Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, March 6, 2013 - Page 111
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Radio Confidential: First radio ratings ........... Page 112 Theatre: Blue/Orange review ............................ Page 113 The Spoiler: Catch up with Home & Away plotlines .. Page 113 Jim and Aaron: Best movies and DVDs, Top 10 ......... Page 114 Cheryl Threadgold: Shows, auditions, theatre people ...... Page 115 PLUS THE LOVATT”S MEGA CROSSWORD
HIGH FASHION, GRAND OPERA
● Linda Britten
Jury announced for Chamber comp. ■ Chamber Music Australia has annlounced that high profile local and international musicians will serve on the jury of the Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition, which will take place in Melbourne from July 8-14. Chamber musician and Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Wilma Smith, will chair the jury. Confirmed members of the jury are: Li-Wei Qin (cellist and guest professor at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing), Natsuko Yoshimoto (Concert Master of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra), and Euan Murdoch (cellist and CEO, Chamber Music New Zealand). “The jury of the 2013 Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition gathers together remarkable performers, all of whom are well-known for their commitment to chamber music,” said Wilma Smith. “For a competition of this calibre the jury must not only be experienced chamber musicians but also represent a balance of the instruments in the competition. As Chair, my role is to support my colleagues to reach decisions in a timely and fair manner,” she said. The Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition is open to the best young piano trios and string quartets from the Asia-Pacific region and is presented by Chamber Music Australia in association with Melbourne Recital Centre. Significant cash prizes and performance opportunities in festivals and concert halls throughout Australia and Asia are offered to prize winners from wellrespected presenters such as Musica Viva Australia. The first round of the competition is a DVD audition for which entries must be received by Monday (Mar. 11). Following this, 12 ensembles (six piano trios, six string quartets) are invited to Melbourne to compete. Early rounds of the 2013 Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition will be held at the ABC Iwaki Auditorium in Southbank, Melbourne. Finals will be staged at Melbourne Recital Centre. The entire competition will be broadcast live on ABC Classic FM.
● Cameron Menzies ■ Opera is a world of drama, colour and exquisite gowns. So what better combination could there be than a night of opera sung by stars dressed in by the doyenne of the gowns, Melbourne fashion designer Linda Britten? As part of the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival Cultural Program 2013, Linda Britten has joined with young Melbourne creative director, Cameron Menzies, to create Operette, an evening of high fashion and grand opera. Accompanied by the Melbourne Opera Orchestra, Operette will be performed at one of Melbourne’s homes of opera, the Athenaeum Theatre on Monday, March 18 at 8.15 pm. Operette is a 50-minute living tableau of gowns from Linda’s new Haute Couture 2013 Arts Decoratif collection, with popular arias from well-loved operas sung by principal artists sopranos Amelia Farrugia and Greta Bradman, with mezzo soprano Dimity Shepherd. They will be joined by up and coming Melbourne operatic talents Stacey Alleaume, Shauntai Batzke, Danielle Calder, Anna-Louise Cole, Angela Hogan and Janet Todd. Amelia Farrugia is familiar to Opera Australia audiences from her appearances as the title roles in The Merry Widow, and Massenet’s Manon, and has appeared throughout Australia in major soprano roles, including Eurydice in Orpheus In The Underworld, and Adele in Die Fledermaus. She also performed the role of Musetta in La Boheme for Opera Hong Kong, and has covered the role of Massenet’s Manon for the world famous Metropolitan Opera in New York. Amelia is currently performing in Falstaff for Opera Australia. Dimity Shepherd is one of Melbourne’s most popular mezzo-sopranos and has been nominated for a Green Room Award for her performance as Cherubino in Victorian Opera’s production of The Marriage Of Figaro. Last month Dimity had the joy of wearing two Linda Britten gowns on the one night in her role as Flora in Opera In The Park – La Traviata, directed by Cameron Menzies, who has also been nominated for a Green Room Award for Best Director for the opera Contact! Greta Bradman is a young soprano going places. As well as having several best selling Sony Classics CDs to her name, including an ARIA nomination, she is in demand on the concert platform, and has won numerous critics’ choice award, and was a 2012 Helpmann Award finalist. Greta has just won the 2013 Australian International Opera Award, which will take her to Cardiff to hone her impressive operatic skills under the guidance of international opera star Dennis O’Neill, at the Wales International Academy Of Voice. And for those who love a bit of music trivia, Linda Britten is distantly related to the major English composer Benjamin Britten, whose centenary of birth occurs this year. Tickets are priced at $38 and $15 concession and available from www.ticketek.com.au - Julie Houghton
● Dimity Shepherd
Paint, dance, music, sculpture and theatre
● Anthony Breslin Photo: Jacqueline Barkla ■ Fly-on-the-Wall Theatre presents Anthony Breslin’s Trybe, combining painting, dance, sculpture, music, theatre, multi-media and technology, to create an opera in paint, from March 14-24 at Chapel off Chapel. Anthony is renowned for his extravagant projects including the Myer’s Window Takeover where he painted Molly Meldrum, Ron Barassi and more. In Trybe, Anthony will challenge the boundaries of dance, art, music and film, as he takes to the stage joined by a live band, six local Melbourne dancers, a giant blank canvas and projection screen where the audience can watch him bring a different creation to life each night. Directed by Anthony Breslin and Stephen Agisilaou, with choreography by Stephen Agisilaou and music by Greg Long, Trybe is supported by the Lasallian Foundation. Every piece of work created will be auctioned off nightly, with proceeds going to support projects for marginalised children and youth in Papua New Guinea. Performance Season: March 14-24, Wed-Sat at 8pm, Sun at 6.30pm Venue: Chapel off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel Street, Prahran. Tickets: $30/$27. Bookings: 8290 7000 www.chapeloffchapel.com.au