OpinionGermanyThe empty boots of German farmers tell a story of hardship, fuel wars and far-right threatEva von RedeckerRural protests draw on a populist playbook. But farmers’ legitimate grievances could be addressed with progressive policies
In my local area in rural Brandenburg, every village signpost offers the same harrowing sight: a pair of wellingtons dangling from the metal frame, often marked with a cross sprayed on to the green rubber. The boots started appearing just before Christmas after the German government, a coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals, announced that tax exemptions for farm vehicles and diesel would be scrapped. Read More...
OperaThe director of Opera North’s reworking of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s classic tale explains how a once nationalist art form can retain its power in our global age
If you are Russian, chances are you spent your childhood Christmases watching the 1952 animation of The Snow Maiden on television. This beautiful film is based on Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s much loved opera, which in turn takes its story (based on a Russian fairytale) from Alexander Ostrovsky’s 1873 play. Read More...
Brian SewellObituaryBrian Sewell obituaryBritain’s most outspoken art critic, he went on to become an outraged commentator on politicsBrian Sewell, who has died aged 84, was for many years the best-known, most outspoken and most widely read art critic in Britain. His column in the Evening Standard was loved by London’s strap-hangers, even when they knew nothing about the artists he was laying into. In recent times, he wrote with equal fury on a vast range of other subjects, particularly the postures of political leaders, which eventually won him the Orwell prize for political writing. Read More...
