Opera-themed restaurant in the City hits the wrong notes May 25, 2009 YOU can hire out Bel Canto’s opera-singing waiters and waitresses – who are liable to break into arias while you tuck into your foie gras – for private events. It may be a better way to enjoy their prodigious talents than visiting this ropey restaurant. If warbling waiting staff isn’t the campest dining idea ever, Bel [...]
OTHER PLACES IN LONDON TO ENJOY MUSIC WHILE YOU EAT May 25, 2009 VIVA VERDISitting just behind Tate Modern in Bankside, Viva Verdi specialises in wine, prosciutto, and other Italian delicacies. Regular musical events include jazz evenings and opera, including a live performance of the latter tomorrow night. 6 Canvey Street, SE1 9AN; 020 7928 6867, www.vivaverdiwinebar.com RONNIE SCOTT’SThe capital’s most famous jazz club and Soho institution continues [...]
The untarnished beauty of the Suffolk coastline May 21, 2009 THE recent episode of The Apprentice in which the contestants struggled to devise an attractive marketing campaign for the Kent seaside town of Margate, was a good demonstration of the jaded reputation many of Britain’s coastal resorts have earned. But had they been applying their efforts to the towns lining the Suffolk coast, chief among [...]
Q&A: SALES May 21, 2009 Q. Dear Russell, I’ve put an offer in on a property that I really like but so has another party. The vendor has said that he wants to do a contract race in order to decide. What does that mean?A. A contract race is very much first-past-the-post – basically the first party to have read [...]
FOCUS ON: IPSWICH, SUFFOLK May 21, 2009 GREEN FARM, NEAR STOWMARKET, IP14 3REPrice: Offers in excess of £975,000If you’re looking for the property that has everything then this is it. Believed to date from the 16th century, this listed barn conversion comes complete with swimming pool, tennis courts, and even a carp lake/boating pond. Inside, the house has recently been modernised but [...]
Cyprus is a place in the sun and a lot more besides May 21, 2009 FOR Britons, Cyprus has turned into something of an upmarket Marbella, without the crowds. With unrealised investment potential and a load more untarnished space in which to enjoy golf, watersports, beautiful landscape and good weather for most of the year, it’s no wonder savvy investors are looking to the island to buy property. What with [...]
Museum of fun May 21, 2009 NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM 2Cert: PGTHIS Bank Holiday’s slice of family-centric fodder pulls off that rare cinematic trick – it’s a sequel that’s better than the original. However, given that the original Night at the Museum was a dog’s dinner of a film, the bigger surprise is that it was ever a big enough hit [...]
Strong acting fails to bring revised Ibsen classic to life May 21, 2009 TheatreA DOLL’S HOUSEDonmar WarehouseIbsen’s story of a woman who walks away from her empty marriage was too much for upright Victorian audiences at its first London staging in 1889. With such compelling source-material, it’s a shame Zinnie Harris’s reworked version – which relocates things from 1880s Norway to London in 1909 – is curiously bloodless, [...]
NOW SHOWING SIX OF THE BEST May 21, 2009 THEATRE: BURST Festival Battersea Arts Centre’s annual festival of new theatre, with 51 different events set to take place. The subtitle is 51 Reasons for Living, inspired by President Obama’s inauguration address. FILM: Synecdoche, New York Charlie Kaufman’s magnum opus is a lingering, poetic and funny meditation on life, love and the whole damn thing. [...]
Dumb luck and accidents can make you rich May 20, 2009 FALSE ECONOMYBy Alan BeattieViking, £20 FOR THE past two centuries, Argentina has had almost identical economic potential to the USA: plentiful natural resources, a large population and fantastic trade links. But while the US is the richest country on earth, in 2001 Argentina went bust. Why? The World Trade Editor of the Financial Times tries [...]