Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne review - fabulous singing and a classy production

★★★★ LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, GLYNDEBOURNE Superb music making against the backdrop of a sumptuous Sevillian set

Superb music making against the backdrop of a sumptuous Sevillian set

After two years of Covid-affected performances – even though there was a full season last year – Glyndebourne's annual festival is finally back in full glory. Following the big blaze of Saturday's The Wreckers, Sunday welcomed back Michael Grandage's durable production of a signature treasure, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

Music Reissues Weekly: Dusty Springfield - Dusty Sings Soul

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD - DUSTY SINGS SOUL Twenty-four musical landmarks from the finest British soul singer of her era

Twenty-four musical landmarks from the finest British soul singer of her era

First on were The Supremes with “Baby Love.” Next, The Miracles performed “You Really Got a Hold on me.” After this, Stevie Wonder’s “I Call it Pretty Music But the Old People Call it the Blues,” The Temptations’ “The Way You do the Things You do” and Martha & The Vandellas’ “Heatwave.”

Music Reissues Weekly: My World Fell Down - The John Carter Story

MY WORLD FELL DOWN - THE JOHN CARTER STORY Testament to a one-man music industry

Extensive testament to a one-man music industry

Fat Man’s Music Festival. The Haystack. Red Line Explosion. Stormy Petrel. Butterwick. Sweet Chariot. Names which don't immediately spring to mind.

The factor linking them is also common to 1967’s “Let’s go to San Francisco” hit-makers The Flower Pot Men, The First Class, who charted in 1974 with “Beach Baby,” and The Ivy League, who went Top Ten in early 1965 with “Funny How Love Can be.”

Anyone Can Whistle, Southwark Playhouse review - full-on bonkers

★★★ ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE Niche Sondheim gets no-trumpets-barred revival

Niche Sondheim gets an, um, no-trumpets-barred revival

Musicals don't get madder than Anyone Can Whistle, the 1964 Broadway flop from onetime West Side Story and Gypsy collaborators Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents which makes history of sorts at Southwark Playhouse as the first Sondheim show to be revived since his death last year, age 91.

Music Reissues Weekly: All Turned On! Motown Instrumentals 1960-1972

ALL TURNED ON! MOTOWN INSTRUMENTALS 1960-1972 There are still new things to say about the legendary soul label

Surprising confirmation that there are new things to say about the legendary soul label

Motown and its related labels have been heavily collected and meticulously scrutinised since the early Sixties. There ought to be nothing left to say. Yet here this is, a smart, 24-track collection of Motown instros which includes five previously unreleased tracks.

Great Freedom review - love behind bars in Germany

★★★★ GREAT FREEDOM Franz Rogowski excels as a man incarcerated for his sexual orientation

Franz Rogowski excels as a man incarcerated for his sexual orientation

A story of forbidden love, Great Freedom takes place almost entirely in a prison. The film's background is encapsulated in the word “175er/ hundertfünfundsiebziger”, still to be found in German dictionaries and collective memories as a pejorative word for a gay man.

The Ipcress File, ITV review – adaptation of Len Deighton thriller fires on all cylinders

★★★★★ THE IPCRESS FILE, ITV Adaptation of Len Deighton thriller fires on all cylinders

Joe Cole, Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander light up this Cold War classic

Sidney J Furie’s 1965 film The Ipcress File is a much-loved benchmark of its period. Stylish, sinister, witty and depicting a determinedly un-swinging London, it was conceived as the flipside to the absurdly glamorous James Bond movies and pulled it off with panache. It also had Michael Caine playing the lead role of Harry Palmer, and a superb John Barry soundtrack famously featuring that mysterious instrument, the cimbalom.

Music Reissues Weekly: Blossom Toes - We Are Ever So Clean

BLOSSOM TOES - WE ARE EVER SO CLEAN Essential British psychedelic artefact resurfaces

Essential British psychedelic artefact resurfaces

In July 1967, a British band called The Ingoes changed their name. Up to this point they’d traded in R&B, blues and soul, and tackled some rock ’n roll covers too. Ingoes referenced the 1958 Chuck Berry song “Ingo”. As they’d just recorded their debut album, a rebranding was needed. It was psychedelic so their management came up with Blossom Toes.

Music Reissues Weekly: Dick Raaijmakers aka Kid Baltan, and Tom Dissevelt

DICK RAAIJMAKERS AKA KID BALTAN, AND TOM DISSEVELT How The Netherlands created the first electronic pop record

How The Netherlands created the first electronic pop record

In 1957, popular music was given a jolt when the first electronic pop record was recorded. “Song of the Second Moon” was created and composed by the Dutch musician Dick Raaijmakers who was working at NatLab, the research laboratory of the electronics company Philips.