Sunday Arts Magazine

Marking almost 35 years to the day since it opened in London’s West End, before going on to become one of the most successful musicals of all time, this will be the first time it will be staged at Arts Centre Melbourne.

This spectacular new staging by Cameron Mackintosh premiered with a record-breaking sell out tour of the UK followed by a 7-year tour of the United States which grossed over US$400 million and thrilled critics and audiences alike. Australia is now only the third country to see this new PHANTOM with its beloved and thrilling score including the hit songs The Music of the Night, All I Ask of You and Masquerade. With stunning new staging and scenic design, Maria Björnson’s iconic original costumes and many special effects including a spectacular new realisation of the show’s chandelier. It will be performed in Australia by a cast and orchestra of 65, making it one of the largest musical productions ever in Australia.

Cameron Mackintosh said, “I am thrilled to be able to bring this exciting new production of The Phantom of the Opera to Arts Centre Melbourne with its spectacular new staging by director Laurence Connor and fabulous designs by Paul Brown and Maria Bjornson. The unprecedented demand for tickets to this new Australian production has set box office records in Sydney and we look forward to an equally successful season in Melbourne, where my original production was a legendary success in 1990, running for over 2 1/2 years.”

Opera Australia’s Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini is thrilled to be presenting this new production of PHANTOM to Melbourne audiences after its record breaking run in Sydney.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for people to see one of the most iconic works in musical theatre history. We’re looking forward to continuing our work with Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber to present this production in Australia’s culture capital. Together we’re creating incredible theatre for audiences to enjoy and ongoing work opportunities for our arts industry.”

 

The cast will be led by Melbourne’s Josh Piterman playing the coveted role of The Phantom. Josh recently scored an impressive personal triumph playing the role in London’s West End before sadly the show had to close due to the pandemic. Josh is an established musical theatre performer and classical crossover artist who has been working consistently on Australian and UK stages over the past 15 years. His past credits include being a part of international pop opera group The Ten Tenors, Tony in the 2010 Australian production of Westside Story, Bustopher Jones/Gus/Growltiger in the 2015/16 Australian season of Cats (a role that won him the Green Room Award for best supporting actor in a Musical), Corny Collins in the UK tour of Hairspray and Gerry Goffin in the 2017/18 Australian tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

David Hunt the Art Hunter talks to the Sunday Arts magazine team about his new adventure.

Rohan talks to David and the team.

Sydney-based composer, Michael Hugh Dixon, who has recently released a wonderful 27-minute piece called Of Fearlessness, comprising of Michael playing the French Horn, which he created for meditation purposes.

It reached No. 1 on the New Age Music Charts upon its March 2021 release, and received a glowing review on the New Age Music Guide.

This piece also works for creative thinking, and this is a far cry from the standard flute and synth works that one conjures up when meditation music is mentioned.

EXPLORER

This period is a thoughtful one that reflects on past history, my great uncle John Bechervaise was an explorer that ventured into Antarctica in which he was subsequently awarded the order of Australia Medal. Mount Béchervaise is a great brown rock in the Athos Range named after one of his endeavours. He published a number of books that touch on these explorations. It’s all an interesting parallel to creativity and leadership and It’s only at this time in my life that I’m delving into lineage of thinking and some of the timeless concepts we all share.

For me this same sense of exploration is what drives creative questioning, searching for the new and pushing through the status-quo. It’s a mind exploration and mental leadership to push into the unknown, it creates new ways forward and establishes new frameworks. Creativity for this reason is fraught with danger of failure as well as the delight of discovery and breakthrough. As graffiti questions establishment, as poetry questions life, as art questions the soul, we explore more of who we are and what we have now. To see who we could be for the time to come. This is as much about the instinct as it is about the defined result. The endeavour is equal in importance to the destination.

For this reason this body of work is a celebration of mental and physical travel from Greece to Italy in late 2019 and then into an exploration of a post Covid landscape which has become our new normal.

There’s beauty in some of the work. Joy of discovery and a poetic notion of serene colours and the peaceful landscapes in European settings. As well as night and day activity which is full of humanity and movement of this sensual period. This part of the show was painted in Summer of 2020 and is every bit as magical as those pre Covid memories would allow with moments from Paros, Mykonos, Rome, The Amalfi Coast and Naples. The bold colours, the sense of philosophy, the energy of richness in life experience and beauty of shape and historic culture of these places.

The second part of the work is of an era of relief. To find inspiration outside of Lockdown and to see the natural Australian landscape of localised areas through newly awakened eyes. This work is highly charged, a mixture of angst and questioning, as well as fluid expression and acknowledgment of the immediate surroundings that perhaps weren’t previously seen. They are now exposed and raw. Right up in your face. A savage beauty in the landscape and discovery of the immediate. Fear, pensiveness and serenity and at times deep foreboding can be found in this exploration. An honest flurry that in glimpses captures a highly romantic feeling and in others exposes deep worry,

It’s a continued exploration and discovery of the external and internal to find a language of honesty. To create new expressive ideas, frameworks and conceptual endeavours. One that can be lived with in this no doubt beautiful world of continued uncertainty.

The world-exclusive exhibition Goya: Drawings from the Prado

Museum features more than 160 works on paper by Francisco

Goya (1746 – 1828), celebrating the artist’s extraordinary

draughtsmanship and imagination. Considered to be one of the

first truly modern artists, Goya produced humorous and critical

images of Spanish society that comment on gender relationships,

social inequality and violence, as well as visions of fantastic

creatures.

Goya: Drawings from the Prado Museum is the first major

presentation of Goya’s work at the NGV in more than 20 years

and features 44 drawings on loan from the Prado Museum, the

largest group of Goya’s drawings ever seen in Australia.

Ranging from bold ink drawings to delicate red chalk sketches,

the drawings on display have been selected by the Prado

especially for this NGV presentation. Highlights include examples

from the artist’s earliest albums of social satires, preparatory

drawings for his iconic print series, through to pages from the late

albums, which contain some of Goya’s most complex and surreal

images. This rich and diverse selection of drawings showcases

the breadth of Goya’s drawing practice, as well as offering a rare

insight into the artist’s image-making process.

Following a near-fatal illness in 1792, which left him profoundly deaf, Goya turned to drawing to record his

private thoughts, visions and dreams, and continued this practice until the end of his life. In eight private

albums, as well as in single sheet drawings, he gave expression to a vision of humanity that had no

equivalent in the art of his day. Highlight works include This is how useful men usually end up 1814-23, a

moving commentary on the consequences of poverty and war, and Literate animal 1824-28, a satirical

image of an educated animal, which Goya drew in the last years of his life.

The works drawn from the Prado collection will be complemented by more than 120 etchings from Goya’s

renowned print series: the Caprichos 1797-98, which satirised vices and follies in Spanish society; The

Disasters of War 1810–15, based on the atrocities of the war and famine that followed the Napoleonic

invasion of Spain in 1808; Tauromaquia 1815-16 on the subject of bullfighting; and the enigmatic

Disparates c. 1815–19, made during the reign of Ferdinand VII, whose suppression of civil liberties affected

the lives of many intellectuals and reformers, including Goya and his friends. The prints are drawn from the

NGV Collection with fifteen works on loan from the Art Gallery of South Australia. Goya’s most famous

etching, The sleep of reason produces monsters, a striking composition of the sleeping artist haunted by

monstrous apparitions, is also featured in the exhibition.

The exhibition is structured chronologically and thematically around recurring themes in Goya’s art, many of

which are as relevant today as they were in Goya’s time: the relationship between men and women; the

condemnation of ignorance and religious zeal; the exploration of violence and its consequences; and the

device of the nightmare or dream to critique social and political realities.

Tony Ellwood AM, Director of the National Gallery of Victoria, said: ‘All aspects of society came under

Goya’s critical eye – from education and marriage, to social justice and power relationships. Audiences to

this exhibition will be astonished by the contemporary relevance of this exhibition and the universal themes

that underpin the works of this celebrated Spanish artist.’

“A storyteller can attempt to tell the human tale, can remind us that the swallows still sing around the smokestacks.” – Jane Yolen.

A beautiful and symbolic representation of a storytelling experience that cannot be replicated. An early start to understanding the Holocaust, connecting to young peoples lives through voice recording and visual storytelling.

SINGING SWALLOWS is a physical theatre performance telling stories from four Holocaust survivors. The audience experiences all sound through individual headphones, which they are given at the beginning of the performance. Through these headphones, each Holocaust story is shared by the voice of a young person, as the survivors the stories are based on were of young age during the Holocaust. In between the verbal storytelling, the performers on stage activate the recyclable set, bringing to life the personal experiences heard through the headphones.

Building upon the success of last year’s inaugural program, Impact and Gentle Giant Media Group are launching Impact Australia 2, the follow up to the highly coveted screenwriter accelerator program, which will be held this year in Melbourne, with principal funding from Screen Australia and Film Victoria.

Supported by Learning Partner the University of Melbourne and state and territory screen agencies across Australia, the program aims to discover, cultivate, and empower Australian screenwriters. Applications will be open from 9 – 27 June, with the eight-week mentorship program beginning on 13 September 2021.

“Impact Australia far exceeded our expectations in terms of the number and quality of applications. The attendance at our Pitch Day and interest in the projects from global buyers and producers attest to the level of talent of the writers, and the quality of their projects.” said Impact CEO Tyler Mitchell, “It confirmed what we have long suspected and are excited to continue fostering – that Australia is full of talented screenwriters with stories that resonate with audiences everywhere.”

“I am thrilled that we are once again bringing the groundbreaking Impact program to Australia for its second season” said Gentle Giant Chairman and CEO Greg Basser, “Melbourne and Australia continue to show the great creativity and imagination of Australian filmmakers, bringing a global focus to our home-grown compelling original IP.”

During the program, local Creators will be paired with a world-class screen and television writer, or Shaper, to help craft their project and prepare them for Pitch Day with the goal of selling their project. Impact Australia supports participating Creators with all they need to succeed, including a stipend to allow them to relocate to Melbourne and focus on their projects during the eight-week intensive program.

While the program took place virtually last year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, this year the program intends to be in-person on the Victorian College of the Arts’ Southbank campus at the University of Melbourne.

“Following on from the success of last year’s program, we look forward to partnering with Impact again to discover fresh Australian creatives and provide them with a new pathway to global audiences,” said Screen Australia CEOGraeme Mason. “Australian creators have exciting stories to tell and by connecting them with world-class shapers and key decision makers in the global marketplace through Impact Australia, we look forward to more Australian voices on the global stage.”

“With so many world-class writers who call Victoria home, Melbourne is the perfect city to host Impact Australia,” said Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson. “The Victorian Government is proud to partner with Impact, Gentle Giant Media and Screen Australia on this initiative that allows local talent to develop fruitful partnerships with established screen professionals, and creates a springboard for their work to receive global attention.

Four nights showcasing Black Female Excellence with each night headlined by a different vocal powerhouse.

A celebration of EXCELLENCE

Black Excellence

Black Voices

Black Beauty

Black Creativity

Black Power

BLAK QUEENS is a week-long venue takeover of Fringe Common Rooms by queer, BIPOC artist collective, RECKŌNING SOUNDS. In association with Beat Entertainment, RECKŌNING SOUNDS is Melbourne’s leading LGBTIQ & BIPOC entertainment group renowned for their original concepts and deep heart.

Stephen is back talking Films to the Sunday Arts Magazine team