Lynne's Theatre Notes

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/truth-bomb-by-abigail-crompton/ TRUTH BOMB BY ABIGAIL CROMPTON 12 OCTOBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER This is a large, heavy, coffee table book that is explosively colourful, vibrant, controversial, provocative and at times confronting. Abigail Crompton, Artistic Director and Founder of Third Drawer Down is submerged in the art world after studying art at university. A broken arm was the catalyst for the creation of Third Drawer Down. Since 2003, Crompton has dedicated her life to working with artists to make art accessible. Third Drawer Down (est. 2003) is an innovative design studio whose mission is to make art affordable, accessible and a part of the everyday. The studio has collaborated with more than 200 artists from around the world and creates memorable products for global institutions. TRUTH BOMB is a fabulous celebration of trailblazing contemporary women artists in their diversity and use of various media( painting, textiles, video, rad...

  https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/willoughby-symphony-a-mozart-celebration/ WILLOUGHBY SYMPHONY : A MOZART CELEBRATION 16 OCTOBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER This latest concert by Willoughby Symphony was performed and filmed in August at the Concourse with a very reduced audience and Orchestra because of Covid. Social distancing was enforced. It was energetically and enthusiastically conducted by Dr Nicholas Milton with his usual precise, dramatic control. The Orchestra was heavily reduced, using ‘ just’ the strings section. We also were treated to some glorious singing and acting by the splendid young artists of Pacific Opera. The concert was a celebration of Mozart’s music with some extra, popular tidbits by other composers, some of which have almost become Willoughby Symphony’s signature pieces. First we heard Grieg’s Praeludium from his Holberg Suite Op. 40 which took the concert off to a brisk start with its emphatic strings . It was tumbling and bristling with a ques...

  https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/australian-haydn-ensemble-haydns-dream/ AUSTRALIAN HAYDN ENSEMBLE : HAYDN’S DREAM 19 OCTOBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER This delightful concert was filmed as part of the MDCH season but was actually performed at the atmospheric Cell Block Theatre in Sydney. Each work was introduced by Artistic Director of the Haydn Ensemble  Skye McIntosh . For this performance the Ensemble was reduced to a quartet:  Skye McIntosh  on violin, with  Matthew Greco  on violin,  Karina Schmitz  on viola, and  Daniel Yeadon  on cello. There was magnificent, precise playing by the four musicians, who had a great rapport between them and concentrated intently. The theme of the concert was dreams – a source of illumination and fascination for artists, writers, filmmakers, psychologists and composers alike ( think Goya and Poe, for example, not forgetting van Gogh to name just a few ). The music attempts to comprehend the int...

  https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/traffic-jam-galleries-katherine-wood-and-kayden-bailey-the-universe-within/ TRAFFIC JAM GALLERIES : KATHERINE WOOD AND KAYDEN BAILEY : THE UNIVERSE WITHIN 21 OCTOBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER kyden Bailey ‘Keeping The Distance’ 91 x 122cm acrylic and resin on canvas $1500 The current stunning exhibition at Traffic Jam Galleries presents works by two artist from their ‘stable’ Katherine Wood and Kayden Bailey under the title ‘The Universe Within’. In this particular exhibition, KATHERINE WOOD displays a series of captivating atmospheric sky and seascapes, some quite heavily textured. For this exhibition she is reflecting on the idea that we are all connected, we are in the universe and the universe is in us. We are a part of the sky and the sky is in us. The tiny trees or human figures are a metaphor of defiantly standing against the infinite sky, an image of resilience in times of stress and struggle. She hopes to provide a meditative space fo...

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/pinchgut-opera-a-delicate-fire/ CLASSICAL MUSIC ,  FILMED THEATRE/ OPERA ETC ,  MUSIC ,  OPERA PINCHGUT OPERA : A DELICATE FIRE 23 OCTOBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER The film was born out of restrictions imposed on the performing arts by COVID-19 – in particular, the ban on public performances for much of 2020 – and features an all- Australian cast and creative team. It is somewhat startling but oh so exquisite and refined musically with glorious performances of the almost forgotten madrigals of Barbara Strozzi. Barbara Strozzi was an Italian composer and singer of 17th century Venice who published eight volumes of music during her lifetime. The illegitimate daughter of a noble Venetian poet, who encouraged her to pursue her talents by studying with the acclaimed opera composer Cavalli, Strozzi was one of the few female composers of her time to write under her own name. The music for A DELICATE FIRE was selected from Strozzi’s Opu...

  https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/australian-romantic-and-classical-orchestra-mozart-and-abel/ AUSTRALIAN ROMANTIC AND CLASSICAL ORCHESTRA : MOZART AND ABEL 30 OCTOBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER This wonderful concert was performed by the Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra as part of the MDCH ( Melbourne Digital Concert Hall) series but was filmed in the Cell Block Theatre Sydney.There was a short welcome and introduction by Chris Howlett of the MDCH. The co-artistic directors of the ARCO are Rachael Beesley and Nicole van Bruggen .Each work was introduced and placed in context by flautist Georgia Browne, who mentioned that her period flute was very ‘high tech’ for the time. First up was Carl Friedrich Abel’s (1723-1787) – Flute Quartet in A major No.2 Op.12 . in three movements. Though relatively obscure today, a student of Bach , during the mid to late 1700’s Abel was a major musical figure. He obtained a coveted position in the court orchestra at Dresden, moved to E...

  https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/death-in-daylesford-by-kerry-greenwood/ BOOKS & WRITING ,  CREATIVE WRITING DEATH IN DAYLESFORD BY KERRY GREENWOOD 2 NOVEMBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT A most thrilling, exciting adventure for all of us who are Phryne Fisher fans. Eagerly anticipated this is the first Phryne Fisher mystery since 2013. (Not forgetting the TV series and the film Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears).  It is Greenwood’s sixty fifth book, her twenty first Phryne Fisher mystery. Kerry Greenwood is the author of more than fifty novels, a book of short stories, six non-fiction works, and the editor of two collections of crime writing. Her beloved Phryne Fisher series has become a successful ABC TV series, ‘Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries’, which sold around the world. She is also the author of the contemporary crime series featuring Corinna Chapman, baker and reluctant investigator. The most recent Corinna Chapman novel was The Spott...

  https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/australian-brandenburg-orchestra-ayres-and-graces/ CLASSICAL MUSIC ,  FILMED THEATRE/ OPERA ETC ,  MUSIC AUSTRALIAN BRANDENBURG ORCHESTRA : AYRES AND GRACES 2 NOVEMBER 2020   LYNNE LANCASTER   LEAVE A COMMENT Celebrating chamber music from the English and French Baroque, ‘Ayres & Graces’ by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra featured striking images curated by Australian designer  Silvana Azzi Heras  projected as background on a stage-wide LED screen behind the musicians with a period music program that spans both sides of the English Channel. We travel to the court of the Sun King Louis XIV in France and Charles 11 in London. The concert was curated and directed by Principal Baroque Flute and Recorder  Melissa Farrow . (Artistic Director Paul Dyer was in the audience.) This performance saw both the audience, heavily reduced in number, temperature checked and Covid spaced and the Orchestra also affected –...