the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever

This is the most abysmal, pathetic thing. The BBC head resigning because the corporation is not supine *enough* to the far-right.

Not a moment too soon. Several years too late.

The once honourable BBC has become a partisan lickspittle that exists to advance right wing interests. The @teamlabouruk.bsky.social Government should intervene without fear or favour. Remove the current disgraceful/disgraced Chairman and install an apolitical and neutral expert in his place.

Never in the past 15 years has British Media lead by BBC & Sky been more awake and alert for issues that for the past 15 years they totally ignored 🙄🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️

We are down to needing 168 food hampers for families in poverty for Christmas time please keep sharing we really appreciate all shares and help we can thank you all so much @grahunt.bsky.social @markvalencia.bsky.social @bdb.bsky.social @shedjudall.bsky.social l @trevorlfc01.bsky.social #redsky

In case this is useful to anyone who may not otherwise have seen it…

Jaywick may be England’s poorest place, but it’s rich in community. From music events to mentoring, residents are rebuilding pride from the ground up. eastangliabylines.co.uk/business/eco...

My night with EM @bachtrack.com

Yes, but Mrs V got it in 1/6 Wordle 1,603 2/6 ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wonderfully clear-eyed, well-argued and convincing response to an entire production. Bravo @markvalencia.bsky.social

For me, the saddest thing about Katie Mitchell today is her brilliance 20 years ago. Nowadays she's lampooned for her obsessive clichés but back then she directed some of the finest Chekhov I've ever seen and a version of Strindberg's A Dream Play that was unforgettable in its coherence and fluency.

Fully removing the two-child benefit cap is the most effective way to support struggling families. It would lift 470,000 children out of severe hardship. That’s a no brainer, isn’t it?!

Yup, five-star-music, fewer-for-drama, though I'm a little bit more forgiving of the latter than this excellent review. #TheMakropulosCase

My night with EM @bachtrack.com

Tonight I'll be at the Royal Opera House for the opening of Janacek's dramatic fantasy The Makropulos Case. Katie Mitchell directs, Jakub Hrusa conducts, Ausrine Stundyte is all the EMs. Reviewing this wonderful opera for @bachtrack.com

The modern world in old Ladybird books. The diesel. “It is sad to think that the last steam locomotive to be built in Britain left the workshops in March, 1960” Artist: Robert Ayton (1961)

I’m going tonight. Almost a totally different cast from the one you saw, so I hope I enjoy it as much as you seem to have done. I’ve seen Rheinnixen once before, when New Sussex Opera brought it to Cadogan Hall.

I wish everyone would lay off Jaywick Sands. To damn it nationally isn't going to help the town to develop self respect. It didn't help that Deborah Warner used it as the model of a dysfunctional community in her production of Peter Grimes.

So the letting agent has apologised for their screwup, not applying for a rental license on Reeve’s behalf.. So how long will Chris Mason & Laura Kuenssberg pick this to pieces, given they buried Farage allegedly avoiding £44K stamp duty, and his girlfriend, being investigated for fraud so fast🤔

Wordle 1,594 2/6 ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Once in a while the odd thing happens

To Battersea Arts Centre tonight for the latest offering by @gothicopera.bsky.social, who had a terrific 2024 with Der Vampyr and Maria de Rudenz. Offenbach tonight: a rare chance to hear the famous Barcarolle in its original guise within the rustic romance Die Rheinnixen. Reviewing for Opera.

Ted Huffman is a bold and imaginative choice as the new General Director of the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Terrific news!

Come on @bethrigby.bsky.social, it's time to be up front about your political leanings. Try completing the following for us: "I am persistently biased towards right wing parties because..."

The only way Waitrose could have dug a deeper moral hole for themselves would have been for some sanctimonious higher-up with eyes on falling sales to wring their greasy, be-ringed hands and say they want to welcome him back. And lo, it came to pass. news.sky.com/story/autist...

Please keep sharing we have not been able to help this family yet and shares or help be grateful 🙏 thank you @fitzkop.bsky.social @apdubb1234.bsky.social @shedjudall.bsky.social @aidan456.bsky.social @paddyjsmith.bsky.social @markvalencia.bsky.social #redsky #ynwa

As Chiquitito blasted out from the speakers in Stockholm Airport I fleetingly thought 'Blimey, they even have Abba in Sweden.'

Wordle 1,585 2/6 🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Kapow!

On my way to Stockholm for a thing

I normally make a song & dance about the show I'm seeing of an evening but today, unaccountably, I forgot to post that I'd be on my way to Glyndebourne for La bohème. Now that it's over I'm all of a quiver so that's not much use. Reviewing for Opera when I get my equilibrium back.

Public service announcement: My Handel double review of Susanna (Opera North) and Giustino (Linbury at ROH) has now been published by Musical America ($) if you're able to read it.

Q: Can you name an opera with two short legs? A: Britten's Albert Herring (in ENO's new production) The first leg opens tonight at the London Coliseum, the second in Salford shortly afterwards. Two shows at each venue. I'm reviewing tonight's opener for Opera magazine.

A marvellous article and a powerful come-hither for Alexandra Wilson's tellingly titled new book, Someone Else's Music.

EXACTLY! ‘Where once there was a yearning to be “exposed to something extraordinary”, today politicians and arts administrators are besotted by the notion of “relevance”, of the arts as something with which people must immediately identify or recognise.’ observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Please share @shedjudall.bsky.social @silverduke.bsky.social @aidan456.bsky.social @trevorlfc01.bsky.social @markvalencia.bsky.social

Tonight David McVicar's production of The Magic Flute returns to the Royal Opera House. Always an enlightening evening. I'll be there to review it for Opera magazine.

A headline that neatly sums up why I don’t watch Traitors.

In the new edition of Opera there are seven reviews by me. Four from Grimeborn, two from Waterperry and Tosca at the ROH.

I would ask Robert Jenrick why it is that British migrants in Benidorm don't "integrate" when living in Spain? They all live near each other. Eat and drink in English restaurants and bars. It's different though, somehow, when we do the exact same thing, yeah?

More Handel tonight, this time in the Linbury at the ROH. It's a rare outing for his opera Giustino, which I last saw in a student production almost 20 years ago. I'll be reviewing it for Musical America.

It helps to be able to spell the country you say only you are competent enough to run.

Please share 🙏

I do love a hotel breakfast and this one is very good. But it's curdling in my gut because there's a screen here showing Künßberg and Badenough enjoying a cosy chat.

Off to Leeds shortly for the opening of Handel's Susanna, a co-production by @operanorth.co.uk and Phoenix Dance Theatre directed by Olivia Fuchs. I'll be reviewing it for Musical America.

Has anyone spoken to a sentient being on the phone to @virginmediacorp.bsky.social today, or is it just me they're bouncing around in a death spiral? I can't get beyond the inane computerised advice to 'hang tight'. I've been hanging tight (whatever that means) for bloody hours. #angrydude

'Analysis' by Sky News that fails to analyse just how loyally Sky News has facilitated the public profile of Reform. Desperate stuff.

As a classical music writer of sorts my greatest bugbear in others is the word 'blistering'. One of the most inane qualifiers ever coined, yet out it trots with, er, blistering regularity.

Classical music writers just love the word 'gossamer' don't they? I rarely encounter it in any other writing. Now I've learned it's the name of a big hairy Looney Tunes character. From now on I'll assume this is what you mean when you wax lyrical about the gossamer texture of the violin writing.

I was given masks whose ear loops fell off & aprons so flimsy they ripped apart when you tried to put them on, Michelle. Nurses and porters in our hospital died from the Covid they caught there, Michelle. How dare you try to bleat victimisation now, Michelle?