The music festivals have become more extravagant, and nightlife venues are booking some of the best talents out there.
As we watch these Games and marvel at the achievements of Olympians in the most extravagant of sports venues, we should keep in mind that the few at the top of athletic pyramid stand on the shoulders those below.
The two women have shared strikingly similar details about their alleged affairs, like rendezvous at a Lake Tahoe golf tournament in 2006, dates at swanky venues around Los Angeles, extravagant gifts, and promises of city apartments.
The venue, with plush furnishing, extravagant chandeliers and 3am licence, was the favoured hip hangout.
It's all very preposterous, set in a playwright's fanciful (i.e., politically incorrect) China, but the music absolutely demands Pavarotti and Callas, along with extravagant production values and the biggest venues you can afford.
A popular tourist attraction in the capital and in other Thai cities, the venues' razzle-dazzle performances — featuring extravagant costumes and burlesque-style dances often set to American pop music and show tunes — are known for featuring the transgender women and gender non-conforming men known as "ladyboys" (kathoey, in Thai).
Known for their extravagant show production and off the beaten path venues, this season's show was held in the old Barnes & Noble space on Sixth Avenue which was transformed into a stark celebration of white light.
All the same, when we sit down at the Roundhouse arts venue in north London, about which Bazalgette is extravagant in his praise, I do ask a version of Lebrecht's question, albeit in more benign form.
