Der Freischütz, Barbican review - Gothic chills rooted in flesh and earth

★★★★ DER FREISCHÜTZ, BARBICAN Outstanding leads make for a memorable concert-staging

Two outstanding leads make for a memorable concert-staging

It’s hard to believe that in 1824 there were no fewer than six productions of Weber’s Der Freischütz in London alone. Since then this colourful piece of German Romanticism hasn’t fared nearly so well, disappearing from the UK’s opera houses not just for years but decades at a time.

The Addams Family review - more treat than trick

Animated reboot works best when sticking to the source material

Starting life as a comic strip in 1938, The Addams Family seems to have reinvented itself for every generation. It’s the story of an odd-ball family from ‘The old country’ (where that is geographically located is by-the-by), who love the grim and gothic. Their outlandish ways were neatly juxtaposed against the wholesome values of American suburbia.

CD: Bat For Lashes - Lost Girls

★★★★ BAT FOR LASHES - LOST GIRLS Return from the margins to pop majesty for Natasha Khan

Return from the margins to pop majesty for Natasha Khan

There's no knowing what to expect from Natasha Khan. Her most recent output has been furiously intense Thai and Persian psyche rock covers (as SEXWITCH in 2015) followed by torch songs full of shadow and eeriness (Bat For Lashes' 2016 The Bride). It rather felt from these two releases that she was happy cosmically dreaming on the margins – certainly in contrast to the strange pop promise of her early work, which prefigured the likes of Grimes and Lana Del Rey in many ways, and suggested someone with an eye on grandiose visions materially as well as mystically.