Nick Hammond
Chez Sylvain
Paris Update Flash News BURNT BAR BLUES A Nana Mouskouri album cover amid the debris. A much-loved institution in Paris’s ninth arrondissement, the corner bar Chez Sylvain, went up in flames last week. Although Sylvain himself got out safely, his … Read More
Don Giovanni
The Dark Side of The Don A scene from Michael Haneke’s production of Don Giovanni. Photo: Opéra National de Paris/ Charles Duprat The figure of Don Giovanni (or Don Juan) has long fascinated dramatists, artists and directors alike. He is … Read More
Césars 2012
Cesars VS. Oscars: Which Wins For Worst Awards Ceremony? It might seem difficult to beat the Oscars for toe-curlingly awful acceptance speeches, but the Césars (held two nights before the Oscars, thereby allowing all the stars of The Artist just enough … Read More
La Cenerentola
Jeannette Fischer as Clorinda, Karine Deshayes as Angelina and Anna Wall as Tisbe. Photo: Opéra national de Paris/Agathe Poupeney I must admit to having felt some trepidation in going to see Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella) at the Opéra Garnier this … Read More
Diapasons d’Or
DIAPASONS D’OR One of the highlights of last week’s concert for the Diapasons d’Or, the French equivalent of the Oscars for classical music, was the Young Talent of the Year, soprano Julia Lezhneva, whose sensational performance of one of … Read More
Le Petit Canard
Duck, Duck, No Goose
Click here for a more recent review of this restaurant. A recent survey reported that the current favorite dish of the French is magret de canard, which came as a surprise to me, as it is served relatively rarely in … Read More
La Forza del Destino
Zoran Todorovich as Don Alvaro, Violeta Urmana as Donna Leonora and Kwangchul Youn as Padre Guardiano. Photo: Opéra National de Paris/Andrea Messana Verdi’s La Forza del Destino seems tailor-made for the incomparable Joyce Grenfell’s comic monologue, “Opera Interval,” about a spectator … Read More
L’Exercice de l’État
All the talk in Paris the last couple of weeks has been of the new movie L’Exercice de l’État, which dissects French political life and gives an unflinching insight into the corridors of power. Most of the major newspapers and … Read More
The Artist, Les Biens-Aimés and Le Skylab
Three films first seen at the Cannes Film Festival last summer have opened recently in Paris: The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, for which Jean Dujardin won the prize for best actor at this year’s festival; Christophe Honoré’s new offering, … Read More
Lulu
Men in fedoras watch Lulu’s every move from the shadows. © Opéra National de Paris/Ian Patrick Lulu, the figure inspired by two Franz Wedekind plays, seems to have fascinated writers, composers and filmmakers in the early part of the 20th … Read More