Karma Police
Songs in Our Heart # 57 Karma Police (Radiohead) (written by Radiohead; released August 1997) [Rage against the Machine: a thick slice of slick 90’s pop-angst with loads of structural intricacy to boot. Interesting video, also – but why doesn’t the chap simply run off the road?]
Continue Reading →John Olsen
(National Gallery of Victoria @ Federation Square, December 2016) Ah, yes, abstract expressionism…when it comes to Australia, one thinks of John Olsen (born 21 January 1928). His retrospective (“The You Beaut Country”) at the NGV (Federation Square locus) drew derision, at first, then vague resentment, then grudging concession at the lovely use of colour, then a kind of appreciation (TVC might be doctrinaire but we are not obdurate). Olsen has duly passed through his Picasso, Kandinsky and Pollock phases… … coming out to forge a truly Australian mix of light and colour, with a cartographer’s skill thrown in. He has an otherworldly,…
Continue Reading →Who Am I
Songs in Our Heart # 56 Who Am I? (Lou Reed) (written by Lou Reed; released January 2003) [From Lou’s insane album The Raven, a mad grab-bag of nightmare tableaux inspired by the equally wild and uneven work of Edgar Allan Poe. But this meditation on the mysteries of life, love and death, soars – even Lesley likes this one!]
Continue Reading →Die Walküre
"Step off, or I'll put you with the stuffed animals!"
(Opera Australia, Melbourne, December 2, 2016) (Dir. Neil Armfield) We have spoken of The Valkyries before in terms of Wagner’s dazzlingly great achievement, but before turning to this wonderful version of it, can we bang on a bit more about what the Maestro was up to here? Die Walküre shows Wagner blossoming as musician and dramatist. In the words of Ernest Newman, “he abandoned himself luxuriously to the sheer joy of music-making, both enlarging the scale of his design for each episode and delighting in fine filigree work from bar to bar; at the same time he has acquired a…
Continue Reading →Das Rheingold
(Opera Australia, Melbourne, 30 November 2016) (Dir. Neil Armfield) This reprise of the production from 2013 seems tighter but the essentials of staging and (thankfully) the precision of the Melbourne Ring Orchestra under Pietari Inkinen, are retained. In a minor miracle of timing, we have had the election of Mr Trump, an Alberich for our times. Moreover, reports of a dark-haired, wide-browed man – Nibelungen-like – making off with $2.1m in gold from the back of a bank truck in Manhattan – suggest that the stars had aligned for this production. Having said that, there is a lot of tosh written about The…
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