In the beautiful Austrian capital, Vienna, for the excellent ‘Matisse and the Fauves’ exhibition at the Albertina. Fascinating, colourful paintings from Matisse, Derain, de Vlaminck, et al.

Henri Matisse ‘Open Window, Collioure’ (1905)

André Derain ‘Fishing Boats, Collioure’ (1905)

Maurice de Vlaminck ‘André Derain’ (1906)

Henri Manguin ‘The Prints’ (1905)

Also a great opportunity to go to the Leopold Museum to see the Schiele and Kokoschka collections. A wonderful weekend of art!

Egon Schiele ‘Self Portrait’ (1912)

At the Guggenheim in Venice for the exhibition ‘The Avant-gardes of Fin-de-Siècle Paris’. Wonderful exhibits from the Neo-Impressionist, Nabis and Symbolist movements produced during a time of political upheaval and cultural transformation.

I particularly enjoyed seeing the works of Paul Signac, Camille Pissarro and Théo van Rysselberghe.

Paul Signac ‘Port of Saint Cast’ (1890)

Camille Pissarro ‘Flock of Sheep’ (1888)

Théo van Rysselberg ‘Canal in Flanders’ (1894)

Patrice Chéreau, the French opera and theatre director, has died at the age of 68.

He was responsible for staging what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest opera events ever filmed, the Bayreuth centenary production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, conducted by Pierre Boulez. It is still as impressive and exciting today as it was when it was made in 1976.

In more recent years I also thoroughly enjoyed his production of Janacek’s ‘From the House of the Dead’ in Aix-en-Provence.