http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/ The Oxford Times /leisure/music/ en-gb Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:39:11 +0100 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:39:11 +0100 http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/rssterms/ M6 nvincent@newsquest.co.uk (Nigel Vincent) webmaster@digitalmedia.newsquest.co.uk (Tim Joy) http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/resources/images/727338/?type=rsslogo http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/ http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4469138.Cornbury_Festival_preview/?ref=rss REG LITTLE looks ahead to next weekend’s Cornbury Festival Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:00:00 +0100 19e0387fb77d4df139e1d6f5059138b0 http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4469271.Ramadan_Moon/?ref=rss Oxford illustrator Shirin Adl, who grew up in Iran, has collaborated with Muslim convert Na’ima Robert to produce Ramadan Moon (Frances Lincoln, £11.99) a lyrical picture book which captures the spirit of the festival for young children. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:40:00 +0100 8c13447b9a84f71b9bba51ec49e6c230 http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4469277.Return_to_childhood_haunts/?ref=rss Nicholas Shakespeare, former literary editor of the Daily Telegraph, acclaimed novelist and biographer, meets me in the St. Giles Café, a tiny, 1960s-era time capsule. The small, bustling place is lorded over by a lady owner who, following an hour’s wide-ranging conversation, barks at us: “You’ve been here for over an hour now. I have a business to run and I don’t want to turn away customers.” Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:40:00 +0100 152f13d383b21217cc014baba5be46de http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4469268.Return_of_the_Fat_Man/?ref=rss IDNIGHT FUGUE Reginald Hill (HarperCollins, £17.99) Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:30:00 +0100 80a0eafde9e1b9da25742014e704cbf7 http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4469336.Perelandra__Keble_College/?ref=rss History was in the making last week in Oxford, when an opera that has lain dormant for over 40 years was finally given a long-overdue showing. Perelandra, based on C.S. Lewis’s novel of the same name, was written in the early 1960s by Donald Swann (of Flanders and Swann fame) and librettist David Marsh, together successfully exploiting the operatic qualities that Lewis himself saw in his novel. The libretto, which Lewis considered “stunningly good”, was overlaid with Swann’s richly melodic score, which drew on sources ranging from the classical traditions to Greek folk song, to produce an immensely dramatic and compelling work. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:02:40 +0100 00cd2e0862682e1a34213560aff4e26b http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4469296.Local_author/?ref=rss Oxford-born journalist Ros Wynne-Jones, who as a student worked at The Oxford Times during her holidays, has published her first novel. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:49:46 +0100 9fad5975f39dd8dd2e03180f8918a9e4 http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4469251.Nightmare_led_to_bestselling_book/?ref=rss In the early summer of 2005, crime writer Simon Kernick was reaching the final stages of his fifth novel, a hefty, heavily researched thriller that “touched on the area of terrorism”. Then, on the morning of July 7, four young men joined the throngs of London commuters on their way to work carrying rucksacks stuffed full with explosives. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:37:27 +0100 dd24ae5b8766893b2274bbb48b7c3de1 http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4469264.Just_a_phrase_I_m_going_through/?ref=rss JUST A PHRASE I’M GOING THROUGH: Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:39:38 +0100 cee594bce58a8eaa3576cfe1464fd7c6 http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4458348.Oxford_Bach_Choir__Sheldonian_Theatre/?ref=rss The Oxford Bach Choir broke new ground last Saturday – and had they not done so, one might have suspected more than a touch of midsummer madness – with a programme of Gershwin (a Gershwin Portrait comprising many of his greatest hits, arranged by Mac Huff) followed by Kern and Hammerstein’s Show Boat in an abridged concert performance. There may have been the occasional Oxford accent on the Broadway stage, but the overwhelming experience, delivered with crispness and rhythmic verve, and much enjoyed and appreciated by the audience, was of a choir responding with enthusiasm and musical skill to this repertoire far removed from its staple fare of the classical choral masterpieces. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:31:24 +0100 5e579c14a7465fedc635c24dbe1c1bfe http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/music/4458340.Mirandolina__Garsington_Opera/?ref=rss Carlo Goldoni was a comedy writer so prolific – with more than 150 plays to his name, plus several dozen libretti – that our own Sir Alan Ayckbourn (72 plays so far, and rising) looks costive in comparison. Garsington has in the past delighted audiences with two Haydn operas for which he supplied the words, Il mondo della luna and La pescatrici (which is being given this year by Bampton Opera on July 17 and 18). Now, in its 20th year, the festival offers a third in the British premiere of Bohuslav Martinu’s Mirandolina. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:29:34 +0100 f37e4df2649edd1aa647d07a6190db26