Woohoo!
Just saw it in Sydney. I’ll be going again.
LA DA DA DA DAAAAA
DAYEEE DA DE DI DA DA
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Angelicaaaa
Elizaaaa
AND PEGGY!
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and with Melbourne’s covid restrictions Australian Ballet have postponed their opening ballet of New York Dialects to October. Not sure we would have gone given Mrs D’s mudda is in aged care. At least that decision has been taken away from us.
Let’s see if they can get Anna Karenina on for June 18+.
Like many others they’ve had a tough run, especially in Melbourne.
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Mrs S and I went to see both of the Opera Australia productions that were on this month, Aida and Ernani, both by Verdi. Aida is very famous, and this production was full high-tech visual effects; Ernani is rarely performed and the production was ostentatiously low-tech, with cardboard cutout scenery and so on. We were a bit underwhelmed by both, to be honest. All the spectacular visuals in Aida didn’t seem to have much point to them, and the spectacle was rather diminished by the two leading ladies – the beautiful Egyptian princess and the gorgeous Ethiopian slave girl – both being not really visually suitable for their parts. They sang well, though. Ernani was quite good fun, but most of the music was fairly forgettable, and this time it was the handsome, dashing rebel hero who didn’t quite look the part.
The best thing was just getting out and being in a theatre again that was pretty full for both operas. Unfortunately the eating venues in the Arts Centre and Hamer Hall are all closed, but at least the foyer bars were open.
always used to crack me up at the soccer, when one of the chants they did is from the Triumphal March in Aida. Such an incongruous pairing!
Or when they play the Toreador song from Carmen after Geelong wins.
Or were you bizet thinking of something else?
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just got third row tickets for Hamilton next April. HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!! 
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… and Australian Ballet have just emailed to cancel their entire Melbourne 2021 season. Not a surprise given the rolling lockdowns and uncertainties.
So, if you want a ballet fix before they are back (and you’re brave to go) I can recommend the Australian Ballet documentary on iView called And We Danced. Three part series, 1962-1979, 1980-1999, 2000-2020, about how the company developed - highlighting its artistic directors, choreographers, and dancers. I thought it was excellent and it made me appreciate what they have achieved and how exciting excellent ballet can be. By the end I had this renewed enthusiasm to see them again.
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Mrs S and I might have a look at that. We had booked the dinner and ballet package for Anna Karenina and I was rather looking forward to it, but alas! Hopefully it’ll be resurrected for next year, and if I have to show a vaccine pass to get in, that’s just fine by me.
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definitely worth you and Mrs S giving it a look
yep - let’s try again next year. New artistic director must be frustrated as all heck to. get going.
Well after two previous abortive attempts, Mrs S and I finally got to see Anna Karenina last night. Preceded by dinner in what used to be the Members’ Dining Room but is now open to the public and called just The Dining Room, it was really quite a good dinner. The old Café Vic is closed and doesn’t look like reopening any time soon, if at all. The average age of patrons at the Dining Room would have been about 70 I would guess, so that gives some idea of the setting and atmosphere. Only a tiny menu, but reasonably priced and very nicely cooked food.
Anyway, the ballet. First of all, it was great to see that the State Theatre was pretty nearly full. I saw only 4 people wearing masks (apart from venue staff) and they were all sitting together. I wonder how long before even the staff can take their masks off.
The ballet is a co-production between the Australian Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet, which is based in Chicago. The creators of the ballet all seem to be Russian, or of Russian descent: Tolstoy of course wrote the book, the choreography is by somebody called Yuri Possokhov and the music by Ilya Demutsky – I’ve never heard of the last two but apparently they’re quite famous and work and live in America.
Overall I would give the whole thing about 7 out of 10. It’s a good, solid try at creating a new classical ballet, with proper orchestral music and real ballet dancing, as opposed to the pointless and boring gymnastics, invariably accompanied by random ugly sounds, that go under the name of modern dance. So it’s great to see a genuine attempt. But the reason it only gets a 7 is that it didn’t all work very well. The staging was very dark so that the costumes all seemed to be various shades of black or near black; the music was okay but far from memorable; and the choreography was not very exciting.
I guess there are a couple of problems with making a ballet of Anna Karenina. First of all, neither of the two major characters, Anna and Vronsky, is very likeable. And secondly, a major aspect of the book is the philosophising about religion and spirituality and the wholesomeness of the country life compared with the sinfulness of the city, and that’s not easy to express in dance.
They’re doing Romeo and Juliet later in the year. I’ll definitely be going to see that. I don’t think there’s anything else in the program for this year that appeals.
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annnnnnd it was sensational!
I’d watched the Disney version a heap of times, which is great, but being there in person and being able to get so much more of an understanding of the choreography can’t be beaten. Such a simple set but so well done. Of course there’s no Lin-Manuel, but Hamilton was still played really well, and the rest of the cast were excellent also - King George absolutely cracked me up!! Eliza’s top notes were a little thin at times but that’s being really picky!
And one of the ensemble members in particular was very much pleasing to the eye. We definitely didn’t google him afterwards and check out his instagram 
Found myself in tears during the last song - the whole experience was so amazing, and the words are so powerful and poignant, I couldn’t help myself.
Going again in three weeks with the parentals - third row again, but on the other side, so it will be good to get the different perspective, but also hopefully pick up on bits that I missed on Sunday.
If you are going to see it, and don’t know the storyline, I would recommend reading up prior. Some of the songs are delivered at such a fast pace, it’s easy to miss what is happening, so at least if you have a basic understanding, it will help to keep up.
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Last night I headed to Hamer Hall to watch the MSO perform “The Music of John WIlliams”. Absolutely sensational!
Covered all of his well known pieces - from Raiders, Star Wars, Superman, Jaws, Home Alone, Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter etc - along with some that were a surprise! (Did you know he wrote “The Mission”, most commonly known as the NBC News theme?!)
They also broke down some of the pieces, demonstrating how the layers of instruments built up together and added dimension. Even going into some of the other possible options for the five notes in Close Encounters!
The MSO Chorus also took part, and it was spine tingling at the start of the second half, when they launched into “Duel of the Fates”, which for many people conjures up an image of Darth Maul fighting with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.
The performance ended oh so fittingly with the music from the throne room in A New Hope, which of course finishes with the main theme. As an encore, they then did the Imperial March (with conductor Nicholas Buc brandishing a light saber as his baton!), and then as a bit of fun to finish, the Cantina band song!
I’m just sorry that I didn’t get tickets to go tonight as well!
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Sounds fantastic. Do you know if they’re travelling at all with the concert?
Edit: looks like the same show with the QSO has been & gone….unfortunately.
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abc classic this weekend are doing their classic 100 with the theme being “music from the screen”
down to the top 30. some absolute bangers today. bit of local hero, bit of lion king, bit of interstellar. cracking stuff.
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yep, have been enjoying it very much! currently listening to the song from “Babe” 
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wow - Last Crusade outside the top ten!
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Hahah. I just started writing that. Not just Last Crusade, entire IJ series! What does @ivan think of this…
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My biggest learning today was that Mark Knopfler did the Princess Bride soundtrack. That seems like something I should have known…
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Still need to have a look at this
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