Richard Morrison

London

Chief Culture Writer and Critic at The Times

Chronicler of the arts and heritage scene as chief culture writer and chief music critic of The Times. And for light relief: obsessed choir director

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Articles

William Boyd: How I turned Chekhov into an opera

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Richard Morrison

Imagine that the great 19th-century Russian writer Anton Chekhov had penned an opera libretto with passionate music by his compatriot Alexander Scriabin. And that scenes from this opera, about two women in love with the same man, were being rehearsed in front of us. And that, as is sometimes known to happen in rehearsals, the singers start getting entangled with each other in real life. Well, no need to imagine any further.
The 50 hottest tickets to book now for summer - chosen by our critics

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Donald Hutera |Kevin Maher |Richard Morrison |Dominic Maxwell

Theatre, by Clive DavisDear EnglandUpdated to take account of the end of Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England football manager, James Graham’s love letter to the beautiful game has enticed a new audience into the theatre. A national tour awaits in the autumn. The Lowry, Salford, to Jun 29, thelowry.comHerculesThe Disney megabucks machine recycles the jaunty animated film that captivated young audiences nearly 30 years ago.
RLPO/Wigglesworth review - a beguiling song cycle soaked in nature

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Richard Morrison

Sitting in Liverpool’s gorgeous art deco Philharmonic Hall amid a large audience clearly listening intently to a new song cycle by a young British composer was both reassuring and rewarding. Reassuring that so many rising classical composers have now reconnected with the public, to the extent that audiences are no longer put off by the word “premiere” in an orchestral programme, as they certainly were in the late 20th century.
Welcome to the Tesco National Theatre: it could happen - but should it?

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Richard Morrison

I remember exactly how I felt when I first entered the Shakespeare North Playhouse, just before it opened three years ago. I gasped. The interior of a 17th-century theatre designed by Inigo Jones had been authentically recreated, using 60 tonnes of beautiful English oak, in Prescot, a far-from-wealthy town ten miles east of Liverpool. I wasn’t just astounded by the woodwork.
an exhilarating meeting of accordion and violin

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Richard Morrison
We fixed failing schools. Why is Labour interfering?

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Richard Morrison

Will the real David Ross please stand up? I've been invited to his London office, in that insanely priced bit of real estate next to Green Park, to talk to the man about his arts festival at Nevill Holt Hall - the modest little 90-room mansion and 1,400-acre estate in Leicestershire that he calls home. But my mind is desperately trying to sift through his other lives.
'I hated being charming to important conductors'

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Richard Morrison
a jaunty apocalypse and a murky Vespers

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Richard Morrison
The Barbican has never been fit for purpose

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Richard Morrison

Doubtless the hacks and gossips of 17th-century London laughed mockingly every time Christopher Wren announced another delay to the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral. But at least it was finished. I can't muster such optimism about some heritage projects that I was reporting on in my first years in journalism, yet which seem no nearer completion now. One is the proposal to dig a road tunnel under the Stonehenge site. It's as if we've been watching the same tedious debate on a time loop for 30 years.
The Barbican has never been fit for purpose

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Richard Morrison