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The Magic Flute - Australian Digital Concert Hall Click here for tickets This is a pocket-sized production of Mozart’s fantastical opera which is an ideal introduction to opera for the young, for opera neophytes and even for those who don’t think they can manage to sit through a full-length opera. This one is a judiciously and sensitively edited experience which may well encourage the previously opera-allergic to try another longer version, perhaps the Met’s or the Royal Opera. Mozart’s timeless classic is on a search for truth and justice, love and enlightenment. Here are the adventures of Prince Tamino, an Asian price, and the bird-catcher Papageno on their quest to rescue Princess Pamina. To assist their mission, they are given musical instruments with magical powers, which they use on their journey towards a deeper understanding of true love and happiness. The Magic Flute is sung in German with English and traditional Chinese scene descriptions. If you missed this performance of The Magic Flute from the Pacific Opera and Willoughby Symphony in February, here’s another chance to see it. All digital tickets come with a 72-hour viewing window starting from the morning after the concert. Do check what time 7pm AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) is where you are. Mar 31 7pm AEDT. $24AUD Revisor – Kidd Pivot Click here for tickets Revisor is a true hybrid of contemporary theatre and dance. It is the critically acclaimed dance-theatre performance created by award-winning choreographer Crystal Pite and playwright Jonathon Young, based on Nikolai Gogol’s play The Government Inspector. Young and Pite revise an archetypal comic plot to serve as the basis for a production that blends contemporary theatre and dance. It explores conflict, comedy and corruption in the potent relationship between language and the body. In Revisor eight Kidd Pivot dancers (Kidd Pivot is Crystal Pite’s dance company) embody the recorded dialogue of some of Canada’s finest actors, exploring conflict, comedy and corruption in the potent relationship between language and the body. Revisor reunites the creators of the international theatre hit Betroffenheit (winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production 2017 and named Best Dance Show of the 21st century by The Guardian) with director Jeff Tudor, who won the Rose d’Or (Arts), Golden Prague Czech Crystal, and the Dance Screen and San Francisco Dance Film Festival awards for his capture of Betroffenheit for the BBC. Revisor was recorded during its run at Sadler’s Wells, London, in March 2020, just days before the production’s world tour was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem and Val Doonican Click here to watch This is a bit of fun for a time when fun is somewhat thin on the ground. Val Doonican was an Irish singer of traditional pop, easy listening, and novelty songs, who was noted for his warm and relaxed style as well as his comfortable sweaters and Irish twinkle. He was a huge but unlikely star in Britain in the 1960s, with one of the most popular programmes on BBC television. Tommy Makem was best known as a member of The Clancy Brothers although he came from a distinguished Irish folk music family and had a long solo career in the United States. He was known as "The Bard of Armagh" (taken from a traditional song of the same name) and "The Godfather of Irish Music". Here, Tommy Makem and The Clancy Brothers team up with Val Doonican for, what else?, a traditional Irish song. Emmet Cohen Trio – Live from Birdland Click here for tickets On Thursday, the brilliant young jazz pianist Emmet Cohen and his Trio are streaming live from Birdland in New York. If you’re not familiar with his artistry, do please tune into this live concert from New York but, be warned, if you’re in Europe you’ll have to stay up until 2.30am for this one. Mar 31 at 9.30pm ET Bach in Kharkhiv – Denys Karachevtsev Click here to watch Every day I am overwhelmed by the bravery of the people of Ukraine as, one by one, they are doing everything they can do to fight back against violence and aggression. Amidst the rubble of his ruined city, here is cellist Denys Karachevtsev playing the Bach Cello Suite No.5 in C Minor because, as he says, “I am a cellist and a citizen of Kharkiv. I love my heroic city which is now struggling to survive the war. I deeply believe that we can help. I believe we can restore and rebuild our city and our country when the war is over. I am launching my project in the streets of Kharkiv to raise funds for humanitarian aid and restoration of the city’s architecture. Let’s unite to revive our city together!” Yes, let’s. Pocket Review The Marriage of Alice B.Toklas – Jermyn St. Theatre Your appreciation of this fragmented play by Edward Einhorn about two of the world’s most famous lesbians – Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas – will depend necessarily on your understanding of genius and whether you think the American poet and art connossieur was one. She certainly thought she was, as did her lover, Alice, and, according to the play, so did all her friends. These included Picasso, Hemingway, Joyce, and just about every modernist creative type within her Paris circle who all either were, or thought they were, geniuses too. Einhorn has constructed, if that’s the right word, a two-act Jewish wedding for the lovers, with the dialogue in Stein’s recognisable syntax, with Picasso, Hemingway, et al, dozens of them, it seems, all played by the admirable Kelly Burke and Mark Huckett. The performances are strong all round, with Natasha Byrne and Alyssa Simon often surprisingly touching as Gertrude and Alice. The play is admirably researched but it's not really funny enough to sustain the slight material, which depends on staccato conversations about the nature of genius. What comes over is the love between the two women and their need to pretend a marriage which was, in fact, if not in name, real and lasting.
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AuthorRuth Leon is a writer and critic specialising in music and theatre. Archives
March 2024
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