It is a bit early to be celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day but such is the Irish presence on the world stage it seems every day is an occasion for Irish celebration. Despite being one of the world’s smallest nations the Irish presence punches well above its weight. Ireland […]
MICHAEL WALSH MUSIC CORRESPONDENT. When it comes to across-the-board musical talent Spain is giving the rest of Europe a run for its money. There is however one ball it cannot afford to take its eye off; that of the opera ball and its greatest-ever opera star, José Plácido […]
MICHAEL WALSH MUSIC CORRESPONDENT: Neda Ukraden the beautiful chanteuse was born on 16 August 1950). Neda is a Serbian-Croatian singer. Her professional career stretches back to 1967. Neda Ukraden was born in Glavina Donja, a village near the small Croatian town of Imotski, to Serb parents Anđelija (1924–2018) and Dušan Ukraden (1927–1997). She lived in Imotski […]
MICHAEL WALSH MUSIC REPORT Renewed enthusiasm for national identity expressed through music lies behind the current craze for Amalia Rodrigues Portugal’s Queen of Fado. The international fame and appeal of the chanteuse fame once eclipsed French soul-singing waif Edith Piaf and Nana Mouskouri of Greece. Amalia. The Film, […]
MICHAEL WALSH MUSIC CORRESPONDENT: British chart-topping 1960s + folk singer Donovan received a prestigious cultural award from the French Government. The hippy-era singer of poetic-style ballads once won the hearts of nations and clearly won French hearts too. Born 10 May 1946 the balladeer was first discovered on […]
MICHAEL WALSH MUSIC CORRESPONDENT: As the molten evening sun settles over Seville’s Plaza de Espana the melancholic melody of a guitar completes the rapture. Your head swims with delight to Sueno en la Floresta (Dreams in the Magic Garden). As T.S Elliot observed: ‘Music heard so deeply / […]
MICHAEL WALSH MUSIC CORRESPONDENT: If X-rated entertainment is music to your ears, then orchestral music may be just what you are looking for. Enthusiasts of soaps would eat their hearts out if they knew what we classical fans have been enjoying for the last few hundred years. If […]
MICHAEL WALSH EX-MARINER: The U.S. space agency NASA once spent millions developing a pen that would write upside down or in a non-atmosphere environment. The Russians replied; ‘we use a pencil.’ A friend once boasted that if you pressed a little button on his new watch the hands […]
Mike Walsh Classical Music Correspondent: If you are looking for rags-to-riches stories, or dismiss the tale of Cinderella as being impossibly fanciful, think again. Russian-born (1971) Anna Netrebko is increasingly regarded as heiress to the Crown of Maria Callas and not without good reason. The American-Greek legendary opera […]
PLEASE HELP AS WE ARE TOTALLY DEPENDENT ON READERS DONATIONS keyboardcosmetics@gmail.com MICHAEL WALSH DISSIDENT HISTORIAN: The Norwegian author Knut Hamsun (1859 – 1952) was deserving of the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded in 1920. A handsome and debonair gentleman, quite unlike most people’s idea of a poet and […]
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