Ian Bostridge
The Apostle of Aldeburgh
Benjamin Britten’s festival proves that in music small is beautiful
Hard to Swallow
When thinking about my voice, I’m more comfortable with metaphor than physiology
Mesmeric Modulations
Two 19th-century novels reveal contrasting attitudes to music and its place in Jewish culture
Love in the Time of Cholera
Death in Venice poses many questions, among them: moustache or no moustache?
Enough to Make You Spit
A common cold or the flu can spell disaster for a professional singer
Timing is Everything
Music grapples with time and transcends philosophy
Serious Music for Serious Times
There is an extraordinary fit between Japanese musical tastes and German Lieder
Suffer the Children
Young people can be inspirational in the audience, problematic on stage
The Subtle Subversive
Unlike rock’s phoney rebelliousness, classical music still has the power to challenge entrenched ideas
There’s no Place Like Home for a Singer
Intimacy, authenticity and domescity combine to make for a great performance
Tolerating the intolerant
“For those who thought that a global pandemic would sound the death knell for identity politics, think again”
How to prevent the next pandemic
‘I have been reporting as a science journalist for years that the world is at increasing risk of pandemics like this; that this was predicted; that we know what we need to do to prepare and we simply haven’t done it; and that more and worse pandemics are coming so we need to do that, now’
D’où parles-tu? The post-truth world
Power, illusion and the open society: how postmodernism undermines our foundational concepts