Sunday Arts Magazine

10 Apr 2016

Stage Presence, MQFF wrap, Linden Art Prize, Lucia di Lammermoor

Arts, Comedy, Design, Music, Performing Arts, TV & Film, Visual Arts

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Stage Presence, MQFF wrap, Linden Art Prize, Lucia di Lammermoor

Brendan and David discuss a Comedy Festival show AND the links between the 2 stars —Rhonda Burchmore & Trevor Ashley Twins. It’s fun and camp and includes old Hollywood style dresses, narratives, little video vignettes and songs. Brendan also went to the Opening Night party of the Spanish Film Festival 13 April to 1 May and saw a preview of the headlining film called Truman (which is the dog’s name) a dramedy, black comedy which he loved 4.0 stars. Brendan saw a trailer of Ma Ma starring Penelope Cruz and thinks she’ll get a lot of attention from it. Brendan also saw Michael Moore’s Where To Invade Next where he travels to other countries and ‘steals’ their best ideas regarding a number of subjects such as health and education–including school lunches and etiquette. It’s more fun than his previous films but maybe a bit long 4.0 stars. David talks briefly about Katie Noonan–her superb voice and her recently released new album– more classical in style. She may come on the show soon.

Interview guests today are:

16:33 to 31:52 mins–Tim Fisher is the Senior Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at Arts Centre Melbourne— 10 years. Tim’s been a curator for 35 years and talks about his career in Canberra and Melbourne. Before Curating he was a practising artist which has often helped his understanding of creative outlets in his career. The Arts Centre has an exhibition space called Gallery 1 which is prominently positioned to encourage people to go in before/after a show. It’s had major shows over the years including ones to do with Barry Humphries, Kylie Minogue, Peter Allen and ACDC. The Arts Centre’s performing arts collection is one of the biggest and most comprehensive in the world and many exhibitions have toured here & overseas. The next big show is called Stage Presence on from 30 April to 4 September at Gallery 1 and open 8.30am to 11pm. The main focus here is Design. A lot of designed work is in practical use or has got lost so Tim and his team went to major designers and asked them to donate an archive of their work. This exhibition shows the most recent donations by leading designers & also younger designers. Tim gives examples of designers and shows they’ve worked on. He also explains different design processes and how the exhibition was put together. Another exhibition is 30 years of the comedy Festival on until 17April.

32:50 to 55:21 mins–Stephen A Russell is a freelance writer, journalist & film critic and is here to do a wrap-up of MQFF with Brendan. Originally from Glasgow he has a charming Scottish accent. Writing has always been in his nature. He started writing professionally at Glasgow Uni. He got a degree in English Lit. & a Postgrad in Magazine journalism. He wrote for The Big Issue in Glasgow–an invaluable experience, as he was expected to write on any topic. He came to Australia for a working holiday but ended up being sponsored in journalistic jobs. He stayed and now he’s freelance. He’s written many reviews for MQFF and has 2 favourites. 1) Oriented–a doco about young Palestinian gays who have to deal with being Palestinian & gay, loving Jewish boys, and war & conflict in Israel; and 2) a Canadian feature called Closet Monster which Brendan also reviewed last week–a wonderful and weird piece, which is essentially a coming out story and has Isabella Rossellini voicing a talking hamster. David also asks Brendan and Stephen to rate MQFF 2016. Both were most impressed with the standard and also talk about its importance overall. All three then discuss Grant Sicluna’s film Downriver, which screened at MIFF and is being shown after Closing Night at MQFF and also the doco Remembering The Man and feature Grandma with Lily Tomlin.

1:13:18 to 1:31:06 mins–Director Cameron Menzies and Baritone José Carbó are from Victorian Opera’s Lucia di Lammermoor 12-21 April at Her Majesty’s Theatre. José’s family came to Australia from Argentina when he was 5. He grew up in Sydney and became a carpenter/builder. At 24 he heard Placido Domingo sing and something responded within him. Spanish DNA?? He took singing lessons and ended up doing opera training for 8 years. Cameron trained as an actor and singer in Sydney & Melbourne. He pulled together these 2 skills when he did some directing and realised that this was what his vocation. Luckily, he won an award that took him to the Deutsche Oper in Berlin for a year and has never been out of work ever since. Our guests talk about Victorian Opera which has existed for 11 years and Lucia di Lammermoor is their biggest opera (in size) to date. The story is about a brother (Enrico) and sister (Lucia) falling on hard times and then Enrico (played by José) forcing Lucia to marry a man she doesn’t love. Jose talks about the importance of state operas for singers like him and how he approached his role. Cameron talks about the directing experience, his delight in directing this excellent cast, and Her Majesty’s as a venue. International star Jessica Pratt is famous for the Lucia role overseas but this will be her first Australian performance. Incidentally, the last soprano playing Lucia at the Maj was Dame Joan Sutherland.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:32:37 — 42.4MB)

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