Tour

Rule One of the New York Stock Exchange: “Know your client. ” It’s something the director of Rigoletto Christiane Lutz might have taken on board. The audience at Glyndebourne is elderly. I saw few there last night under 65. They expect a traditional Rigoletto but this is not what they [...]

October 15, 2019 // 0 Comments

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