Blog — Page 30 of 277

Phantom of the Opera 
Opera House
26 August 2022
Sydney, Australia

Fourteen years after the last production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera incarnated in Sydney, audiences on terra australis got lucky like twice this year: 

In April Opera on the Harbour staged an outsized open air alfresco extravaganza set against the dramatic backdrop of Sydney’s skyline, while anticipation was high for Cameron Mackintosh’s  refreshed version of Webber’s bombastic musical of all musicals to haunt the Joan Sutherland Theatre to prove that the rejuvenated tour de force of winning pop sensibilities has stood the test of time.

The bohemian crystal chandelier that hovers over the audience not unlike the Sword of Damocles forbodes what proves to be a reinvigorated legacy production with Scott Ambler’s visceral choreography adding new dimensions to the emotional resonance in shapes, space, movement and rhythm.

Backed by an opulent twenty-seven piece orchestra, the nuances of the instrumentation are well variegated and become an active ingredient in the storytelling, thereby accentuating the motifs and reprises with fine control and escalating power, strongly supporting the vocal performances without ever running danger of being reduced to mere accompaniment even during quiet moments.

As a result, the stage story is never not vibrant despite the Olympian vocal challenges the lead performers Josh Piterman, Amy Manford and Blake Bowden are negotiating, as they skilfully meander through sinister, vulnerable and romantic territory.

Visually, labelling the melange comprised of Paul Brown’s scenic design, the magic Mick Potter channelled with the lighting along with Maria Björnson’s sumptuous costumes as stunning would be an understatement par excellence, especially since it masterfully augments the personalities of the characters.

Without ever attempting to forcefully reinvent the wheel and remaining true to the script, the enlivened version of Phantom of the Opera blows the cobwebs away from the tried and tested with the metaphorical ball remaining in the air at all times. 

The panoply of character, emotion and action on display results is a complex and immensely enjoyable whole that is significantly greater than the sum of its considerable parts.

Delightful entertainment at its best.

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photo courtesy of Daniel Boud / Opera Australia

The Formative Years - Television 

Television was one of the reasons why people started wearing CBGB’s shirts.

If you dig stripped down, guitar based proto-punk, Television and their fantastic debut album Marquee Moon is basically the template for what most bands out of the 1970s New York rock scene riffed on and one that launched a thousand bands. 

Within the context of its time, Marquee Moon was nothing but revolutionary with its technical proficiency displayed via intricate virtuosic  instrumental passages, inspirations sourced from avantgarde jazz and the essence of 1960s garage rock.

Velvet Underground and the 13th Floor Elevators are omnipresent as influences but Television elevated their legacy to new heights by incorporating surf music experimentations with reverb, British invasion, psychedelic rock influences and well calibrated dual-guitar interplays characteristically interlocking pushing and pulling melodic versus rhythmic guitar lines with a subtle twang.

Television artfully combined poetic sensibilities with the raw, mesmerizing and simple energy of what was to become punk.

The knotty Marquee Moon with its ravenous appetite for strung out, despairing angular melodies that showed new ways of creatively channelling electric guitars paired and the angst ridden lyrics is a timeless bedrock masterpiece the fingerprints of which can be detected on the underlying components of alternative music fifty years on.

Thus Let Us Drink Beer- Young Henrys 10 Year Anniversary

Young Henrys must have been one of the first breweries that we covered as part of this series and we have consistently covered its ascent from a quality brewery to an entity that became much more than the mere sum of its parts would suggest: In 2022, Young Henrys serves not merely as a magnet for beer aficionados but also as a haven for musicians, artists and an idiosyncratic melange of free spirits, who are attracted by the brand by its endeavours to pro-actively nurture collaborations with bands, magazines and whoever else feels right to partner up with. 

To celebrate Young Henrys’ ten year anniversary and a decade of the shenanigans that came along with it and added to its appeal, they brewed a special, limited edition birthday Barrel Aged Red Ale.

Adorned with art courtesy of Sindy Sinn, the 500ml tin houses a ruby coloured Red Ale that clocks in at 8% ABV. Deriving its complex melange of hoppy bitterness, saccharine, caramel and dark chocolate nuances from having been aged in port and rum casks, brown sugar is married with charred oaky highlights, which shine against a backdrop of fruity aromas, fresh floral notes and hints of roasted coffee, biscuits and caramel. 

Having first collaborated on a Lager collaboration five years ago, 2022 sees Brisbane based rock band Dune Rats team up with Young Henrys again to create Dunies Lager, which is exclusively available online and at Dune Rats tour venues. 

With a cartoonish, Simpsons-esque design, the low alcohol poundable lager’s hoppiness is derived from the Mosaic, Citra, El Dorado and Azaca quartet, the sum of which imbues this slightly hazy, yellow coloured, inoffensive drop with grapefruity citrus flavours, rounded out by an immensely enjoyable dank hop nose.

The result is a fun beer that is borderline ideal to be smashed all day alongside a BBQ on a sizzling hot day.

The Formative Years - Talking Heads 

Talking Heads has always been one of the more interesting bands. With their avant-gardist approach that was rooted in punk sentiments yet musically never confined to any musical genres and skilfully incorporating funk, minimalism, polyrhythms and world music into their idiosyncratic mix, they were one of the most unconventional bands of their time . 

While some might argue that they heralded what was to become known as New Wave, others might be right in claiming that they were post-punk before punk even eventuated. 

Their anxiety infused pop appeal was utterly contemporary yet felt otherworldly and unpredictable. Constantly pushing the boundaries, taking risks, experimenting and reinventing themselves, they unconsciously created a lane for themselves in a way not dissimilar how hip hop artists sampled music by merging and connecting bits and pieces to sculpt their songs which at times feel like sonic tapestry.

In the context of the 1970s/80s, Talking Heads’ albums feel visionary with their stilted and deliberately camp pop sensibilities yet are performed and inspired by an agitation, intensity and immediacy that never not felt spasmic and at its core informed by the raw energy of punk rock. There was a self-awareness that many bands lacked without ever running danger of appearing smug.

Stop Making Sense is a concert film that sheds light on the wonderfully weird, theatrical and appealingly absurd world of one of the most intriguing bands to ever emerge from the mid-1970s CBGB’S scene.

Eternityland
Sydney, Australia
06 August 2022

Given how impressed we were with how director Danielle Harvey channelled her alchemy in creating an immersive morbid experience centred around the legacy and literary emissions of gothic author Edgar Allan Poe, we were intrigued as to what was to ensue with the incarnation of Eternityland, a theatrical experience that promised to take us on a hero's quest through a dizzying kaleidoscope of interactive rooms.

Based in one of the more sterile corners of Sydney’s Central Business District, a pop up bar that goes by the telling name of Department of Legend and Myth serves as a portal through which a threshold is crossed to the mysterious inner sanctum of Eternityland.

Once the threshold is crossed, the way the narrative of your journey unfolds is determined by your own curiousity and willingness to interact with the strangely clad characters that roam a vast maze of twenty spaces, vaults and chambers, which are spread across two storeys and serve as a multi-faceted stage for what is essentially an LSD trip come alive.

Involving the audience in their anarchical performances ranging from acrobatic circus acts via cabaret to music and storytelling, the characters serve both as protagonists as well as guides which lead you through labyrinthine halls, loungerooms, and involve us in their seductions, without indicating a distinct path that has to be followed or imposing how the experiences should be interpreted.

The sum of the aforementioned results in a gigantic camp playground for adults with surprises to be detected in each nook and cranny, culminating in a grand finale in an auditorium where a dance party is kicked off. 

Eternityland is an immersive, surreal and ambitious theatre experience par excellence at the crux of art and the absurd, which is particularly rewarding for those willing to surrender themselves to whatever multisensory experiences are presented in this fantastical, ephemeral world that deliberately blurs the lines between actors, spectators and participants.

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image from Eternityland website