Verdi’s Requiem
Debut at L Scala, 25 May 1874, drawn by O. Tofani
SA State Opera Chorus, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, 26 August 2015 A very nice performance. Having a foretaste of the Requiem at the introductory session held by the Dante Society, The Varnished Culture settled back in the well worn and frayed Festival Theatre, with its ghastly art adorning the foyers (no longer ‘modern’ but eternally bad) for the full rendition of Verdi’s famous Requiem Mass. Coinciding with the staging in Adelaide of Faust, Timothy Sexton conducted the ASO, and, having rehearsed the State Opera Chorus, simultaneously conducted all 64 of them (plus kettle drum player) by alternately waving at the pit and the stage. The…
Continue Reading →The Evil Eye
Blood-and-Guts-Oates Image by Larry D Moore CC A-SA 4.0
(by Joyce Carol Oates) Joyce Carol Oates confounds me. Why is it that she is right up there in the pantheon of Writers-I-Want-To-Be, while I so often find her writing lacklustre? Why does she write so much? Why does she persist in the annoying over-use of italics to emphasise? Why does she use her full, unwieldy name? Is there a “Joyce Oates” out there writing “blood-and-guts” fiction? Perhaps the answer to all of my JCO-related questions is that she needs an editor who will tell her the truth. These four novellas are examples of work which is good but not good enough. The common factor is…
Continue Reading →Biggles Flies Away
Vale Graeme Bignell (1938-2015) A big crowd gathered at Adelaide Oval for a moving and friendly memorial service to farewell a Great of Glenelg who passed away recently, aged 77, after a long struggle with ill health. Graeme drove a cab in Melbourne as a young man and then took on a month by month job selling cars (if he sold 12 in a month, he kept his job), whilst bringing up 2 children on his own. Having become a phenomenal success at his chosen career, he moved to Adelaide in 1971 to take over the reigns of a failing Ford…
Continue Reading →Funerary Music
The Village Funeral (Frank Holl, 1872) Leeds City Art Gallery
THE ETHER IS AWASH WITH DESIRED SONGS FOR FUNERALS – THEY’RE COMMON AS MUCK, OR INTERNET KITTENS. SO HERE ARE SOME MORE! L WANTS: Here Comes the Flood (Peter Gabriel) Not Perfect Day (Lou Reed). OUR FRIEND GRANT WANTS: Funeral For a Friend (Elton John) at commencement Comfortably Numb (the Pink Floyd original, not the Scissor Sisters‘ version – although we like that as well) Roll Away the Stone (Leon Russell) at conclusion. P THINKS A SAMPLE OF THESE MIGHT SUIT HIM: It’s Time (Elvis Costello) The Final Taxi (Wreckless Eric) Trauermarsch (Richard Wagner) + (maybe) The deformed lady singing In Heaven…
Continue Reading →The Adelaide Ring
(2004: Recording 2012) The Varnished Culture is leery of greatest hits records. Everyone’s CD cupboard bursts with them, especially those replenished after an insurance claim. Yet with The Ring, one can make an exception. Especially when this is the only record of the sublime Adelaide production seen in 2004, when little Adelaide’s gallant attempt to simulate Bayreuth was almost scuttled by a relatively new State Government (which is still the State Government) quibbling about funding. Thankfully, a Commonwealth Grant to the Melba Foundation cleared the way. The Adelaide Ring was the first ‘ground up’ production in Australia and many feared it would be…
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