Category: ARTS & CULTURE

Joyce El-Khoury has joined Opera Australia in 2019 for La Boheme

Mimi sings for Rodolfo in La Boheme

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Updated: 11/01/2019

Maria Callas is back! Well… not really, but, she may as well be if any of the articles out there about Canadian-Lebanese soprano, Joyce El-Khoury are anything to go by; she’s one of the most exciting new additions to Opera Australia this spring-summer season of 2019. Opening the season with Puccini’s classic La Boheme, El-Khoury will pick-up the role of Mimi, the innocent little bird who’s swept-up into the drama of the Bohemians in the thick of winter. Joyce headlines the cast of this season’s production, which has fast-proved to be an international explosion of some of the world’s finest singers. In addition to her debut to the Australian opera scene, Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska will partner with El-Khoury on the role of Mimi, while Italian and Mexican tenors Ivan Magri and Diego Torre will shine in their portrayals of Rodolfo, the poet and male lead. With experience at The Met (NYC), Handa Opera (Sydney Harbour), Royal Opera House Covent Garden (London), The Bolshoi and Teatro Colon (Buenoa Aires) between them all, this production’s cast will leave large shoes to fill. Read more about how Diego Torre did something not many others can. This season’s production comes off the back of last season’s which culminated in a magical production of La Boheme at the Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour. Complete with snow and actual cars, the production was one for the memory books, only surely to be met in quality and transcendentalism with the addition of these stunning new international singers. See more and get your tickets… Read More

Category: ARTS & CULTURE, CITIES, OPERA, SYDNEY

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Where is Juanita Nielsen? The Sydney exhibition to the local activist

Juanita Nielsen

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Posted: 28/12/2018

January will see the Sydney launch of Zanny Begg’s acclaimed installation The Beehive; a video artwork that explores the unsolved murder of Sydney activist Juanita Nielsen. Juanita was a journalist, style-icon, heiress and anti-development campaigner and she fought against the violent eviction of tenants on Victoria Street, Kings Cross. She disappeared on the 4th of July 1975 and now, more than 40 years later, her body has never been found and no one has been charged. This is the first time the installation will be seen in Sydney, and just a few streets from where she was last seen. The exhibition opens 5 January at UNSW Galleries in Paddington for Sydney Festival. What to expect? The work is assembled from a reservoir of scripted fictions, documentary interviews and choreographed sequences. The film is ever-changing, as the footage is randomly selected for each screening with 1,344 possible variations, offering different glimpses and interpretations of this infamous true crime. The artwork presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of Juanita with multiple actors playing the role, including respected theatre actors, Pamela Rabe, who stars in the Australian prison drama Wentworth. Why it’s so good. Beehive was critically acclaimed when unveiled in Melbourne in July. But this is the first time it will be presented in Sydney, just a few blocks from where Juanita was last seen alive. It is an important Sydney story, but it also has relevance to audiences nationally as the work explores gentrification, corruption, sexwork, feminism, housing justice and non-conventional lifestyles. EXHIBITION DETAILS Where: UNSW GalleriesAddress: Cnr. Oxford St and Greens Rd, PaddingtonTel:  02 89360888When: 5 January… Read More

Category: ART, ARTS & CULTURE, CITIES, SYDNEY

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Eurovision glory: Drag queen Courtney Act is going to save Australia

Courtney Act Shane Jenek drag queen

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Updated: 01/01/2019

Somebody needs to strip Jessica Mauboy’s right to rep Australia in Eurovision ASAP and Courtney Act is the woman to do it. Since she burst onto our TV screens back in the hey day of Big Brother Australia – and she’s just won the celebrity version of the fizzer in 2018 – Courtney Act (Shane Jenek) has released a new tune she’d love to take Australia to the big leagues in 2019. We’ll be able to decide soon. The new track by Courtney Act is called Fight for love and will hit Eurovision – Australia Decides on SBS on Saturday 9 February 2019. “A sweet 16 years after Australian Idol, I have the chance to show Australia how I have grown as an artist and performer and I am so excited! To compete to represent Oz in Eurovision is second only to being on that stage in Tel Aviv and singing my lungs out for my country. Fight For Love is a dancefloor banger all about coming together and fighting for the things we believe in. I think it’s so important to think about the basic human rights of others and to use our collective voices, minds and bodies to lift those people up and bring about change,” she said. Courtney’s new single Fight For Love is available to purchase now on iTunes and stream on Spotify. Courtney will compete with Fight For Love on SBS’ Eurovision – Australia Decides on Saturday 9 February 2019. Listen to the track on Spotify.

Category: ARTS & CULTURE, DRAG, FEATURES, LIFESTYLE

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Gay and Loathing in Bris Vegas: Coming to screens in 2019

Gay Loathing Bris Vegas 1

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Posted: 21/12/2018

There’s a 14-part web series coming to the internet in 2019 that everyone – especially the gays – needs to watch. It’s about Australia’s most fervently boringly brilliant city: Brisbane. But more notably, what exactly the marginal percentage of people who identify themselves as part of the city’s LGBTIQ community do to fill the time, and how that all unfolds. Set in the historic city of Brisbane, Australia, Gay and Loathing in Bris Vegas explores the lives of seven central characters over the course of two days in the cul-de-sacs of where they live. The blueprint for the characters are portrayed by local Brisbane actors Sean Dennehy, Leigh Buchanan, Paul Newlands, Michael Deed, Josh Walker, Peter Wood, Jake Orlando-Cowan is based on the comedy scripts written by John B. Uren and Craig Rossiter. It all explores what happens when the most exciting thing in town is a man-made beach. It tells the self-deprecating tale of a popular-with-the-gays city in a tracksuit where sequins come to die and how the Brisgays survive. They go to breakfast, they glare. They go to brunch, they loathe. They go to Instagram, they judge. They go to Grindr, they regret. They end up at Sporty’s and wonder why. Presented by Cloudland Pictures, “It’s the Kath and Kim of gay Brisbane. It’s suburban Australia brought to life with hysterical comedy”, says Leigh Buchanan, who portrays Garette, a bored homemaker who loves to drink and is the partner of Nathan (played by Sean Dennehy). Have a look at the cast talk about the new… Read More

Category: ARTS & CULTURE, BRISBANE, CITIES, LIFESTYLE, THEATRE

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China’s Terracotta Warriors are coming to the National Gallery of Victoria

Terracotta Warriors

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Updated: 20/12/2018

This is quite possibly one of the most exciting achievements of the National Gallery of Victoria – NGV – in quite some time. And that’s taking into consideration their constant sessions with world renowned artists and designers as an ongoing thing. Alongside the world of Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, the Terracotta Warriors of Shaanxi, China will make their way to Melbourne for the second time at the Gallery. “Thirty-six years ago, in 1982, the National Gallery of Victoria presented the first international exhibition of China’s ancient Terracotta Warriors only several years after their discovery. History will be made again in 2019, when the Qin Emperor’s Terracotta Army will return to the NGV for the 2019 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition series – this time in a sophisticated dialogue with the work one of China’s most celebrated contemporary artists, Cai Guo-Qiang,” said director of the NGV, Tony Ellwood. As part of the Gallery’s 2019 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces presentation: China’s ancient Terracotta Warriors alongside a parallel display of new works by one of the world’s most exciting contemporary artists, Cai Guo-Qiang will make their way to the city of Melbourne in a large scale exhibition from China that is set to outlast the memories of most. The exhibition is aptly named Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality and is a large-scale presentation of the Qin Emperor’s Terracotta Warriors, which, discovered in 1974 in China’s Shaanxi province, are regarded as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the twentieth century and widely described as the eighth wonder of the world. They’re from c.200 BCE and… Read More

Category: ART, ARTS & CULTURE, CITIES, MELBOURNE

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Nominees for the 2018 Sydney Theatre Awards are…

Sydney Theatre Awards2

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Posted: 19/12/2018

The Seymour Centre is about to play host to Sydney’s Theatre Awards for 2018 after the nominees were announced. It’s time to get excited. Nominations in the 33 categories were spread across 49 productions which played on Sydney stages during 2018. Sydney Theatre Company has a clean sweep in the Best Mainstage Production category with Blackie Blackie Brown, The Harp In The South, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Saint Joan all vying for the award, the first time one theatre company has dominated all nominations in this category. The nominees for Best Independent Production are The Flick (Outhouse Theatre Company in association with Seymour Centre), Metamorphoses (Apocalypse Theatre Company in association with Red Line Productions), Stupid Fucking Bird (New Theatre) and There Will Be A Climax (Red Line Productions in partnership with NIDA). The Sydney Theatre Awards are presented annually by a group of leading theatre critics to celebrate the strength, quality and diversity of theatre in Sydney. The panel consist of Elissa Blake (Audrey Journal), Jason Blake (Audrey Journal), Deborah Jones (The Australian), Jo Litson (Limelight), John McCallum (The Australian), Joyce Morgan (The Sydney Morning Herald), Ben Neutze (Time Out), John Shand (The Sydney Morning Herald) Diana Simmonds (Stagenoise), Cassie Tongue (Time Out) and Suzy Wrong (Suzy Goes See). Here are the nominees… BEST MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION Blackie Blackie Brown (Sydney Theatre Company) The Harp in the South (Sydney Theatre Company) The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Sydney Theatre Company) Saint Joan (Sydney Theatre Company) BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION The Flick (Outhouse Theatre Company in association with Seymour Centre) Metamorphoses (Apocalypse Theatre Company in association with Red Line Productions) Stupid… Read More

Category: ARTS & CULTURE, THEATRE

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Underground Cinema: HOTEL

Underground Cinema Hotel 2

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Posted: 19/12/2018

The Secret Squirrel crew go above and beyond in setting the scene for Underground Cinema’s nights out at the movies. Previous highlights include recreating Casablanca’s Rick’s Café América in in a hangar (complete with World War II-era plane) and The Life of Brian’s Roman-occupied Judea in the sandy grounds of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, featuring live camels. But a new standard was set in Underground Cinema’s latest offering, with Melbourne’s iconic Windsor Hotel turned into The Grand Budapest Hotel. Hotel guests decked out in their 1940s finest checked in and enjoyed the sumptuous feast, full bar and dancing in the Grand Ballroom. A quick walk down the hallway allowed guests to indulge their sweet tooth in the recreated Mendl’s Pâtisserie, complete with towers of pink pastry boxes, a chocolate fountain and plates of tiny desserts as if Agatha had made them herself. Lobby boys in perfectly-pressed purple uniforms later gathered guests to take us for stroll around the block to St Peter’s Church Hall, recreating the mountaintop monastery where Monsieur Gustave and Zero made their escape. Melbourne rain substituted alpine snow perfectly. Monks settled guests into their seats for the film and ensured our glasses were full. Kudos to the Underground Cinemas actors remaining in full character when I sneezed in the front row and a monk blessed me profusely; divine intervention which I’m convinced cured my hay fever. Wes Anderson’s witty, adventurous, cinematic romp which looks good enough to eat was the perfect end to Underground Cinema’s 2018 season. If the Secret Squirrel’s Immersive Cinema… Read More

Category: ARTS & CULTURE, CITIES, LIFESTYLE, MELBOURNE, THEATRE

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Lone Hemisphere at Sydney’s Carriageworks

Lone Hemispheres 1

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Updated: 18/12/2018

Melbourne officially has a contender in the title for Australia’s cultural capital it seems, if the likes of Sydney-based Ensemble Offspring, under the charge of Claire Edwardes, has anything to do with it.  The independent musicians’ soloist movement is known for its participation in the Sydney Festival and other, independently charged cultural activities, one of which was Lone Hemispheres that took over track 8 at Carriageworks, Sydney as a standalone, one-night-only production. A program of seminal works inspired by revolutionary architect, mathematician and composer Iannis Xenakis, alongside newly commissioned solo compositions by Berlin-based Australian Cathy Milliken, and Sydney composers Elizabeth Younan and Michael Smetanin, the whole production by is a testament to the cultural underbelly of Sydney and the vast space of it that’s missing the likes of this, that independently-produced music can address. In Edwardes’ program, the performers explored a range of musical works. This included the moment of vocal utterance in a violin piece called Crie written by Cathy Milliken and played by Véronique Serret, Claire Edwardes (percussion) performed Electors of Middlemarch by Elizabeth Younan and Zubin Kanga on the piano belted out Four Angels by Michael Smetanin.  Performed alongside three works by Iannis Xenakis, the contemporary pieces worked perfectly well and really let the skill of local composers shine. As Edwardes said, the music of Iannis Xenakis is unashamedly bold, and it’s hard not to notice. It’s no surprise that the music showcased by the locals matched that of Xenakis who approached music with mathematical precision, architectural finesse and electronic refinement that gave his music a certain edge over others’. 

Category: ARTS & CULTURE, LIFESTYLE

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When does Book Of Mormon Sydney close? Sooner than you think

Book Moron

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Posted: 16/12/2018

The Book Of Mormon has had a good run in Sydney and around Australia, but for those who’re planning on seeing it before it goes for good, you’d better act quickly!  Following a record-breaking season, The Book of Mormon will hold its final performance at the Sydney Lyric Theatre on Friday 8 February 2019. Sad times. The show will then move north to the Lyric Theatre, QPAC from 16 March followed by the Festival Theatre, Adelaide from 27 June 2019. Final Sydney tickets will go on sale on 17 December from BookOfMormonMusical.com.au After an epic run of 752 Australian performances since opening at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre in January 2017 for a one year run, before moving to the Sydney Lyric Theatre from 27 February 2018, it’s time for the book to close on the Sydney leg and carry the highly successful production north to share it with the rest of Australia.  At the 2017 Helpmann Awards, The Book of Mormon was crowned winner of the coveted Best Musical award, while Trey Parker and Casey Nicholaw were awarded Best Direction of a Musical. Tickets are available from BookOfMormonMusical.com.au

Category: ARTS & CULTURE, LIFESTYLE, THEATRE

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