Year: 2009

OPERA AUSTRALIA present LADY MACBETH of MTSENSK. Opera in four acts by Dmitry Shostakovich. Libretto by Alexander Preis and the composer after the short story by Nickolai Leskov (1865) at the Sydney Opera House.   This production of LADY MACBETH of MTSENSK is a revival production for Opera Australia. It was first seen in June, 2002. Directed by Francesca Zambello; now Conducted by Sir Richard Armstrong; Set design by Hildegard Bechtler; Costume design by Tess Schofield; Lighting design by Jean Kalder. It is amusing to travel artistically from the ridiculous musicalities of MUSICAL OF MUSICALS: THE MUSICAL! to the sublime…

Performance Space present QUICK & DIRTY at Carriageworks. Curated by Vic Spence, Mat Hornby, Matt Stegh and Justin Shoulder.   Last year through the auspices and industry of the Performance Space (and presumably Fiona Winning) a program called QUICK & DIRTY was put together. From what I can gather there had been once a regular presentation of this “work” but it had fallen off the “map”. Victoria Spence was invited to curate it. It was an unqualified success. So this year the project was blocked into the Performance Space output again – much credit to them.   The work presented…

  TRIPTYCH THEATRE presents the Australian Premiere of THE MUSICAL OF MUSICALS:THE MUSICAL! at the Parade Studio at the Parade Theatres, NIDA.   When I was a school boy and then a University student, I would read of performances at the old Menzies Hotel of “potted” musicals. When I try to remember the stars who presented them, Nancye Hayes, Hayes Gordon, Jill Perryman and was it possible, June Bronhill(?) seem to pop up. Others I’m sure will come to me. I never went, sadly for reasons of finance and callow youth….. but I remember lingering over the possibility of going.…

SYDNEY SYMPHONY 2009 Season. ENERGY AUSTRALIA MASTER SERIES: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. Overture and incidental music for Shakespeare’s play by Felix Mendelssohn. Text abridged by Tim Carroll.   This concert is a celebration of “the opening of the concert season for 2009… the beginning of the formal relationship between Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Symphony” and the birth of Felix Mendelssohn, two hundred years ago, in 1809.   In the Introductory notes to the performance we are told “the program we’ve devised for tonight speaks to the power of music – not just its power to move our emotions and stimulate…

GRIFFIN THEATRE COMPANY present RANTERS THEATRE production of HOLIDAY by Raimondo Cortese at THE SBW STABLES THEATRE.   When we climb up to the performance space at the SBW Stables you find that the whole of the interior has been painted white. (Set design: Anna Trelogan) Stage floor and walls, auditorium walls and even the further steps into the seating banks. The whiteness is quite a visual shock. Instead of the usual masking black paint there is the nakedness of the white that emphasises all the ugly blemishes of every surface. The production has been showing for several weeks, when…

Sydney Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare present VENUS & ADONIS by William Shakespeare. A Bell Shakespeare and Malthouse Melbourne co-production developed through Mind’s Eye.   From Ted Hughes’ Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being: “By the time (Shakespeare) emerged into history… he had written the Henry VI trilogy, Titus Andronicus and two or three successful comedies. His foothold on the stage, as can be seen in hindsight was firm. But he must have been aware that at any moment the stage itself could founder… In the Autumn of 1592, when an unusually severe outbreak of plague had closed all…