A meditation on this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, which takes place in the Scottish capital every August. Read PDF of full article.

Review of Scottish Ballet’s new production of Petrouchka, which premiered at the Playhouse as part of the Edinburgh International Festival. Read PDF of full article.

London critic Michael Billington discusses the more robust aspects of Tennessee Williams in today’s Guardian article entitled The quiet revolutionary.

Review of the late Anthony Minghella’s first and only opera for the stage, Madam Butterfly, at the London Coliseum. Read PDF of full published article.

Review of the new collaboration between Sylvie Guillem, Russell Maliphant and Robert Lepage, Eonnagata, at Sadler’s Wells Theatre London. Read PDF of full published article.

The final reviews have been published and Malcolm’s original ballet-opera Fade Not that premiered at Sydney Theatre last month has proved to critics just how well ballet and opera can unite on the stage. Journalists in Sydney wrote that the ballet used ”a poignant theme” (Sydney Morning Herald) to create “a moving piece in which the dance rose and fell with the tide of feeling” (The Daily Telegraph). National daily The Australian compared Remi Wörtmeyer’s choreography with that of Kenneth MacMillan while the Australian Stage praised ”librettist and eminent director Malcolm Rock” for his words and Lisa Cheney for her score that was “the sweetest swoon, enchanting”. It also asserted that Fade Not was “the most unexpected, non-conformist” work of the 2009 Bodytorque programme. Michelle Potter of the Canberra Times summed it up best as “a courageous experiment in linking dancer and singer, movement and voice” with “an innate sense of clarity and harmony”. She wrote that the ballet-opera was able to “grab the audience’s attention from the opening moment and hold it throughout … with a strongly focussed approach”. Many thanks to those critics who took the time to write about the show.

Judith Mackrell finds out how UK dance companies and choreographers are celebrating the 100 year anniversary of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes in her Guardian article today: A century of sensation.

Review of the premiere of Raphael Bonachela’s We Unfold for Sydney Dance Company. Read PDF scan of full published article.

In her blog today Veronica Lee writes about the case in which she was sued by a composer and librettist (Standard wins opera libel) that has now been turned into a play.

Imogen Russell Williams offers her thoughts about operatic acting in her Guardian blog Never mind the arias, what about the acting?