The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement didn’t start in 2020. Nor did it begin in Britain. But last year it resonated as never before in this country. Suddenly, in mainstream news and on social media, Britain’s past and present came uneasily together in new and unsettling ways. This crossover crystallised on Bristol’s dockside on 7 June when the bronze statue commemorating the early 18th century philanthropist, Edward Colston, who had made much of his money from the slave trade, was pulled down by a large crowd and thrown into the adjacent waters.
Verdi’s Falstaff at the Met delivers the lulz
Is Falstaff a casual, end of career “farewell tour” simply to prove the critics who claimed Verdi could not write comedy wrong? Far from it.
