Prove a Villain

Handel tinkered with this allegory throughout his career, producing various versions in Italian and English. The plot is a contest for the heart and mind of Beauty: Pleasure and Deceit encourage hedonism, arguing that "life consists in the present hour." Time and Counsel advise Beauty to forswear worldly pleasures, which "will soon decay". (Guess who wins.) You'd expect the villains to get all the good tunes, but the musical interest here is evenly spread. Time and Counsel get lively and contemplative arias; in particular, Varcoe makes Time's "Loathsome urns" beguiling and chilling. Kirkby, playing a villain for once, is an all-too-convincing Deceit; Partridge as Pleasure, though not ideally youthful, makes some gorgeous sounds. Fisher is well cast as Beauty, and Darlow's direction is a triumph.

Michael Douglas stars in this dialogue-driven comedy drama about an ethically challenged New York businessman who finds his life falling apart due to a series of career missteps and personal foul-ups. Once upon a time, Ben Kalmen (Douglas) had everything a man could possibly want – a high-paying job, a beautiful wife, and a spacious Manhattan apartment – but now all of that is a distant memory. The former owner of a successful auto dealership, Ben has recently lost everything thanks to his own inability to resist his impulses. But the resilient Ben isn't the type of guy to stay down for the count, and lately things are starting to look up for him again. Despite being divorced from his former college sweetheart Nancy (Susan Sarandon), Ben still manages to see his daughter, Susan (Jenna Fischer), and his grandson on a regular basis, and his new girlfriend, Jordan (Mary-Louise Parker), may have just the connections needed to help the floundering businessman get his career back on track. When Ben takes Jordan's college-bound daughter, Allyson (Imogen Poots), on a tour of a prospective school, however, his steely new resolve is put to the ultimate test.