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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

Ginger Baker – RIP

Going back to the Dark Ages when I was a teenager I have to be honest and admit the brilliance and joys of the supergroup Cream – rightly lauded as a seminal influence upon rock musicianship and heavy metal music – rather passed me by. Perhaps in those days I was a bit of a wimp. While [...]

October 7, 2019 // 0 Comments

Mendelssohn’s Elijah/Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Last night at the Royal Festival Hall I attended a performance of Elijah, first performed in 1846 in Birmingham Town Hall. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was something of a young prodigy and also popular in Great Britain. This oratorio employs soloists, a choir, orchestra and organist so you get as [...]

October 4, 2019 // 0 Comments

And in The End …

It is in the nature of things that at a Ruster’s stage of life reminders of tempus fugit – welcome or otherwise – tend to come thick and fast in all areas of existence. Recently in the field of music a new edition of the Beatles’ penultimately released (but last recorded) album Abbey Road, [...]

October 3, 2019 // 0 Comments

Magic Flute/Glyndebourne & related PC issues

Yesterday I did something I rarely if ever do, namely to cancel my trip to Glyndebourne to see The Magic Flute. The driver who takes me – normally most reliable – called at midday to report he was unwell. This meant I had to find alternative transport. Other factors in my decision were [...]

July 31, 2019 // 0 Comments

Verona Opera

Since the raison d’etre of the trip was opera I have been given my very own post on it. It’s unique among international opera for being in an open arena, not an Opera House. This does create problems as the facilities are poor, especially the loos for which you had to queue and were smelly. The [...]

July 27, 2019 // 0 Comments

Tombs churches & opera

The many reasons I love Italy are reflected in this hotel: there is the connection and pride in Italy’s classical antiquity. On the bed the turn-down service had left a booklet on the tombs of the ruling Scala family which we visited first thing and very fine sepulchres these were too. Second, [...]

July 24, 2019 // 0 Comments

Remembering lunar exploration

The programmes commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the landing on the moon prompted me to research my memory banks. My interest began before 1969 with Herge’s Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon published some 10 years before. It’s different from other Tintin adventures in that [...]

July 17, 2019 // 0 Comments

Rod Stewart at Hove

Hard to believe (or should it be Reason to Believe?) that Rod Stewart made his first recording 50 years ago when he was 24. I can recall him on Top of the Pops throwing his microphone in the air, kicking footballs into the audience, rasping voice … and enjoying himself. 50 years later at Hove [...]

July 13, 2019 // 0 Comments

The Killers play Glastonbury

About the second thing that occurred to me last night as I tuned into the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury is that there ought to have been – ought to be – be a musical subset of The Great Rust Debate On Whether (For Best Appreciation Of An Event Or Contest) It Is Better To Be Physically [...]

June 30, 2019 // 0 Comments

Damnation of Faust/ Glyndebourne

Critics of live performances in the arts rarely give you the audience reaction. Sportswriters more commonly include the crowd – in football, the reaction to a substitution, to tactics or even an individual performance. This does not happen with arts reviewers even though I would suggest that [...]

June 20, 2019 // 0 Comments

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