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| Zac Hurren and Katie Noonan - "Gratitude and Grief" |
The arrival
of the Spiegeltent in Canberra heralds a veritable performing arts festival. In
addition to the main stage show, this year it’s “Life-The Show”, which runs
nightly, the Spiegeltent presents a series of early evening, one-show only, pop-up
performances by some of the country’s most recognisable and acclaimed
performing artists.
This past week
alone, has seen performances by Archie Roach, Katie Noonan, Carlotta, Mick
Harvey, Mojo Juju and Emma Pask of which this intrepid reviewer managed to
catch the following.
Katie Noonan
was first cab off the rank with a performance with her jazz trio, Elixir. She
performed songs from her acclaimed song cycle, “Gratitude and Grief” which is based
on a series of Michael Leunig poems. Noonan is known for the purity of her
sound and her haunting songs exploit her crystalline upper register. Some of
the songs she introduced by reading the Leunig poem which inspired it. For
others she let the lyrics speak for themselves, allowing space for sublime
improvisations by saxophonist, Zac Hurren and guitarist, Stephen Magnusson.
Her
selections included the catchy, “La-La Land”, the whimsical “Magpie”, and
haunting “Little Tendrils/Love is born”, winding up the set with a magical
version of “The Rainbow Connection”.
Superb
sound, atmospheric lighting and the old-world romantic atmosphere of the
Spiegeltent itself, enhanced the sublime music. It was a pity, therefore, that
the performers had given so little attention to presentation. A concert
situation such as provided by the Spiegeltent, directs the whole audience
attention to the stage and the performers. Noonan’s presentation offered little
visual satisfaction. Her rambling introductions were more irritating than
informative, and her unfortunate habit of crouching down at the side of the
stage, water bottle in hand, during the instrumental improvisations, distracted
from her colleagues performances. A more polished performance was expected.
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| Mick Harvey - "Intoxicated Man - The Songs of Serge Gainsbourg" |
Having been
entranced some years ago by Jane Birkin’s interpretations of Serge Gainsbourg's
songs, Mick Harvey’s performance of “Intoxicated Man – The Songs of Serge
Gainsbourg” was highly anticipated. However, once again, a similar lack of
attention to presentation marred the performance. Harvey has produced two albums of
Gainsbourg’s songs and had gathered together a superb group of musicians
including J.P.Shilo, Dan Luscombe, Glenn Lewis, Hugo Cran, Xanthe Waite, two
backing singers and a locally sourced four-piece string section for this show.
However in
his attempt to recapture the sound of the albums, Harvey seems to have
forgotten that the arrangements are meant to enhance the songs rather than
smother them, and too little attention had been paid to getting the sound
balance right for this concert. As a result it was mostly impossible to discern
the lyrics.
Also
Harvey’s off-handed introductions provided little context or explanation for
the songs, nor did his vocal interpretations, sung from behind two small drums,
capture the essential beat mood of Gainsbourg’s songs. Indeed the most
successful realisation came late in the program with “Scenic Railway”,
accompanied by just the quartet.
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| Carlotta - Queen of the Cross |
A genuine
living legend, Carlotta drew a large crowd of devotees to her performance. Entitled
“Queen of the Cross”, a reference to her years as the star attraction of Les
Girls in Kings Cross, and her years of touring the club circuit following the
demise of “Les Girls”. Carlotta has maintained her star status through regular
appearances on morning television shows, as well as the cabaret circuit.
Proudly
admitting to being 75 years old, she’s still a striking presence as she takes
the stage to the strains of “No Business Like Show Business”, swathed in a
voluminous black gown encrusted with glittering Swarovski crystals. The potty-mouthed mistress of the back-handed
compliment, she harangues her adoring audience with her displeasure at having
to appear in a tent, (albeit a beautiful tent) after having appeared in the
Sydney Opera House, complains that, because of the fog, she had to spend 16
hours travelling to Canberra from the Gold Coast for this performance, criticises
the clothing choices of a few unfortunates, and hawks special- edition
tea-towels to augment her pension. Her
audience love it and happily vie for the opportunity to be insulted by her.
She also
sings show songs, accompanied on keyboards by Michael Griffiths, himself a
Helpmann Award winner. Indeed she proves such a fine interpreter, that one
wishes she would take advantage of her excellent musical director to rework her
act to include more songs and less repartee.
There are
still many intriguing acts scheduled in this series over the forthcoming weeks,
including Canberra’s own Paul McDermott with Steven Gates, indigenous dance
sensations, Djuki Mala, comedians Osher Gunsberg and Peter Helliar, indigenous
cabaret artist, Jordan Raskopaulos and Helpmann Award nominee, Michaela Burger
with her Edith Piaf cabaret, “Exposing Edith.
Reviewed by Bill Stephens
This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 7th April 2019.
