Lynne's Theatre Notes

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/australian-brandenburg-orchestra-bachs-brandenburg-concertos/ AUSTRALIAN BRANDENBURG ORCHESTRA : BACH’S BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS MARCH 1, 2019   LYNNE LANCASTER LEAVE A COMMENT Happy Birthday to the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra! This year marks their 30th birthday and the season began with a glittering , joyous concert. There were many VIPS in the audience and the Orchestra’s playing under the enthusiastic and very energetic baton of  Paul Dyer  was in superb form . There were huge garlands of flowers across the middle balcony above the Orchestra . Introductory speeches were made by  Bruce Appelbaum  the Managing director and then  Dame Quentin Bryce  . We heard five of Bach’s Brandendburg Concertos. Written in 1721 the concertos were submitted to a possible patron the Margrave of Brandenburg and are a magnificent showcase to feature the musicians of the Orchestra on their period instruments and co...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/willoughby-symphony-chamber-series-concert-1/ WILLOUGHBY SYMPHONY CHAMBER SERIES CONCERT 1 MARCH 5, 2019   LYNNE LANCASTER LEAVE A COMMENT Those of us in the shamefully small audience (where was everyone?) were treated to a heavenly concert, the first of this year’s Willoughby Symphony Chamber series at the Zenith. After a wonderfully successful first year, the Willoughby Symphony’s chamber music series returns for its second season with three exhilarating concert experiences in 2019. This year the Artistic Director for the Chamber series is  Daniel Dean . This  concert was full of fine ensemble playing which was rich textured and multi layered. First we heard Louise Farrenc’s  Nonet in E-flat  which brought her great acclaim and, perhaps more importantly, equal pay as a composer, in 1850. The first movement began with a rich, flowing opening for strings and woodwind. The nine magnificent players then entwine...

https://performing.artshub.com.au/news-article/reviews/performing-arts/lynne-lancaster/review-recital-riverside-theatres-parramatta-257443 A striking and most unusual blend of cutting edge contemporary dance and music. Richard Cilli in  Recital. An impressive cohort of Australian talent come together in a challenging, exciting and exhausting performance. With superb direction and choreography by Gideon Obarzanek and magnificient composition and sound design by Australia’s leading electro-pop composer Paul Mac,  Recital  is the fusion of talents from award-winning percussionist Claire Edwardes and dancer Richard Cilli. This performance plays with silence, while rhythm and form are investigated in various ways – blurring the boundaries between dance and music. The show opens with both performers walking on stage and switching on metronomes which are place on the floor in front of them. Both performers are dressed conservatively: glasses, white shirts...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/australian-chamber-orchestra-beethoven-and-prokofiev/ CLASSICAL MUSIC ,  MUSIC AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA : BEETHOVEN AND PROKOFIEV MARCH 18, 2019   LYNNE LANCASTER LEAVE A COMMENT A most glorious concert full of superb playing by the ACO under the guest leadership of  Lorenza Borrani  who was very stylish in elegant black culottes. What was interesting to note is that all three works were not originally written for a string orchestra. First we heard PROKOFIEV’s  Violin Sonata No.1 in F minor , arranged for violin and strings by Borrani. It was given a powerful, passionate performance. The cellos and basses generally took the piano parts, with the violas acting as the middle of the keyboard, the violins on top. The first movement opened sombrely and sorrowfully and featured an eloquent, almost heartbreaking solo by Borrani. The cellos and double bass rumbled in agreement with Borrani’s anguished stateme...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/girl-one-of-the-gems-at-this-years-french-film-festival/ GIRL : ONE OF THE GEMS AT THIS YEAR’S FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL MARCH 17, 2019   LYNNE LANCASTER LEAVE A COMMENT It is hard to believe that this is Lukas Dhont’s debut feature film. It is beautifully photographed, terrifically acted and raises important issues . It looks not just at the hard work, daily grind and obsessiveness needed in order to become a professional ballet dancer but also the generally hidden physically and emotionally difficult world of being a transgender teen. Body image is also most important both in the ballet world and generally. GIRL is about both Lara’s gender-changing journey and her all-consuming relentless passion to be a great dancer — to the exclusion of all other desires. Cross gender actor  Victor Polster  plays Lara, a teenage girl now living in an apartment in Brussels with her father Matthias (Arieh Worthalter )and younger brother Mil...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/untitled-the-new-exhibition-traffic-jam-galleries/ UNTITLED : THE NEW EXHIBITION @ TRAFFIC JAM GALLERIES MARCH 12, 2019   LYNNE LANCASTER LEAVE A COMMENT Yvonne Maloney-Law Glasshouse Country The current vibrant and exciting exhibition at Traffic Jam Galleries , UNTITLED , features guest artists foreign to the gallery space. This particular exhibition has been curated from local and interstate practitioners at varying stages of their artistic journeys . These works may challenge, inspire and excite, with diversity being a key factor, reflected through the multiplicity of practice, subject matter and medium ranging from wood and bronze to various types of paint and methods of printing and including butterflies and gold leaf. The whole of the Gallery space is used for this particular exhibition and don’t forget to check both sides of the windows as some works are displayed facing the street. In no particular order the artists are ...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/exit-the-king-chippen-street-theatre/ EXIT THE KING @ CHIPPEN STREET THEATRE MARCH 10, 2019   LYNNE LANCASTER LEAVE A COMMENT Theatre Excentrique  under the informed , thoughtful direction of  Anna Jahjah  have brought to Sydney a fresh , exciting and challenging production of Eugene Ionesco’s EXIT THE KING , a classic example of his ‘absurdist’ works , in an updated translation featuring the baroque music of cellist/vocalist extraordinaire Sister Ursuline, it is a metaphysical meditation on death and preparing to die. We enter a topsy turvy and shattered world where time is bent , fluid and changeable. King Bérenger the First is dying after an extremely long life. His kingdom is disintegrating . He no longer can head his army, tell the rain to fall, nor the trees to grow. He is dying and there is nothing he can do to prevent it. He has lived from moment to moment but now there is no more time .His first wife, Queen...

https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/willoughby-symphony-gala-concert-the-concourse/ WILLOUGHBY SYMPHONY GALA CONCERT @ THE CONCOURSE FEBRUARY 27, 2019   LYNNE LANCASTER LEAVE A COMMENT This spectacular opening concert for 2019 brought together the combined forces of the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, the Choir and Pacific Opera in a delightful performance with an Austrian/Viennese theme with music by Mozart and Strauss . The hall was decorated with huge glorious garlands of flowers in celebratory mode. Energetically and enthusiastically conducted by Dr Nicholas Milton , the concert began dynamically with the crashing, flurried  Polka Schnell Op 324  “ Unter Bonner und Blitz” ( Thunder and Lightning ) by Johan Strauss. Then we heard a selection of four pieces from Mozart’s  The Marriage of Figaro  , the Orchestra with artists from Pacific Opera .During the brisk overture the singers arrive ( dressed as if for a very posh party , the men in tuxed...