Latest news with #Mignon
Spectator
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Brilliant rewrite of Shakey: Hamlet, at Buxton Opera House, reviewed
'There is good music, bad music, and music by Ambroise Thomas,' said Emmanuel Chabrier, but then, Chabrier said a lot of things. I adore Chabrier – who couldn't love the man who wrote España and turned Tristan und Isolde into a jaunty quadrille? – but it doesn't do to take him too literally. Thomas ended his career as a notoriously crusty director of the Paris Conservatoire, and when the French musical establishment puts you on a pedestal younger composers invariably start hurling the merde. Scraps of Thomas's music survive in all sorts of odd corners (a snippet from his opera Mignon crops up in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp). I've always found it rather appealing. The Buxton International Festival's production of Thomas's 1868 tragedy Hamlet confirms that it is, indeed, extremely listenable. The libretto is based on Alexandre Dumas's version of Shakespeare, and it's calculated to turn Bard-worshippers puce. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are cut and Polonius and Horatio are barely walk-on parts. Brilliantly, Thomas and his librettists Carré and Barbier also rewrite the ending so the Ghost gatecrashes Ophelia's funeral like the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, while Hamlet survives to be acclaimed King. And if you think that's sacrilege, you can't have been to Stratford-upon-Avon recently. In any case, Thomas's score, which can feel a little polite on disc (think Gounod and soda), is actually very effective in the theatre. With Adrian Kelly conducting the orchestra of Opera North it's trim, it's passionate, and you still get all of old Shakey's juiciest bits: the gravediggers, the play-within-the-play and a stonking coloratura mad scene for Ophelia – sorry, Ophélie (Yewon Han). At one point in the Buxton production Hamlet – sorry, 'Amlet (Gregory Feldmann) – even addresses himself to a skull, and the fact that the director, Jack Furness, manages this without self-consciousness speaks volumes. Furness engages with Thomas's opera on its own terms, and plays it for what it is. So it's updated – suits and evening wear – but you barely notice, with the chorus gliding around like predatory caterers. Sami Fendall's set designs are minimalist (not much more than a flight of steps) but they're so skilfully lit (by Jake Wiltshire) that they evoke the whole noir-ish, shifting world of Elsinore: shadows, corridors and blasted wastes. The appearance of the Ghost (Per Bach Nissen), meanwhile, is a real coup de théâtre. The atmosphere is as compelling as it is oppressive, and with Hamlet as a sort of tormented hipster amid the upscale couture of the court, Furness lands hit after palpable dramatic hit. Certainly, Feldmann and Han seemed to be giving their all, in a pair of enormously extended and taxing leading roles. Feldmann conveys Hamlet's seesawing naivety and angst as vividly as anything you'll see at the RSC, but he's got vocal stamina too, sounding nearly as fresh at the start of the final scene as he had three hours previously. The same goes for Han's touching Ophélie. Her voice had a shaded, poignant undertow that added multiple layers to her huge, virtuosic final aria – which was received in icy silence by the Buxton audience. They're hard to please in the High Peak. Alastair Miles was a proud, oaky-sounding Claudius and Allison Cook, as Gertrude, found powerful reserves of nuance and pathos. Like everything about this production, they delivered more than the sum of their parts. The singing and the playing are also the thing in Opera Holland Park's new staging of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Cecilia Stinton's meat-and-two-veg production doesn't spring any particular surprises, but if you like BBC period dramas you'll enjoy the tailcoats and stovepipe hats (Stinton has updated the action to the era of Walter Scott). Three graves dominate the front of the stage, to remind you that this is not – despite the evidence of the costumes – a revival of Oliver!. OHP does have one killer card to play. This company has always excelled at casting, and pretty much everyone here is the genuine bel canto article, pouring out those long aching melodies at fever heat. In fact for large parts of the evening Morgan Pearse, as the heartless Enrico, sounds even sexier and more lustrous than Jose de Eca (as a Heathcliff-like Edgardo) – though when Eca hits his full-throated stride, it's more than worth the wait. The big news, though, is Jennifer France's role debut as Lucia. It's dangerous for a critic to have too many preconceptions, so take it as you will when I say that the hushed intensity of her singing in the quiet passages and her absolute control in the mad scene exceeded my (high) expectations. The rest of the cast (and indeed the City of London Sinfonia under Michael Papadopoulos) were audibly inspired by France's singing, and her final scenes – bloodied, bedraggled and caked in mud – are the kind of theatre that stays with you.
Los Angeles Times
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
7 must-try spots for vegan fried chicken in L.A.
Doomie's satisfies late-night comfort food cravings with vegan fried chicken that's sold by the bucket, along with macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes. May 8, 2025 3 AM PT There's a reason we categorize dishes like fried chicken, pizza and mac 'n' cheese as comfort food. Whether they hold nostalgic value or are simply go-to favorites, their familiarity offers a gentle lift and sense of ease when we need it most. But it can be challenging trying to replace beloved staples like fried chicken with plant-based alternatives. Replicating that perfect crispy crunch and juicy, tender interior isn't easy. And while vegan proteins have come a long way, finding one that truly delivers the full experience — without animal products — can feel like chasing a unicorn. L.A.'s plant-based chefs are proving it's possible. Forget bland substitutes; today's vegan chicken is made from soy, wheat gluten (seitan), mushrooms and/or cauliflower and transformed through creative textures and spice-packed batters. From crispy oyster mushroom cutlets to juicy soy wings and fried cauliflower with a kick, these inventive takes aren't just imitating chicken — they're reimagining it. For chef Doomie, who prefers to be known by his first name only, the secret is keeping it simple. The founder of Doomie's Home Cookin' said, 'We try to keep the ingredients as traditional as possible and often would prefer to just omit an ingredient rather than substitute it with something that doesn't usually belong.' For his fried chicken batter, he swaps out dairy and plant milks in favor of water. For crunch? 'The secret is always flour, batter, flour.' 'The magic of fried chicken lies in the interplay between the meat, the skin and the thin layer of fat that separates them,' he explained. At Doomie's, they've created a plant-based version of all three components, even using two types of vegan chicken to mimic the contrast of white and dark meat. Then there's chef Mignon (also known by her first name only) of Champignon Eats. A mainstay at Smorgasburg L.A., she uses lion's mane, oyster and enoki mushrooms. She recommends seasoning and frying them just like real chicken. 'Mushrooms take on any flavor you cook them in,' said Mignon, who defaults to a special blend of spices and a chickpea flour mix for Champignon's batter. 'You'd be surprised at how versatile they are.' In a city where plant-based cuisine is a lifestyle, chefs across L.A. are pushing boundaries and redefining comfort food on their own terms. Whether you're craving spicy Thai wings, Southern-style comfort or something totally unexpected, these seven spots prove that vegan fried chicken isn't just an alternative — it can be the main event. No matching places! Try changing or resetting your filters Showing Places Silver Lake Thai Vegetarian $ Bulan Thai Vegetarian Kitchen, opened in 2006, is helmed by owner Narintr Ruengsamutr. Known for its crispy, soy-based veggie hot wings, along with standout dishes like snap pea salad, yellow curry and Inferno Chicken, this cozy gem sits just across the street from Silver Lake's Erewhon. With indoor seating, a modest patio and options for takeout and delivery, it's the perfect spot for a satisfying meal in a laid-back setting. The veggie hot wings are deep-fried and tossed in a house-made spicy sauce, with customizable heat levels ranging from mild to fiery 'Thai spicy.' Served with carrot sticks and your choice of vegan or dairy ranch, they deliver all the crispiness and flavor you'd want in a plate of wings. Don't miss the mango sticky rice for dessert. Route Details Downtown L.A. Vegan $ Inspired by her mom's Southern fried chicken, chef Mignon turned her pandemic kitchen experiments into Champignon Eats, a plant-based pop-up launched in 2021 that puts mushrooms center stage. Try the Champ Spicy sandwich, loaded with tender, crunchy enoki mushrooms and topped with house-made spicy aioli. You'll also find flavorful popcorn 'chicken' made with lion's mane and oyster mushroom wings, seasoned with a custom spice blend and coated in a chickpea flour batter for that perfect crispy bite. Catch Champignon Eats every Sunday at Smorgasburg L.A. at the Row DTLA. Route 777 S. Alameda St., Los Angeles, California 90021 Route Details Hollywood Vegan American $ The fried chicken at Doomie's is a must. Originally opening in 2008, the Hollywood location followed in 2010. The vegan meat is made from soy and wheat, crafted into two styles: a dark meat-style leg with a realistic 'bone' and a boneless white meat-style breast. Both are hand-breaded in original or spicy batter, and fried to order. A rich layer of house-made vegan schmaltz between the skin and meat delivers a juicy, savory for a combo or the family bucket, and don't miss the classic sides like mashed potatoes, mac 'n' cheese, fries and, of course, a plant-based milkshake. Dine in or take it to go — with 24-hour service on weekends, your comfort food cravings never have to wait. Fun fact: The ultra-realistic fried chicken has even appeared on TV shows like 'Scandal' and 'Young Sheldon' to give vegan actors the real fried chicken look without the meat. Route Details Los Feliz Vegan $ Green Leaves Vegan has been serving up Thai-inspired comfort and American classics in Los Feliz since 2006. The pancake and fried chicken combo is a popular choice, featuring golden pancakes made with soy and coconut milk, studded with bananas and blueberries, served alongside crispy vegan fried chicken and your choice of maple or coconut syrup. Other go-to's include the spicy chicken sandwich and deep-fried soy drumsticks with sweet and sour sauce Heads up: street parking only. Route Details Culver City Vegan $ Sisters Jenny Engel and Heather Golden Ray opened Hey, Sunshine Kitchen in August 2023 after running their beloved vegan cooking school, Spork Foods, for 15 years. The bestselling crispy chicken sandwich delivers juicy, plant-based chicken with a perfectly crisp coating, tucked into a fluffy, buttery brioche bun with lettuce, tomato, pickles, herb-y house-made buttermilk ranch and crispy chickpea-battered shoestring onions for extra crunch. The 'meat' is a non-GMO soy and wheat blend, fried in rice bran oil. The hot chicken sandwich ups the ante with house-made cayenne oil. Everything here is completely non-GMO — from the buns to the sauces and bowls. And the mission of Hey, Sunshine Kitchen goes well beyond the plate. Kids are handed a small paper packet of wildflower seeds to start or add to their home gardens, and every Monday, the restaurant gives away a native pollinator plant with each meal to help rebuild bee and butterfly populations across Los Angeles. As Ray puts it, 'One in every three bites of food exists because of a pollinator.' The sisters also host monthly cooking classes, offer catering and regularly partner with prominent vegans like Billie Eilish to provide plant-based meals to underserved communities, including those impacted by food apartheid. Route Details Northridge Vegan $ Find this plant-based food truck — founded in 2017 by Eva Cannon and Willie Perrymon — parked in Culver City, Northridge, Long Beach, downtown L.A. and other locations, dishing out Southern-style comfort food. Favorites include the crispy chick'n sandwich that's hand-breaded, fried in refined peanut oil and topped with slaw, pickles and vegan ranch, and chick'n strips, served with Cajun fries and dipping sauce. For mushroom lovers, there's a fried oyster mushroom sandwich and crunchy, bite-sized 'nuggets' served with white bread and pickles. Check the weekly schedule on Instagram to see where the truck will be next. Route 17141 Nordhoff St., Northridge, California 91325 Route Details Sherman Oaks Creole Southern $$ By Martine Thompson Step off Ventura Boulevard and straight into New Orleans at Mardi Gras Tuesdays, a Valley hot spot serving live jazz, $10 bottomless mimosas, and now — thanks to customer demand — some of the city's most creative plant-based wings. Opened in March 2020 by brothers-in-law Keith Adams and Eric Laneuville, this family-run gem added vegan options including soy-based drumsticks with sugarcane 'bones' and crispy oyster mushroom 'chicken' made in-house and coated in their proprietary breading. Flavors range from Creole rub to tangy BBQ to the signature Jazzy Wingetts tossed in a vegan butter sauce. Everything is fried separately from meat and packed with that memorable New Orleans flavor. Route Details Get our weekly Tasting Notes newsletter for reviews, news and more. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
New York Times
14-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
A History Tour, With Lessons for the Future
From the moment I first spoke with Henri Mignon, an 88-year-old tour guide in Belgium, I knew that he illustrated a story that I wanted to tell. I am the Brussels bureau chief at The New York Times, a role I began in January. Until last year, I covered economics for The Times and split my time between New York City and Washington. While traveling, finding sources and getting to know my new beat, I've been struck by something time and time again: The view that Europeans have about America is undergoing a profound change. I have spent a lot of time on this side of the Atlantic Ocean over the course of my career. I briefly covered the European Central Bank from Frankfurt, and I've spent the last few years reporting on a forthcoming book from both Ireland and Switzerland. My husband is English, and my in-laws live in the United Kingdom. After the 2024 U.S. election, it became impossible to miss the change in tone over here. In both Brussels and small-town Belgium, politics seemed to be at the heart of every conversation I had — whether at work or casually, in English or in my broken French, in my capacity as a journalist or in my capacity as yet another American tourist at a kitschy restaurant. People wanted to know if President Trump's negative comments about the European Union reflected the sentiments of the American population at large. I also heard stories about the war generation; there are older adults who still distantly remembered the end of World War II, and several people told me about their parents or older friends who had long held up Americans as liberators. Many cities and small towns in Luxembourg and Belgium have spent the past year celebrating the 80th anniversary of the end of occupation. But my sources said the parades and the memorial ceremonies took on a bittersweet note because America's role in the world is changing. After hearing a few anecdotes of that variety, I decided to poke around to see if that creeping disappointment was more widely felt — which is how I stumbled upon Mr. Mignon. I found his name on a travel blog. A native of a small town just outside Bastogne, Belgium, Mr. Mignon was liberated by American soldiers twice, the second time shortly after his father was killed by shrapnel. Mr. Mignon's house was burned in the crossfire. He lost an enormous amount to the conflict. He viewed American veterans as heroes. He joined the Belgian military and then retired back in Bastogne, where he gives tours about the war and the Battle of the Bulge, in particular. When we talked on the phone, I asked Mr. Mignon his thoughts on Americans in this moment. Much like others I had spoken to, he felt increasingly complicated about the relationship between his little corner of Belgium and the United States. In particular, he was alarmed about how Mr. Trump talked about President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. And he was distraught to see the United States take a more conciliatory tone toward Russia. Toward the end of our call, he mentioned that he was going to give a tour to a group of American tourists the following weekend. He was unsure what he would say to them. Naturally, I asked if I could tag along. I wanted to see what he would share. On a gleaming spring day in early March, the photographer Jim Huylebroek and I each drove a couple of hours through the rolling Wallonia countryside to Bastogne. Mr. Mignon's audience consisted of a quiet, attentive group of high schoolers from North Carolina. We followed the group as Mr. Mignon pointed out statues and foxholes. His young audience listened politely and increasingly raptly as the tour went on. The tour was replete with references to the show 'Band of Brothers' — which is based partly on events that took place in the area. By the end, I wondered if Mr. Mignon had decided to leave current events out of the tour. Perhaps he felt that concentrating on the past was better. He almost did. But in the very final moments of the tour, that resolve cracked. He was talking about Victory in Europe Day, which falls a day later in Russia than in Bastogne. He mused about what it would be like this year. 'Maybe your president will be present in Moscow then,' he quipped, to utter silence on the bus. 'With his friends Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong.' While I had considered writing something broader, it was clear in that instant that the article should be about Mr. Mignon, who offered a snapshot into the increasingly fraught relationship between the United States and even its most storied allies.
New York Times
24-03-2025
- New York Times
To Him, Americans Were Always Heroes. He's Not So Sure About Today's.
For eight decades, Henri Mignon has viewed Americans as heroes. They twice liberated his tiny Belgian hometown, Houffalize, from German occupation — the second time, he said, when he was 8 years old, mere hours after shrapnel from shelling had killed his father. The image of U.S. troops handing out gum to local children is a memory he has carried with him ever since. And he has dedicated more than 30 years to retelling the story of the war as a guide to tourists who flock to this corner of the Belgium-Luxembourg border, eager to learn about the last major German offensive on the Western Front. But this month Mr. Mignon, 88, said he felt uncomfortable as he anticipated his Saturday morning Battle of the Bulge tour in Bastogne, just south of Houffalize. It was not long after the disastrous meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and President Trump in the Oval Office, and it came as Mr. Trump was presenting a conciliatory tone toward Vladimir V. Putin, Russia's leader. Usually Mr. Mignon portrays Americans as heroes and talks about the strong bonds between this part of the world and the United States. This time, he said, he didn't know exactly what to think about the relationship. 'I feel it is changing,' he admitted in the days leading up to the tour. 50 Miles Amsterdam North Sea Netherlands GERMANY Brussels Belgium Houffalize Bastogne FRANCE LUXEMBOURG Paris By The New York Times Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Era-defining Benin musician dies aged 39
Tributes have been paid to Willy Mignon, an era-defining Beninese musician who died at the age of 39. The artist passed away hours after having a seizure, his sister Christel told the BBC, adding that she was not clear on the exact cause of death. Mignon's career took off in 2006 with Minédji, a hit song that remains beloved in Benin almost 20 years later. The West African country's ministry of culture remembered Mignon as "an emblematic figure of the first generation of urban artists of the 2000s." "His songs, with their swaying rhythms and unique energy, marked an entire era and inspired many other talents," a statement from the ministry said. Mignon died on Tuesday night, after being admitted to hospital in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou. The father-of-five had moved to neighbouring Burkina Faso two years ago, for professional reasons. After news of Mignon's death broke, his manager of nine years, Aziz Ademorou, described the musician as "a fighter who always believed in himself". Mignon had demonstrated this confidence in an interview with Benin's Frissons Radio. "I started out with my first single Mindédji, which was both a trial and a master-stroke... the public loved it," he said. Mignon was also well known for creating a rhythm and dance style named Noudjihou. Noudjihou was inspired by Benin highlife music. Mignon's music had made an impression in his new home, Burkina Faso, too. In January last year he produced Hymnes Aux Étalons, an African Cup of Nations anthem for Burkina Faso's national team. Who should count as African at the Grammy Awards? Angélique Kidjo on being hangry and Africa's tsunami of talent Why Kenyan music is drowned out by Nigerian sounds Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Africa Daily Focus on Africa
