SLEEPING BEAUTY - Royal Czech Ballet

 

Cristina Terentiev - Yevhen Svyetlitsa in the Royal Czech Ballet's production of "Sleeping Beauty"

Music by Pyotr Ilyic Tchaikovsky

Choreographed and staging by Andrei Scharaev, after Marius Petipa

Settings by Evgeny Hurenko – Costumes by Maria Poliudova

Lighting by Alexander Soloviev – Sound by Sarah Vandenberg

Canberra Theatre Centre – September 18^th & 19^th 2023.

Evening performance on 18^th September reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

]

Dancers of the Royal Czech Ballet in "Sleeping Beauty"

Premiered in the Marinsky Theatre in 1890, “The Sleeping Beauty” has remained one of the most famous of all ballets. The ballet is based around a fairy-tale princess who is cursed by an evil fairy miffed at not being invited to the princess’s christening. The effect of the evil fairy’s curse is that the princess will die if she pricks her finger, which of course she does at her 16^th birthday celebrations.

This event causes the whole court to go into suspended animation until 100 years later, when a handsome prince discovers the Royal Court, dutifully kisses the princess, resulting in everyone waking up to celebrate with a grand party for which various other fairy-tale characters provide the floor show.

With its famous score by Tchaikovsky, the opportunities the ballet offers for pretty settings,  costumes, and characters dances to showcase its dancers, “Sleeping Beauty” has become a staple in the repertoire of most classical ballet companies. This lovely production by the Royal Czech Ballet is an excellent example of why.

Staged by the company’s Founder and Artistic Director, Andrei Scharaev, this production is presented among a series of spectacular, beautifully painted backcloths, the work of Evgeny Hurenko, with pretty jelly-bean coloured costumes by Maria Poliudova.

Sensitive to the rigours of an extensive touring schedule, Scharaev has sensitively modified the original Petipa choreography, without sacrificing style, precision or spectacle. All 26 or so well-drilled dancers who make up the company impressed with their immaculate grooming and attention to choreographic detail.

Cristina Terentiev - Yevhan Svyelitsa - Dancers of the Royal Czech in "Sleeping Beauty

The company is led by ballerina, Cristina Terentiev as Princess Aurora, partnered by Yevhen Svyetlitsa as Prince Desire. Every inch the Prima Ballerina, Terentiev, last seen in Canberra in Royal Czech Ballet’s “Swan Lake”, is an exquisite dancer and sheer joy to watch. She effortlessly captures the joie de vivre of the sixteen-year-old Princess Aurora, while taking the time to execute every step faultlessly and with flawless line.

Her partner, Yevhen Svyetlitsa, a handsome, attentive Prince Desire, also impressed with his princely bearing and effortless elevation. Their execution of the famous last act pas de deux elicited cheers from the entranced audience. 

Serjei Iliin (Carabosse) and dancers of the Royal Czech Ballet in "Sleeping Beauty"

Among the soloists, Ana Oleinic watched over proceedings as a tall and elegant Lilac Fairy, Sergej Iliin, in an amazing glittering black and gold costume,  oozed evil intent as the Evil Fairy Carabosse; Ola Marcova and Vadim Stetenco delighted with their performance of the famous Blue Bird Pas de deux;  Andrei Saharnean and Elizaveta Savina drew laughter from the audience with their outrageous flirting as Puss in Boots and the White Cat;  while diminutive, Nicole Ferazzino, who had charmed earlier as Fairy Playfulness,  had her hands full avoiding the clutches Dennis Donica’s Grey Wolf, as Little Red Riding Hood.

Elizaveta Savina (White Cat) - Andrei Saharnean (Puss in Boots" in "Sleeping Beauty"

Thankfully the recorded version of the much-loved Tchaikovsky score was amplified to just the right level making this production both an aural and visual delight.

As the Royal Czech Ballet continues its Australian tour, for performances from 4^th to the 30^th October, Ukrainian dancer, Natalia Kushch, who has previously been a soloist with the Vienna State Ballet, the Queensland Ballet and Australian Ballet, will take over the role of Princess Aurora from Cristina Terentiev. Kushch will be partnered for these performances by Nikolay Nazarkevich.

                                     Images provided by Royal Czech Ballet.

This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au

MY LIFE IS A SYMPHONY - Kate Ceberano and the Canberra Symphony Orchestra

 

Canberra Theatre on 15^th September 2023.

Performance reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

 

The baby boomers were out in force for this sold-out concert in the Canberra Theatre; part of a nation-wide tour with which Kate Ceberano is celebrating her 40-year recording career by performing symphonic arrangements of her most iconic songs with the symphony orchestras of each of the capital cities.

Last night it was the Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s turn to join Ceberano on stage, and what a night it proved to be.

Few Australian performing artists could match the career of Kate Ceberano who has distinguished herself across just about every aspect of entertainment. However it as a singer/songwriter/recording artist that she is most revered, having recorded no fewer than 30 albums over that 40 years, among them 11 platinum albums, 10 top-selling singles.

The most recent, “My Life is a Symphony” featuring her most iconic songs and personal favourites, reimagined with lush symphonic arrangements by Roscoe James Irwin, provided the repertoire for this concert.

To the opening bars of one of her most iconic songs, “Pash”, and amid welcoming applause from the capacity audience, Ceberano took the stage wearing a glittering black gown and flashing that familiar warm, broad smile.

For this concert the Canberra Symphony Orchestra was augmented by Ceberano’s key musical collaborators in Paul Cecchinelli on the Steinway grand, Kathleen Halloran (guitar), Jonathon Zion (electric Bass), Gordon Rytmeister (drums and Piano) and backing vocalists Jessica Fairlie and Alison Ainsworth, all conducted by Vanessa Scammell.

But despite the presence of a stage-full of musicians Ceberano quickly established that this concert was not going to be a starchy affair.

After confiding her pleasure in revisiting these favourite songs and the excitement she felt in being able to share these new arrangements with her Canberra audience, she launched  into a sublime performance of “Sweet Inspiration”.

As the concert progressed, she explained that she had written “Courage” as a wedding gift to her mother and step-father, reducing herself to tears by the memory of performing it at their wedding.

Explanations of how she was inspired to write “Earth and Sky” as a gift to fellow-performer Sara Storer, how “Time To Think” resulted from a relationship breakdown, and the inspiration behind “Louis’ Song” were among many shared during the performance.

Ceberano was obviously in her happy place on stage. Fronting a packed audience, offering relaxed and chatty backstories  to each of her songs, frequently reducing her audience, and her on-stage musicians, to stitches with her spontaneous, cheeky asides. For as well as being a superb singer/songwriter, Ceberano is also a gifted raconteur.

Throughout the concert, responding to Irwin’s inventive new arrangements of such Ceberano classics as   “Sunburn”, “Brave”, “Sympathy” and particularly “Cherry Blossom Lipstick”, superbly rendered by the musicians themselves responding to the mood of the moment and Scammell’s inspirational conducting, Ceberano pleasured her audience with her well-honed artistry mining every lyric for fresh nuance inspired by the gorgeous accompaniments.

In return, the blissed-out audience offered an enthusiastic standing ovation, and even after a generous encore, seemed reluctant to leave the theatre, seemingly unwilling to break the spell of this memorable concert. 

                                                 Image by Juan Mahony 

         This review first published in the digital edition of  CITY NEWS on 16.09.23     

 

IMMORTAL BACH

 Canberra Choral Society

Luminescence Children’s Choir

All Saints Anglican Church, Ainslie 16 September

 

Reviewed by Len Power

 

The history and provenance of J.S. Bach’s motets remain shrouded in mystery to this day. From within the known collection, there are several doubtful attributions and it is not known how many he wrote. Nevertheless, they remain favourites among choirs and audiences.

The program commenced with two motets.  First, the Canberra Choral Society sang “Komm, Jesu, Komm” (Come, Jesus, come). It was an excellent choice to open the concert and the singers’ voices filled the church powerfully and with great beauty.

 It was followed by “Der Geist Hilft” (The Spirit Helps), surprisingly joyful and lilting, even though it had been written for a funeral. Both works were written for two-part choirs and it was fascinating to hear the contrapuntal interplay as the musical material passed from one group of singers to the other.

Canberra Choral Society and the Luminescence Children's Choir, conductor Dan Walker

 Then the Luminescence Children’s Choir sang “Bist Du Bei Mir” (If you are with me). This work, from the 1725 collection known as the Anna Magdalena Notebook, is based on an aria by German composer Gottfried Stölzel, a contemporary of Bach. The children sang this beautiful, melodic work with clarity and an appealing sweetness.

 They followed it with “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten” (We hurry with weak yet eager steps), originally a soprano and alto duet from Bach’s Cantata no. 78. Again, it was nicely sung and it was notable that the children sang both works in German from memory.

 Bach’s motet, “Jesu Meine Freude” (Jesus, My Joy) was then sung by the combined choirs. This work, one of the most popular and widely performed of his motets, was given a strong performance by the choirs. The parts featuring the children’s voices were haunting and sung with sensitivity and the combined voices of both choirs was powerful, especially in the “Gute Nacht, o Wesen” (Good night, o earthly existence) and the finale of the work.

Both choirs also sang the Final Chorus from Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion”, giving it a colourful and emotional performance and the concert ended with the Canberra Choral Society singing a fourth motet, “Lobet Dem Herrn” (Praise The Lord). This joyful, triumphant work was given a rousing performance by the choir.

Conductor, Dan Walker, achieved great results from both choirs and also provided witty, down to earth comments on the music. Anthony Smith, organ, and Lindy Rekstein, continuo, also provided fine support.

 

Photo by Peter Hislop

This review was first published by Canberra CityNews digital edition on 17 September 2023.

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT - Free Rain Theatre Company

 

Darcy Kinsella (Patsy) - Michael Jordan (King Arthur) and the Ladies who say Ni.

Directed by Jarrad West – Musical Direction by Ian Maclean

Choreographed by Michelle Heine – Costume Designed by Fiona Leach

The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, 14  - 24 September 2023.

Opening night performance on 14 September reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
James Morgan (Herbert) - Kristofer Patson-Gill (Lancelot( -Ryland Howard (Bedevere) - Dave Collins (Gallahad) - Michael Jordan (Arthur) - Grayson Woodham (Robin) - Darcy Kinsella (Patsy)

For those with a taste for rough, bawdy theatre, this is the show for you. An unabashed rip-off of the 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” this show delights in its own silliness while relating an absurd version of the Arthurian legend.

For this production, director Jarrad West has taken his cue from its medieval setting to strip the Q theatre stage of any decoration other than triangular tables on either side at which unsuspecting audience members were seated.  A continuous parade of rough weird and wacky costumes, augmented by props carried by the large cast, provided indication to the multiple locales  encountered by Arthur (Michael Jordan) and his trusty manservant, Patsy (Darcy Kinsella) in their search for the Holy Grail.

The tone is set early in the show when a brief overview of medieval England is interrupted by a group of minstrels who perform a “Fisch Schlapping Song” in the mistaken believe that the narrator had mentioned Finland instead of England.

The Narrator is one of several roles played by the inimitable Meaghan Stewart during the show. Among them, Not Dead Fred, in the plague scene in which she is killed, several times, by Lancelot (Kristofer Paston-Gill), and most memorably, as the French Taunter who hurls hilarious insults at Arthur and his knights.

No need to pay to pay too much attention to the storyline, which while extraordinarily silly and convoluted, provides plenty of opportunities for coarse acting which are embraced with enthusiasm by the large cast, which applied the same enthusiasm to the spectacular group numbers choreographed by Michelle Heine.

Integral to the general chaos of the rest of the show is the clever score by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, which contains several immediately recognisable songs, including “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”.  Others parody Broadway songs including “The Song that Goes Like This” and “Whatever Happened to My Part”, both rendered by Hannah Lance, as the Lady of the Lake, who possesses many of the talents required by a leading lady except the ability to sing in tune.

Hannah Lance (c) and the cast of "Monty Python's Spamalot"

This score received such terrific treatment from the excellent band, under the baton of Maestro, Ian McClean, who occasionally participated in some of the happy chaos, that most of the audience stayed in their seats after the show to savour the play-out music.  

This is one of those productions where the cast appear to extract more enjoyment from their participation than those in the audience, some of whom may have wished for a little more of the polish usually associated with Free Rain Theatre productions.

                                      Production images by Janelle McMenamin

This review first published in the digital edition of CITY NEWS on 15th September 2023.

SPAMALOT

 

Book & lyrics by Eric Idle

Music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle

Directed by Jarrad West

Free Rain Theatre production

The Q Theatre, Queanbeyan to September 24

 

Reviewed by Len Power 14 September 2023

 

While ‘Spamalot’ was based on the 1975 English film, ‘Monty Python and The Holy Grail’, the musical was first seen on Broadway in 2005, where it won the Tony Award for Best Musical. It has been staged internationally ever since.

For this production, the director, Jarrad West, has chosen a bare stage concept with the orchestra and conductor on stage as well as a few audience members seated on the sidelines at tables that look suspiciously like wedges of a Round Table.

The show works with no sets because the absurdist Monty Python humour is all in the dialogue and songs.  They allow you to imagine King Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail amid lofty castles, the Plague, an exasperated God and peasants covered in shit.

Luckily, Fiona Leach’s costumes provide all the atmosphere of the Middle Ages as well as the glitz and glamour that a Broadway musical needs. The enthusiastic cast work hard to bring out all the lunacy in the show and look like they are enjoying themselves hugely.

While the show is designed to look crazy and undisciplined, Michelle Heine’s choreography is anything but. She really knows Broadway-style choreography and gives us great dance routines that are apt and satirical all at the same time. The cast perform the busy dances very well, making several of them highlights of the show.

The orchestra under Ian McLean’s baton perform the appealing music very well. The singing of the cast was also strong but the sound was over-amplified at times, making it hard to pick up what was being sung or said.

King Arthur (Michael Jordan) and his Knights Of The Round Table

Amongst the cast, Michael Jordan does well as a humourless and idealistic King Arthur, while Darcy Kinsella as his trusty servant (and steed), Patsy, all but steals the show with his coconuts and hang-dog expressions.  Hannah Lance as the glamorous Lady Of The Lake scores with the song, ‘Whatever Happened To My Part?’

The Lady Of the Lake (Hannah Lance)

The rest of the cast get their moments to shine, playing a multitude of crazy characters.

If you ‘get’ this type of absurdist humour, you’ll have a good time with this production. As well as being very silly, it’s also a very good Broadway show that even satirizes itself.

 

Photos by Janelle McMenamin

Len Power's reviews are also broadcast on Artsound FM 92.7 in the ‘Arts Cafe’ and ‘Arts About’ programs and published in his blog 'Just Power Writing' at https://justpowerwriting.blogspot.com/.

 

The Visitors

 

Photo: David Boud

The Visitors by Jane Harrison.  Presented by Sydney Theatre Company and Moogahlin Performing Arts at Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre September 11 – October 14, 2023.

Reviewed by Frank McKone, September 14

Performed by

Joseph Wunujaka Althouse (Lawrence); Luke Carroll (Gordon)
Elaine Crombie (Jaky); Kyle Morrison (Joseph)
Guy Simon (Gary); Beau Dean Riley Smith (Albert)
Dalara Williams (Wallace)

Director – Wesley Enoch; Designer – Elizabeth Gadsby
Lighting Designer – Karen Norris; Composer & Sound Designer – Brendon Boney
Associate Director – Liza-Mare Syron; Assoc Sound Designer – Shana O’Brien
Senior Dharug & Dharawal Language Teacher – Corina Norman
Voice Coach – Charmian Gradwell; Fight Director – Nigel Poulton

The Visitors is about making a crucial decision when there are differences of opinion.

The play is set in 1788.  It is so well written and performed, and is so important, that it should be immediately filmed on YouTube and links be put up on every social media platform for everyone to see before we vote on The Voice Referendum on October 14 2023.

The Visitors won’t tell you which way to vote, but it will show you why you must vote, and make you think about the consequences of your decision.

The play – written, directed and performed by people with First Nations heritage – is a speculative historical fiction which is riveting to watch, culminating in a final stunning speech by Luke Carroll as Gordon, the leader of the Sydney Cove clan of the Eora people.  His country is where the British ships are about to disembark.

There were 7 clans in the meeting to decide what to do – these were real, covering Sydney Cove and Harbour; Northern Parramatta River; Botany Bay (where Captain Cook had landed in 1770); the South Shore; Manly Cove and North Shore; the River; and the Headlands of the Bay.

Each leader is a complex character, just as in real life, with a mix of personal attitudes and responses to their clan’s needs.  There are traditionalists; some see opportunities in making a change; some want immediate violent action; some concentrate on ethics – what is right or wrong to do.  They meet accepting a basic principle that all have an equal say, can bring in a new idea or argument, change their position in response; speak formally when they hold the message stick; and work to stay polite and respectful even when emotions are raised in conflict.  

In other words, what we see is local democracy at work in the face of possible dire threat.  Lawrence (Botany Bay) points out for example that the threat might never happen, since recently the ships had moved on from his country after only three days.  Wallace is the most concerned with insisting on ethical behaviour towards the newcomers; but this becomes problematical when from the shore they see a man being hanged on one of the ships.  But it is Gordon’s experience when a young boy, when he saw what happened when his father tried to do the right thing towards Captain Cook 18 years earlier, that brings the meeting to a resolution – and to a standing ovation.

Sydney Theatre Company, by partnering with the Indigenous Moogahlin Performing Arts, has provided an important, and in the current circumstances a necessary, service to the nation, a highlight in the 50th Birthday program of Sydney Opera House.


 

 

 

 

THE HELLO GIRLS - Heart Strings Theatre

 

Kaitlin Nihill  - Yalaria Rogers - Rhianna McCourt  - Jessy Heath  - Petronella Van Tienen
in "The Hello Girls"

Music and Lyrics by Peter Mills – Book by Peter Mills and Cara Reichel

Directed by Jason Langley – Musical Direction by Alexander Unikowski

Choreographed by Amy Orman – Set Design by Monique Langford

Costume Design by Sarah Hordern – Lighting Design by Antony Hately

Sound Design by Kyle Sheedy – Stage Management by Brittany Myers

Canberra Theatre Centre Playhouse September 7 – 9^th 2023.

Performance on 9^th September reviewed by BILL STEPHENS

Yalaria Rogers (c) - (l - r) - Petronella Van Tienen -Kaitlin Nihill - Rhianna McCourt - Jessy Heath

It’s refreshing to see a local company take on a relatively unknown musical then bat it out of the ball-park with a brilliant production that deserved a much wider audience than had the opportunity to see it during this pitifully short season.

Heart Strings Theatre Co. was founded by Canberra Actor/Director Ylaria Rogers with the ambition to create professional opportunities for artists in Canberra. Her inaugural Heart Strings production, “Urinetown The Musical”, was so successful during its Canberra season that it transferred to the Hayes Theatre in Sydney where it enjoyed a sell-out season.

Her choice of “The Hello Girls” for Heartstrings second production was a brave one. A contemporary chamber musical with an ensemble cast of five women and five men, the show is based on a true, but little-known story, of a group of women who volunteered to travel from America to France during the First World War, to serve in the U.S.Army as bilingual telephone operators, thus becoming America’s first women soldiers.

 Yalaria Rogers - Petronella Van Tienen - Kaya Byrne - David Hooley - Jerrod Smith - Joel Horwood                                Jessy Heath - Kaitlin Nihill in a moment during "The Hello Girls"

All the names of the characters in the musical are real, but only the stories of Grace Banker and General Pershing are entirely faithful to the known history; the others are composites of actual men and women who served in World War 1.

WAAPA graduate, Rhianna McCourt, performed the demanding role of Grace Banker, brilliantly capturing the steely strength that becomes apparent as her character grows into the role of leader and stopping the show with her thrilling rendition of the eleven-o’clock number “Twenty” in which she lists all the reasons her team deserves to be recognised as members of the U.S.Army.

Rhianna McCourt (c) with The Hello Girls.

As Cpt. Joseph Riser, Grace’s superior officer and a stickler for rules and order whose scepticism of the women’s presence in the army is finally won over, Joel Hutchings impressed with his appealing combination of strength and vulnerability, particularly in his final solo “The Lost Battalion”.

Yalaria Rogers as Grace’s tough-talking friend, Suzanne Prevot; Petronella Van Tienen as the small-town farm, Helen Hill;  Jessy Heath as Bertha Hunt, the older and wiser den mother, married to a Navy Officer;  Kaitlin Nihill as the fearless, flirty Louise Lebreton; portrayed the members of Grace’s team, with distinctive easily recognisable characterisations.

Apart from Hutching as Captain Riser, each of the men portrayed a specific significant character as well as providing a choreographed ensemble of soldiers, doughboys, and various officers and interviewers as required. 

Grace (Rhianna McCourt) demonstrates her switch-board skills in a key moment during
 "The Hello Girls - (l-r) Kaya Byrne - David Hooley - Joel Hutchings -Jerrod Smith

 

Joel Horwood portrayed Pvt. Matterson who worked closely with Riser as his assistant; David Hooley played the inflexible General Pershing, the Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces; Jerrod Smith played Signal Corps operator, Pvt. Dempsey; and Kaya Byrne, fresh from the touring company of “Come From Away”, played Lt. Wessen, Head of the recruiting centre for the Signal Corps.  

Joel Hutchings (Cpt. Riser) - David Hooley (General Pershing) - Rhianna McCourt (Grace) in a tense moment during "The Hello Girls"

Rogers achieved a master-stroke by securing the services of director, Jason Langley, who delivered an imaginative, intelligent production which showcases the individual talents of this accomplished cast, within Monique Langford’s deceptively simple setting of metal radio masks and twisted telephone lines.

Antony Hately has taken advantage of the possibilities offered by the components of this setting to devise a colourful lighting plot, which together with Amy Orman’s inventive choreography, create a succession of eye-pleasing stage pictures.

Peter Mills’s tuneful score, superbly interpreted by Alexander Unikowski’s polished five-member on-stage band, is awash with catchy melodies and lovely harmonies. Each of the actors is given opportunity to shine, supported by the rest of the ensemble. A fastidious sound design by Kyle Sheedy ensures that every word of the informative lyrics are clearly heard, even as the cast are busily moving props and furniture around the stage in response to Langley’s inventive staging.

The result is an outstanding production of a warm-hearted and informative musical with an important story to tell. It was performed and staged with a professional sheen which should ensure that it will emulate Heart Strings inaugural production and be seen in theatres beyond Canberra.

                                                         Images by Jane Duong

  This review also published in AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW. www.artsreview.com.au