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From shiveringly vivid Mahler to the eclectic Hermes Experiment: our top classical recordings of 2025

Opera may be conspicuous by its absence, but the brilliance of Berlin Philharmonic’s Schoenberg and the exceptional South Korean Yunchan Lim gave us plenty to sink our teeth into this year

The survey of the new releases that my colleagues and I have enjoyed most in 2025 differs in one significant respect from the lists of previous years. This year’s top ten contains no operas. There has been a profound change in record companies’ policies of how and what they record. The glitzy, studio-based opera recordings of the last century now seem impossible to contemplate, and even releasing audio-only recordings taken directly from live opera-house performances often seems less viable than issuing DVDs of the same productions.

Some specialist labels devoted to specific areas of the operatic repertoire continue sterling work: operas feature prominently in Bru Zane’s mission on behalf of neglected French composers, while Opera Rara continues to crusade for forgotten, mostly 19th century, mostly Italian, scores which this year included the original 1857 version of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Other companies continue to find treasures in Europe’s apparently inexhaustible baroque archives, while, on its own label, the London Symphony Orchestra has continued to release Simon Rattle’s Janáček series taken from his concert performances with the orchestra at the Barbican, the latest release being Jenůfa. If full-length operas are notably scarce in the schedules of the major companies, two exceptions this year were Decca’s release of the Oslo-sourced Flying Dutchman, with Lise Davidsen and Gerald Finley, and Deutsche Grammophon’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, part of Andris Nelson’s Boston-based Shostakovich series, both of which proved less than overwhelming.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Raphael Neal/Stephan Rabold

© Composite: Guardian Design/Raphael Neal/Stephan Rabold

© Composite: Guardian Design/Raphael Neal/Stephan Rabold

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Never be honest in Hollywood – even if you’re Quentin Tarantino | Dave Schilling

Success doesn’t mean you can speak your mind – and criticizing Paul Dano is like kicking a bunny at a birthday party

There are many things Hollywood is known for: lavish parties, subtle (or not so subtle) plastic surgery, the concept of juice as a meal. What it is not traditionally known for is honesty. I live in Los Angeles, work in the entertainment industry when I’m not moonlighting as a semi-reputable journalist and have done my fair share of lying … or, more accurately, omitting the truth. One of the least pleasant experiences in town is being asked to give honest feedback to someone who is at best an acquaintance. It’s worse yet if that person is a friend, lover or family member who actually takes your opinion seriously. Overall, the notion of offering honesty to a peer is akin to rubbing poison oak on your privates.

And yet, despite knowing how gruesome this can be, I still solicit feedback on scripts, films and even nascent ideas I’m toying with. Naturally, I feel guilty doing it. I blubber about how gracious the person is for taking the time to engage with my creative output, how generous they are and how crucial this step is to any sort of actual success in the industry. I’m even lying when I say that to someone. I should tell them: “I’m sorry I just asked you to do the equivalent of punching several of your own teeth out for free. Please don’t destroy my self-esteem completely. Let my mother finish the job.”

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

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© Photograph: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

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Disney to invest $1bn in OpenAI, allowing use of characters in video generation tool

Agreement comes amid anxiety in Hollywood over impact of AI on the industry, expression and rights of creators

Walt Disney has announced a $1bn equity investment in OpenAI, enabling the AI start-up’s Sora video generation tool to use its characters.

Users of Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that draw on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters as part of a three-year licensing agreement between OpenAI and the entertainment giant.

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© Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

© Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

© Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

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Not one but two shows with a Bitch Lesbian lead? It’s a Christmas miracle | Rebecca Shaw

It is really satisfying for me to see beautiful, cranky lesbians take the lead in TV’s buzziest new shows, Pluribus and The Beast in Me

I recently went on a holiday for a few days, and as part of that holiday, I caught up on a lot of television shows. Don’t judge me, we all relax in our own ways! I looked at nature too! It’s sort of part of my job! (and other defences).

I am someone who keeps up with new TV shows. I watch everything that is popping off – but I’m happy to admit that as a didn’t-grow-up-with-women-kissing-each-other-on-TV lesbian, I will go out of my way to seek out ANY shows about queer people, especially if women are going to kiss each other.

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© Photograph: BFA/Alamy

© Photograph: BFA/Alamy

© Photograph: BFA/Alamy

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A stiff dose of ‘weak sauce’: Paul Dano’s best films – ranked!

After Quentin Tarantino’s unfavourable comments about the actor’s performance in films including There Will Be Blood, we run through the roles that show just how potent he really is

This disquieting narrative debut from the British director James Marsh (The Theory of Everything) is a kind of minor Cape Fear. Gael García Bernal plays a sociopathic outsider threatening the apparently perfect life of his long-lost preacher father (William Hurt). In what now looks like a dry run for There Will Be Blood, Dano is the earnest son campaigning for creationism to be taught at school, and sideswiped by the emergence of his sinister half-brother. Variety labelled the film “noxious”. It’s undoubtedly nasty, but Dano helps to lend it a pulse.

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© Photograph: Blackbird Films/Allstar

© Photograph: Blackbird Films/Allstar

© Photograph: Blackbird Films/Allstar

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Police seeking four men after ‘high-value burglary’ from Bristol Museum

Detectives release images of group after more than 600 items were taken from a storage facility in September

More than 600 artefacts from Bristol Museum’s British Empire and Commonwealth collection have been stolen in a “high-value burglary”, police have said.

Detectives with Avon and Somerset police said they wanted to speak to four men in connection with the incident and released CCTV images of the group.

Militaria including medals, badges and pins.

Jewellery including necklaces, bangles and rings.

Decorative art items including carved ivory, silver items and bronze figurines.

Natural history pieces including geological specimens.

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© Photograph: Avon and Somerset Police/PA

© Photograph: Avon and Somerset Police/PA

© Photograph: Avon and Somerset Police/PA

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‘Go ahead and sue me, I’m not afraid any more’: South Park’s festive special isn’t afraid of a fight

Trump and Vance head to South Park in Christmas gear for a big showdown – only for Jesus to show up. At one point, you can almost feel Trey Parker and Matt Stone taking a stand against the US government

Coming off its most controversial and highest rated season in years, South Park had high expectations to meet with its season finale. Given how infamously down-to-the-wire its production schedule is – showrunners Matt Stone and Trey Parker often don’t start writing scripts until the week they’re set to air, working up to the 11th hour to turn in a completed episode (a method that caused them to miss a deadline earlier this year) – there was some question as to whether they would be able to tie everything up at all, let alone in a satisfying manner.

Most viewers were probably anticipating a giant, apocalyptic climax to the various long-running storylines – chief among them Donald Trump’s attempts to kill his and his lover Satan’s soon-to-be-born spawn. Instead, Stone and Parker swerved expectations, delivering an introspective and ultimately melancholy climax, one that managed to balance hope and despair in equal measure, alongside the outrageous shock humour for which they’re famous.

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© Photograph: Paramount

© Photograph: Paramount

© Photograph: Paramount

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Chrissie Hynde: ‘I pierced Johnny Rotten’s ear in a toilet with an earring and a bar of soap’

The Pretenders bandleader answers your questions on her friendship with Morrissey, her love of Van Gogh and why her cameo on Friends ruined her school run

Wondering if you saw the [music-filled 1996 comedy drama] film Grace of My Heart and whether it influenced your decision to record an album of duets? GiniMarie
I didn’t see the film – Duets Special came about after a conversation with Rufus Wainwright’s husband when I impulsively suggested doing an album with Rufus. Rufus wanted to do Always on My Mind, and I looked at the list of nine other songs I’d sent him and thought: why don’t I ask some other people? Like, Low are one of my all-time favourite bands and when I first met Mimi Parker she immediately seemed like someone I’ve known all my life. I told her I’d done one of their songs with Debbie Harry and she looked at me and said: “Why didn’t you ask me?” I thought: touché, Mimi. I suggested [Cass McCombs’s] County Line but she wasn’t well. I told Mimi I’d wait as long as it takes. Then she died. Alan [Sparhawk, Parker’s husband] sang it instead and it’s absolutely amazing.

The Pretenders covered Morrissey’s Every Day Is Like Sunday and now Duets Special features The First of the Gang to Die. As one of Morrissey’s oldest friends, how often do your conversations reach a philosophical, political or moral impasse? McScootikins
My relationship with him started because we were both vegetarian and he sent me a postcard asking to meet for tea. Thirty-five years ago most of my mates – Linda McCartney and so on – were friends because of vegetarianism. Morrissey does stuff for Peta and he’s an amazing songwriter. A few nights ago I had dinner with a couple of girls he’d worked with. I sent him a picture of the three of us and he immediately sent back a picture of three women from Coronation Street. He’s always true to himself and no, we’ve never reached an impasse.

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© Photograph: Ki Price

© Photograph: Ki Price

© Photograph: Ki Price

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Brian Eno urges support to get Together for Palestine song to Christmas No 1

Lullaby features Palestinian singer, lyrics written by Peter Gabriel and artists including Eno and Celeste

The Together for Palestine fund is trying to get a Palestinian lullaby to Christmas No 1 in the UK charts in an effort to help provide aid to the people of Gaza, but also showcase their culture and creativity.

The musician Brian Eno, who performs on the track, said Lullaby, which will be released on Friday, is a chance to support Palestinians over Christmas and potentially stage an unlikely coup by getting to No 1.

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© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

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Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson to return for latest Hunger Games instalment

Currently in production the second prequel in the series, Sunrise on the Reaping, will likely feature the married couple ‘in a flash-forward’

Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are to appear in the new Hunger Games movie, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, which is in production.

The Hollywood Reporter said it confirmed the pair’s return to the Hunger Games series, in what is the sixth film in the franchise. Both will play the same characters as in the original set of films – Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen and Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark – with the Hollywood Reporter suggesting they will “likely appear in a flash-forward”. At the close of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (released in 2015), Everdeen and Mellark are married with children.

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© Photograph: Murray Close/AP

© Photograph: Murray Close/AP

© Photograph: Murray Close/AP

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Where to start with: Arundhati Roy

As Foyles names her memoir its book of the year, here’s a guide to the Booker prize winner’s wide-ranging oeuvre of fiction and nonfiction

‘The point of the writer is to be unpopular,” said Arundhati Roy in 2018. Over the last three decades – beginning with her 1997 Booker winner, The God of Small Things, which catapulted her into celebrity – the writer’s works of fiction, nonfiction and essays have indeed been polarising; she has become one of the most prominent critics of the Indian government and Hindu nationalism.

Last year, she was awarded the PEN Pinter prize, given to writers who cast an “unflinching, unswerving” gaze on the world. Earlier this year, she published Mother Mary Comes To Me, an account of her relationship with her mother. The memoir has now been named Foyles book of the year, and was also shortlisted for Waterstones book of the year. Here, Priya Bharadia takes readers through Roy’s essential reads.

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© Composite: Guardian/Sreejith Sreekumar

© Composite: Guardian/Sreejith Sreekumar

© Composite: Guardian/Sreejith Sreekumar

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The Rolling Stones give blessing to Fatboy Slim’s Satisfaction sample after 25 years

The mashup Satisfaction Skank was unofficial for years but band allow Norman Cook to remake it using original stems of their 1965 hit

A classic bootleg recording by Fatboy Slim which samples the Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction has finally been released, as the band give it their blessing after 25 years.

Satisfaction Skank was a familiar track on turn-of-the-century dancefloors, as Fatboy Slim mashed up his own 1999 hit The Rockafeller Skank with the Stones’ 1965 classic, hurling Keith Richards’ iconic guitar riff into the “big beat” sound of the late 90s.

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© Photograph: Mark Holloway/Redferns

© Photograph: Mark Holloway/Redferns

© Photograph: Mark Holloway/Redferns

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Tell us your favourite new podcast of 2025

We would like to hear about your favourite new podcast you’ve been listening to this year and why

We would like to hear about your favourite new podcast you’ve been listening to in 2025 and why. Let us know and we’ll run a selection of your recommendations. Tell us your favourite using the form below.

If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

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© Photograph: Antonio Guillem Fernández/Alamy

© Photograph: Antonio Guillem Fernández/Alamy

© Photograph: Antonio Guillem Fernández/Alamy

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