OperaObituaryHildegard BehrensOperatic soprano acclaimed for her interpretations of Wagner and StraussThe soprano Hildegard Behrens, who has died of a ruptured aortic aneurism aged 72, was an individual, unforgettable Wagner singer, a great actor and, for many, the definitive interpreter of Richard Strauss's Salome and Elektra.
Born in Varel, not far from Hamburg in Germany, Behrens was the youngest child in a large family persuaded, like all her siblings, to take up an instrument by their music-loving doctor father (in her case the violin in addition to the piano).
Other livesUniversity of EssexObituaryKen Plummer obituaryKen Plummer, who has died aged 76, of complications of kidney disease, was an internationally respected sociologist who taught at the University of Essex for 30 years. Inspired by the radical social movements of the 1970s, he pioneered the application of social constructionist ideas to an understanding of sexuality. Along with Mary McIntosh, Jeffrey Weeks and others, Ken recast homosexuality as a socially stigmatised aspect of human experience rather than, as it was widely viewed at the time, an illness.
Rap This article is more than 10 years oldRick Ross bungles 'date rape lyric' apology as furore growsThis article is more than 10 years oldAs women's group petitions sponsor Reebok to drop American rapper, he says: 'I just wanted to reach out to all the sexy ladies'The American rapper Rick Ross has apologised for a recent song lyric in which he appeared to brag about rape. Amid a rising storm of protest, Ross has tried to reassure his corporate sponsors, saying that he would "
Fashion This article is more than 8 months oldThis article is more than 8 months oldCelebrities and TV characters are flexing their muscles in non-threatening cosy knitwear
Until recently, a man in a cardigan might typically have signalled “retiree”. But now the cosiest of knitwear items has been given a makeover.
Fashion-friendly brands such as The Elder Statesman, Ami Paris and Studio Nicholson are pushing the cardigan. Marks & Spencer reports that sales of cardigans are performing well for spring – up 90% on 2022, possibly due to the “inbetween” weather.
Mind your languageMedia This article is more than 9 years oldDear work colleagues, let’s stop using this clumsy phraseThis article is more than 9 years oldToby ChasseaudA colleague is someone you work with, so why the pointless prefix?
“Sorry, I can’t make it to the pub tonight. I have to go to a work colleague’s leaving do,” a friend tells me. This winds me up. It isn’t being deprived of the opportunity to sip a pint that frustrates me.
My lesbian secret makes teenage life dreadful. Whom should I tell?Next week: My partner and his ex-wife swoop porn emails and have telephone sexI'm a 13-year-old girl who attends a single-sex grammar school. For almost a year now I have known that I am a lesbian. I have told no one about it.
It makes me very uncomfortable when people laugh at homosexuals. My friends, I think, suspect. This secrecy is a constant source of anxiety to me.
Poster poemsPoetryIs the mood of February more winter or spring, death or rebirth? We look to poets from Thomas Kinsella, Boris Pasternak and Margaret Atwood for their thoughtsAnd so we find ourselves in February, at one time the last month of the Roman calendar and a time of ritual purification by washing. In Ireland, by way of contrast, it is officially the first month of spring, and the first day of the month was Imbolc, a Celtic fire festival.
Book of the dayHistory booksReviewA compelling and wry narrative of one of the most intellectually thrilling eras of British history
The only public execution of a British head of state occurred 371 years ago outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall on 30 January 1649. It was a radical, unintended act, born of failed negotiations and it entirely disregarded the people of Scotland and Ireland. The surviving details are piquant and shaming: Charles I in two shirts so as not to betray shivered fear on a cold day, a masked executioner in a wig and false beard, a collective groan from the crowd.
Top 10sBooksFrom ancient forests and isolated and unnamed mountainous regions to the US west, literature relishes wild settings
The wilderness is commonly thought of as an environment that exists in opposition to human culture – a vast geographic ecosystem that has not been significantly altered or influenced by human activity. Precisely because of this, humans tend to idealise it from a distance, relishing a notion of the wilderness that is often limited to a beautiful or sublime setting.
Baddies in booksThomas PynchonBaddies in books: Captain Blicero in Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s RainbowHe may be satirical, but Pynchon’s unsettling, cruel and perverted Nazi is a composite of the fears of the American psyche in 1973
Thomas Pynchon’s Captain Blicero appears to be an archetypal baddie: a sadomasochistic, sexually indiscriminate pederast Nazi and the source of the mysterious 00000 V-2 rocket that is the white whale of Pynchon’s postmodern masterpiece Gravity’s Rainbow.