Oh to Believe in Another World review – Gripping Kentridge and Shostakovich bring Stalin’s age of betrayal to life

Multitudes festival, London The artist’s potent animated film played against a superb live account of the 10th Symphony from Marin Alsop and the Philharmonia Orchestra The 20th century is a cruel farce performed by puppets in a cardboard museum in South African artist William Kentridge’s grotesquely funny, constantly disconcerting film interpretation of Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony. Lenin and Stalin, their faces’ photographs fixed on jerky figures made from scraps, transforming sporadically into living dancers hidden under collaged costumes, monstrously dominate a puppet cast that also includes the bullish-looking but revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky along with Trotsky and Shostakovich himself.It would be stirring in an art gallery with recorded music, but on a big screen in the Royal Festival Hall above Marin Alsop conducting a gripping performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra as part of the Southbank’s Centre’s multidisciplinary Multitudes festival, it became a magic key to both the music and the age of betrayal and mass murder it witnesses. Continue reading...

Comments

Culture

At shops around the Vatican, Pope Francis was a regular customer and a friend

Comments

Similar News

Review: Drama and excitement as star guest conductor takes up the baton at BBC SSO

Maria Somerville: Luster review – a vivid and vital entry in the shoegaze revival

Shostakovich, Boston Symphony Style

The Brightening Air at the Old Vic review: this slice of 1980s Irish life is hilarious and achingly moving

The Brightening Air review – shades of Vanya as a Sligo family squabble, tease and wrestle

Zoé Basha: Gamble review | Jude Rogers's folk album of the month

Review: Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Pirates,’ Now in Jazzy New Orleans

'The Shrouds' introduces a new stage of grief: Watching your loved one decompose

Self Esteem’s third album A Complicated Woman adds theatre to literate lyrical snark

Spring is the only season by Simon Barnes review: a paean to the season

Tom Hardy Netflix thriller 'puts Wales on world map'

Atomfall review – everybody’s gone to the reactor

The Great Gatsby: A New Musical review – what a swell party this ain’t

An Artist’s Journey From the Soviet Union to the Frick

Book Club: Read ‘The Safekeep,’ by Yael van der Wouden, With the Book Review

Book Club: Let’s Talk About Adam Ross’s ‘Playworld’

Bad Friend by Tiffany Watt Smith review – refreshingly frank portraits of female friendship

8 New Movies Our Critics Are Talking About This Week

Louis Theroux’s best documentaries: film-maker returns with look at the Israeli settlers moving into Gaza

Culture

At shops around the Vatican, Pope Francis was a regular customer and a friend

Billy Idol on his first album in over a decade, surviving addiction, the Rock Hall and more

Cameron Mackintosh, one of the last great theater impresarios, has plans for stages everywhere

So you saw 'Conclave' the movie. Here's what it got right - and wrong - about real-life conclaves

Brian Cox slams $1k tickets to see Denzel Washington in Othello: ‘It’s not right’

Hunger Games readers react as fan favorite actor cast in key Sunrise on the Reaping role

Laurence Fox denies sharing upskirting photo of TV star

Penny Lancaster says she threw food she had made for family during menopause

Laurence Fox denies sharing upskirting image of TV star

Study disputes reports of OB-GYNs fleeing abortion-restricting states

Bowen Yang calls JD Vance ‘a pope killer’ sending The View hosts into hysterics

Line of Duty fans will be obsessed with ITV’s new ‘thrilling’ drama

Taylor Swift returns to the top of the UK albums chart

Was Andor right to make sexual assault part of the Star Wars canon?

James Nelson-Joyce: 'the arts are going to be very beige if they're cut off to working class people'

Mummy Pig hosts real-life gender reveal for Peppa’s new baby sibling

Peppa Pig’s baby gender reveal couldn’t be more silly if it tried

Cancel your weekend plans to binge this Netflix thriller fans called ‘exceptional’

Peppa Pig’s real-life baby gender reveal has people questioning their sanity

Celebrity Big Brother star Ella Rae Wise ‘glad she never has to see Mickey Rourke again’

My suspicions about JoJo Siwa were proven right on Celebrity Big Brother

Paddy McGuinness ‘believes he deserved Top Gear pay out’ after Freddie Flintoff crash

Nadia Almada: I almost certainly wouldn’t win Big Brother now as a trans woman

Larry David’s Greatest Feuds - From Seinfeld grudges to blasting Bill Maher

Spring is the only season by Simon Barnes review: a paean to the season

Louis Theroux’s best documentaries: film-maker returns with look at the Israeli settlers moving into Gaza

From huge folk stars to British rock legends, who will perform the Glastonbury secret set?

U.K. Folk Bands Use Centuries-Old Ditties to Discuss Prison Abolition, Trans Rights and the Gig Economy

‘Real Women Have Curves’ Is Now a Broadway Show. Here Are 5 Things to Know.

The 5 best James Bond films ever made – including a record-breaking classic

From climate change to crypto, congressional Republicans are wiping out Biden's regulations

Blake Lively reveals mother was once assaulted by ‘work acquaintance’ amid Justin Baldoni drama

Celebrity Big Brother 2025: Full list of confirmed ITV housemates

‘We are not numbers’: Journalist who lost over 21 family members in Gaza releases new book of Palestinian voices

Netflix chief declares that cinema is near dead as UK theatres like Prince Charles fight for survival

'The Shrouds' introduces a new stage of grief: Watching your loved one decompose

Gender of Peppa Pig’s new baby sibling revealed – is it a boy or a girl?

Lar Park Lincoln death: Friday the 13th star dies at 63

What time is Celebrity Big Brother 2025 final on and how to vote?

What have we learned from the Andrew Flintoff documentary about his Top Gear crash?

The Last of Us: here's every way the series differs from the games

Peppa Pig fans finally discover gender of Mummy Pig's baby in big reveal

Tina Knowles, mother of Beyoncé and Solange, tells her story in new memoir 'Matriarch'

Time 100 Gala Attended by Blake Lively, Demi Moore, Gayle King and Others

Netflix adds eccentric film that gave lead actor a ‘very difficult’ experience

Pakistani star facing film boycott in India says ‘deeply saddened’ after Kashmir terror attack

Celebrity Big Brother fans suspect ‘fix’ after Chris Hughes mentions Katy Perry space flight

Letters: River City was axed because viewers want short-run formats like Shetland

Review: Drama and excitement as star guest conductor takes up the baton at BBC SSO

Olivia Attwood ‘warned’ Celebrity Big Brother 2025 star about ex Chris Hughes

The Simpsons has run into a problem that needs updating in 2025

‘Inspiring’ The Voice Kids singer Karen Silva dies aged 17 after stroke

The Celebrity Big Brother winner is clear – I’ve known it since day one

Matt Goss releases charity single commemorating 80th anniversary of VE Day

Liver King unmasked: Netflix’s explosive documentary reveals truth behind raw meat influencer’s £75m empire

Patrick Adiarte, Actor Seen in Musicals and on ‘M*A*S*H,’ Dies at 82

Pop band Five reveal sneaky Simon Cowell habit during their heyday

Pedro Pascal calls JK Rowling a ‘heinous loser’ in wake of trans ruling

Patrick Adiarte, Actor Seen in Musicals and on ‘MAS*H,’ Dies at 82