This week at the Arts Centre!

Aida by Verdi

11th November 2009 – 10th December 2009, at the Arts Centre, State Theatre.

Presented by Opera Australia.

Grand opera does not get much grander than Aida. So when one of Australia’s true visionaries, Graeme Murphy, directs a new production of Verdi’s epic tale, it is an occasion not to be missed.

The King’s daughter Amneris is in love with Radamès, and hopes they will marry. Radamès, however, is in love with her Ethiopian slave-girl, Aida, and she with him. Is Radamès and Aida’s love great enough to betray their countries?

Verdi’s thundering choruses and spine-tingling arias, combined with an outstanding cast and the theatrical magic of Graeme Murphy resulted in a sell-out season in Sydney. You can see why when one of the world’s favourite operas comes to Melbourne.

Dates & Time:

11, 14*, 17, 21, 25*, 28* November
1, 4, 7, 10 December

7:30pm, except 21 Nov 1pm

* Free Opera Talk

Pricing:

Evening: $229 / $168 / $118 / $102 / $55 Matinee: $218 / $160 / $112 / $97 / $55

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Cosi fan tutte by Mozart

19th November 2009 – 12th December 2009, at the Arts Centre, State Theatre.

Price Range: $55 – $229

Presented by the Opera Australia.

The School for Lovers

It’s a simple story. Three men, three women and three questions. Are all women fickle? Are men any better? Is there any such thing as true love? Mozart’s delicate and sensual score sounds exquisite while asking all the hard questions.

Jim Sharman’s exuberant new production features a hand-picked cast of young Australians including Hye Seoung Kwon, Sian Pendry, Henry Choo and Luke Gabbedy as the quartet of lovers, and is performed in lively new English translation.

Get ready for a rollercoaster ride through innocence, experience and sexual intrigue in this very modern interpretation of one of Mozart’s classics.

Dates & Time:

19. 21. 24, 27* November
3, 5*, 9, 12 December 7:30pm, except 12 Dec 1pm

Running time (approx): 3 hrs (inc 1 x 20 min interval)

* Free Opera Talk

Pricing:

Evening: $229 / $168 / $118 / $102 / $55 Matinee: $218 / $160 / $112 / $97 / $55

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The Harry Harlow Project

26th November 2009 – 5th December 2009, 7.30pm, at the Arts Centre, Fairfax Studio.

Price Range: $23 – $28

Presented by FULL TILT at the Arts Centre in association with Insite Arts.

The Harry Harlow Project is theatre based on the life and work of one of the most controversial scientists of the 20th Century.

Harlow was the first psychologist to explore the nature of love, and his groundbreaking work with baby rhesus monkeys brought him fame and acclaim in the scientific world. However, as his own personal struggles took hold, Harlow’s experiments into the darker side of love became more and more macabre and disturbing.

How do we reconcile that his work became the foundation for everything science now accepts about child-rearing, neglect, child abuse, and depression?

This premiere production explores this man and his work by creating the laboratory inside his head. This is where his ideas, emotions, memories, ethics, insecurities and demons reside and conflict to create the work that has been the source of so much benefit, consternation, admiration and hatred.

Written and performed by James Saunders | Directed by Brian Lipson | Sound Design Kelly Ryall | Video Design Martyn Coutts

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Revolutions: Great Classics Concert 6

28th – 30th November 2009, at the Arts Centre, Hamer Hall.

Price Range: $30 – $125

Presented by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Brahms’ extravagantly beautiful piano concerto is the most expansive work of its kind in the regular repertoire. Where Brahms thought of the symphony as a vessel for rigorous formal argument, he gave himself more room to be rhapsodic in his writing for solo instrument and orchestra, hence this concerto’s wonderfully dreamy opening idea for the first horn and the magically serene Andante.

Webern created his six musical epigrams when he was in his 20s; although written for a large orchestra, they often feel like chamber music and, in their concision, evoke Schoenberg’s words about Webern, that he could “express a novel in a single gesture, a joy in a single indrawn breath.”The best way to listen to Beethoven’s Fifth may be to forget that it is a classic of Western art as imperishable as Michelangelo’s David or a Rembrandt self-portrait, and to approach it as its early audiences must have done: as an unprecedentedly compressed fireball of expressive intensity.

Stephen Kovacevich piano
Leif Segerstam conductor

Brahms – Piano Concerto No.2
Webern – Six Pieces for large orchestra, Op.6
Beethoven – Symphony No.5

Time:

Sat 2pm
Mon 6.30pm

Pricing:

Price type: Adult | concession | youthPremium:  $125 | $100 | $75
A Reserve:$100 |  $80 | $60
B Reserve:  $80 |  $60 | $40
C Reserve:  $55 |  $45 | $30

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World Supremacy Battlegrounds (WSB) 2009

29th November 2009, 3pm – 9.30pm, at the Arts Centre, Hamer Hall.

Price Range: $25 – $55

Presented by Hoopdreamz.

International Dance Battle

500 urban dancers. 12 nations. 3 titles. All will descend upon the city of Melbourne, Australia’s arts and cultural capital, showcasing some of the most exciting and dynamic displays of Hip Hop dancing like nothing else seen in Australia.An annual event, the 2009 World Supremacy Battlegrounds is a platform for teenagers and young adults to shine and showcase their Hip Hop dancing skills, ranging from Popping, Locking, Break dancing, Funk, Krump dancing, and even the incorporation of Hip Hop with traditional dance such as Jazz, Ballet, Contemporary, and interpretive dance.

This epic Urban & Hip Hop showdown will see some of Australia’s elite street dancers pitting themselves against some of the world’s best. Features global challengers from Singapore, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, USA, New Caledonia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Canada, with defending champions coming back from New Zealand.

Time

3pm – 9.30pm
Running time: 310 minutes with 2 intervals

Pricing

Premium $55 Adult / $45 Child/ $ 190 Family of 4
A Res  $45 Adult / $35 Child /  $ 150 Family of 4
B Res $35 Adult / $25 Child / $ 110 Family of 4** Please Note:
Designated Childrens’ Performance. Children under 2yrs free if sitting on parents laps.

Tickets on sale to the general public at 9am on 1 September 2009

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B.C.

30th November 2009 – 19th December 2009, at the Arts Centre, BlackBox Theatre.

Price Range: $23 – $28

Presented by the FULL TILT at the Arts Centre in association with The Hayloft Project’s.

An irreverent renovation of the Immaculate Conception

In a recognisable modern world of lounge rooms, food courts, bus stops and dinner tables, divine impregnation is the last thing you’d expect. B.C. depicts Mary, still living with her parents, as a young hairdresser with a romantic interest in store clerk, Joseph.Mary has complex connections with her family.  Her relationship with her father borders on taboo, there is the strain of her mother Anne’s cancer treatment fraying the maternal bond. Mary gives her honest, sisterly love to Gabriel, her mentally disabled brother who paints his own landscape with avian fantasies and abrupt tracts of ultra-violent reverie.  The family argue over feature walls and accept each other’s many failings just like many other families… until Mary is arrested by a higher force. Her life will never be the same again.

Written by Rita Kalnejais.

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This week at the Melbourne Recital Centre!

Kelvin Cruickshank – Soul Food Show

28th November 2009, 7.30pm, at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Elisabeth Murdoch Hall.

 

ARTISTS

Kelvin Cruickshank

PROGRAM

With the outstanding success and popularity of Channel 9’s award winning series “Sensing Murder” Kelvin has been literally swamped with people wanting to see him. For this reason he has introduced a series of exclusive evenings that will help to reach out and touch more people at once. These evenings will simply be Kelvin working with spirit. Kelvin will read as many people as possible although we do not guarantee he can read everyone.

Price $82.50

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The Dance of Design: Explorations and Expressions

28th November 2009, 7.30pm, at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Salon.

The Boite in conjunction with Ojas Desai presents The Dance Of Design.

Design or Ordered Expression permeates life. It is what makes Communication Intelligent and Beautiful. From expressing outside one’s body through the medium of Graphic Design to an internal experience of body design i.e. Dance begins a journey that marks an artist’s return to her cultural roots, symbols and world-view. Through a presentation in the Mohini Attam dance form, Miti Desai will share her journey from Design to Dance.

Miti Desai, Click for Biography

1hr 50min concert duration (inc interval)

Prices: $40 -$45

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This week at the Malthouse Theatre!

MY DARLING PATRICIA

AFRICA

12th November 2009 – 29th November 2009, at the Malthouse Theatre, Tower Theatre.

Presented by the Malthouse Theatre.

“FEW HAVE BEEN AS BOLD AND SPONTANEOUS AS SIX-YEAR-OLD MIKA AND HIS FIVE-YEAR-OLD SWEETHEART ANNA-BELL WHO, AFTER MULLING OVER THEIR OPTIONS IN SECRET, PACKED THEIR SUITCASES ON NEW YEAR’S EVE AND SET OFF TO TIE THE KNOT UNDER THE HEAT OF THE AFRICAN SUN.” – THE GUARDIAN (2008)

Inspired by this true story, My Darling Patricia re-imagines Africa as an ultimate escape from Australian Surburbia. Using puppetry, broken toys and performance, My Darling Patricia use the resilience of a child’s imagination as a powerful restorative tool that will transport you to an imaginary paradise. Where we might see abandon and chaos, a child discovers escape and delight; this is the world created in Africa.

Melbourne was introduced to My Darling Patricia in 2006 through their award winning production, Politely Savage and more recently, Night Garden (2009). Drawing inspiration from all corners of the creative universe, My Darling Patricia will use their unique approach to design and performance to transform the Tower Theatre into something remarkable.

In 2008, Malthouse Theatre handed over the Tower Theatre keys to the thrillingly unpredictable Black Lung Theatre. Their three-month residency resulted in a pair of works unlike anything seen before in our theatres. Now it is the turn of My Darling Patricia, a company who create highly distinctive visual theatre that is at once epic and intimate. Melbourne was introduced to them in 2006 through their award winning production, Politely Savage and more recently, Night Garden at Arts House Meat Market.

My Darling Patricia are a creative ensemble who fuse everyday domestic Australia and the far reaches of the fantastic, drawing inspiration from all corners of the creative universe – from the grandiose spectacles of Robert Wilson and Romeo Castellucci to the intricacies of animator Jan Svankmajer – theirs is a practice that ultimately defies categorisation. During My Darling Patricia’s residency, expect the Tower Theatre to be transformed into something quite remarkable.

“A POWERFUL, IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE – SENSE DRENCHED, CREEPY AND FULL OF ATMOSPHERE.“ – THE AUSTRALIAN (ON THE AWARD WINNING POLITELY SAVAGE)

“MY DARLING PATRICIA BLENDS EXTRAORDINARY CRAFT SKILLS IN DESIGN AND PUPPETRY WITH EVOCATIVE VIDEO IMAGERY AND PERFORMANCE TO PRODUCE A WORK OF VISUAL WONDER.” – REALTIME (ON NIGHT GARDEN)

CONCEIVED, DESIGNED AND CREATED
BY MY DARLING PATRICIA:
CONCEPT: SAM ROUTLEDGE
WRITER / DIRECTOR: HALCYON MACLEOD
DESIGNERS: CLARE BRITTON & BRIDGET DOLAN
COMPOSER & SOUND DESIGNER: DECLAN KELLY
LIGHTING DESIGNER: LUCY BIRKINSHAW
PUPPETS: BRYONY ANDERSON

CAST: CLARE BRITTON, JODIE LE VESCONTE, ALICE OSBORNE, MATT PREST, SAM ROUTLEDGE

Pricing: $25.50 – $32.50 (excludes booking fee)

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STRUCTURE AND SADNESS

25th November 2009 – 29th November 2009, at the Malthouse Theatre, Merlyn Theatre.
A LUCY GUERIN INC PRODUCTION PRESENTED BY THE MALTHOUSE THEATRE.

“A CHOREOGRAPHER IN RIGOROUS CONTROL OF HER MATERIAL, CREATING BEAUTIFULLY FOCUSED, POWERFULLY EVOCATIVE WORKS… GUERIN HAS CREATED A QUIETLY DEVESTATING AND POTENT WORK. NEW YORK’S LOSS HAS BEEN MELBOURNE’S GAIN.”- NEW YORK PRESS

“GUERIN LETS HER DANCERS’ BODIES EXPRESS THE PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES OF CATASTROPHE AND EMBODY THE FRAGILE CONSTRUCTS THAT MOSTLY HOLD US UP.” THE NEW YORK TIMES -SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

On 15 October 1970, a 367-ft section of the West Gate Bridge, known as ‘span 10–11’, collapsed during construction. Approximately 2,000 tonnes of steel and concrete came crashing down into the muddy banks of the Yarra below, taking the lives of 35 workers, their machinery, tools and sheds with them.

In Structure and Sadness, Guerin’s unique movement vocabulary is based on the engineering principles of compression, suspension, torsion and failure. On stage, the six performers construct a precarious world teetering on the point of collapse.

Since its world premiere for the 2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival, this arresting production has been presented at the Sydney Festival, Perth International Arts Festival and in 2009 toured the globe to Frankfurt, Ludwigsberg, Dublin and New York. Malthouse Theatre is thrilled to invite Lucy Guerin Inc to perform this muchanticipated and exclusive Melbourne return season in the Merlyn Theatre.

CHOREOGRAPHER LUCY GUERIN
ORIGINAL MUSIC GERALD MAIR
MOTION GRAPHICS MICHAELA FRENCH
SET AND LIGHTING DESIGNERS
BLUEBOTTLE: BEN COBHAM AND ANDREW LIVINGSTON
COSTUMES PAULA LEVIS
DRAMATURGE MARYANNE LYNCH
PRODUCERS FOR LUCY GUERIN INC MICHAELA COVENTRY
AND ANGHARAD WYNNE-JONES

PERFORMED BY
FIONA CAMERON
KYLE KREMERSKOTHEN
LINA LIMOSANI
HARRIET RITCHIE
BYRON PERRY
LEE SERLE

 

Pricing: $25.50 – $39.50 (excludes booking fee)

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