The FT's new direction is becoming a bit clearer. Many of the arts features have been shunted to the Saturday supplement, along with the listings that appeared in the magazine until now. Clement Crisp's review of The Seven Deadly Sins ("Zenaida Yanowsky does all in her considerable powers to force the drama along, but it is an activity comparable to pushing treacle upstairs".) appears incongruously at the foot of a news page, the once this week that has happened.
Inevitably, less space on weekdays for reviews will mean that more of them will appear online only.
4 comments:
I see from your Tablet review that you are a little less dismissive of Tuckett's new work than Crisp was here, albeit you appear to add it to the list of stagings that have not really worked. I'm afraid it left me awfully flat when I saw it on Friday - something I never thought to say about a ballet involving Zenaida Yanowsky, though the fault was hardly hers, or Martha Wainwright's, for that matter. Is the plot the central weakness? There seems no dramatic contast - neither sin followed by retribution, as in Mozart's Don Giovanni, nor sin with the prospect of redemption, as offered by the Betrayed Girl in de Valois' Rake's Progress. Instead we get the Annas hitting the road, having an unpleasant seven years, but going home finally with the cash to house what sounds like an undeserving family. (Right Anna? Right Anna!) Whatever dramatic resonance this all had in the 30s passed me by. A pity.
PS: On a lighter note - nice picture you used but, with Deadly Sins taking up 50% of the review, perhaps you didn't feel the Tablet readership would appreciate one of the Yanowsky/Nunez shots that adorned so much other press coverage!?
Ian - We didn't use any of the available Deadly Sins stills, as they didn't really work when we tried them on the page....
For another view of the Tuckett, see Giannandrea Poesio's uninhibitedly enthusiastic piece in The Spectator.....
Brendan: you're right! His is quite the most positive review of any that I've seen. He clearly sees more in the Brecht than I did.
brendan. did you teach music in hackney at some pooint? email me at martymcfly@blueyonder.co.uk . thanks Philip & Alex
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