RIP the Monday night blues, as television schedules have been bursting with starry brilliance over the past weeks, unfortunately leaving the rest of the week's television rather bland.

The 1930's based series Dancing On The Edge, written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, follows the Louis Lester band through a...

Mystery, intrigue, agony and bloodshed has captivated us over the last six weeks with this truly epic, almost real, drama.

Channel 4's Utopia, written by Dennis Kelly, follows a group of Internet geeks who find themselves in possession of a manuscript of a cult graphic novel called Utopia, which...

When was the last time you did nothing?

Nothing is no thing, denoting the absence of something. Nothing is a pronoun associated with nothingness. In nontechnical uses, nothing denotes things lacking importance, interest, value, relevance, or significance. Nothingness is the state of being nothing, the state of nonexistence...

Today, MPs are to vote on legalising same sex weddings, but some Tory MPs are to oppose the bill. Conservative activists have signed letters voicing both opposition to the move.

Over the past few weeks, I've watched and listened to the commentary and debate and have been utterly baffled by...

Goethe's masterpiece and perhaps the greatest work in German literature, Faust is one of the central myths of the Western world. Our protagonist, Faust, an audacious man, is a highly successful scholar but one dissatisfied with his life who therefore makes a pact with the devil, Mephistopheles, exchanging his soul...

I'm a going to be blunt: The rain makes you look really ugly, your mood pisses everyone off. We see you smile in the sunshine, you glisten, have your teeth been whitened?

Your many traits: The ones we love and the ones we hate; your dark criminality and your ways...

Every summer I sit amazed and delighted at the BBC Proms audience who so enthusiastically, and yet often politely, applaud between movements while I so often sneakily snigger at the woman, a being of the utmost conventional practice, sitting in front who would always shake her hear in utter disapproval...

In recent times classical music has been referred to as dead. I disagree.

I have been referred to by various others as naïve on this subject; I sit in the concert hall, beaming blissfully happy, utterly content listening to live music without a care in the world; for me, every...

The BBC Proms 2012 season features a total of thirty-three premiere compositions by living composers; nineteen world premieres, of which sixteen of those world premieres are BBC commissions - The BBC Proms has become one of the great platforms supporting contemporary classical music.

Not that I want to belittle...

There is nothing better than a nerdy lunch with one of the world's greatest bass singers discussing Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande. Well, lucky for me, Sir John Tomlinson and I had such a discussion and, luckily for you, I'm about to recall the whole thing in this article.

Celebrating 150...

After last night's Dr Dee, a new opera created by Damon Albarn and director Rufus Norris at the English National Opera, I began thinking over my own, personal, verdict.

Dr Dee was commissioned by the Manchester International Festival,where it received it's first performance in July last year, and the English...

The BBC Proms are around the corner and so here are a few more picks from the ones you'll get to hear during this year's Proms season.

Stuart Skelton
Tenor. Singing the title role in Britten's Peter Grimes. Prom 55 conducted by Edward Gardner on 24th August.

Prom...

The BBC Proms 2012 is now open for booking but don't fret if you are still deciding, here is some guidance from Conductor Martyn Brabbins and Composer Emily Howard and their personal highlights; they both feature in this year's proms season.

Martyn Brabbins
Conductor. He conducts Prom 1,...

When a friend falls sick the least you can do is relieve them of their, one night only, Jessye Norman sings the American masters tickets and, surprisingly enough, I did - I am such a good friend.

After an enchantingly expressive recital of songs of the great American songbook singing...

Every year thousands of classical music fans face the long walk between South Kensington Tube station and the Royal Albert Hall to encounter some of the greatest performances we will ever know. That long walk, up Exhibition Road, gets shorter as the festival progresses and the anticipation builds... Of course,...

Cinema, recently, has become an utterly brilliant cultural asset: That great production of Frankenstein, directed by Danny Boyle with the sharp-jawed Benedict Cumberbatch, that I unfortunately missed, well, it turns out I can go and see it in my local cinema, which therefore means I haven't missed out at all.

At Sunday's Olivier Awards, the most prestigious awards in London theatre, the English National Opera came away with both opera awards. Winning both categories dedicated to Opera: Castor And Pollux won 'Best New Opera Production' and the ENO's breadth and diversity of the artistic programme won 'Outstanding Achievement in Opera'.

I was going to ignore the Rusulka 'booing' saga however after reading several comments suggesting that classical music is being reinvented by expressive audiences I thought I'd jump in - you are very wrong.

My opinion on the matter is that these people have paid to see and...

Where is the line between politics and a work of art? Does politics embed itself in art more than we realise? Is politics a stimulus for a piece of art? Or is it something more?

Perhaps we can relate to Opera, as an art form, because of its political commentary...

Learning from those who have 'been there and done that' is sometimes the way of educating yourself and also the best way of gaining advice on skill, technique, improvement and the future.

The music industry is full of young artists seeking just that - it does help. Connections in these...