Review: The Nightingale and Other Fables (Adelaide Festival & State Opera South Australia)
Presented in Australia for the first time, Robert Lepage’s puppetry-based staging of Stravinsky’s short works is as brilliant as ever.
Presented in Australia for the first time, Robert Lepage’s puppetry-based staging of Stravinsky’s short works is as brilliant as ever.
“Old friends” top the bill at Ruth Mackenzie's inaugural festival, but the Artistic Director wants buy-in from the state’s youngest.
The astonishing floating puppets of Robert Lepage’s The Nightingale and Other Fables to make their Australian debut in the 2024 Adelaide Festival.
A top-notch, diverse line-up makes for a cracking start to this year's Adelaide Festival.
The programme includes Jordi Savall, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Taipei’s U-Theatre and the Michael Clark Company.
Highlights include Brett Dean’s Hamlet, a Shakespeare adaptation akin to House of Cards, and an immersive German Requiem. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Glass, Lepage and some Canadian ice-skaters help Jonathan Holloway blur borders in his inaugural programme.
Staging Wagner’s epic four-part Der Ring Des Nibelungen is the greatest challenge that an opera house can face. The Met’s latest effort, staged by Canadian director Robert Lepage, has been taken out of the opera house and into cinemas all over the world, and is now available in an 8-DVD set. The live performances have taken a bit of a critical battering so how does the small-screen release stack up? First of all, the positives: this is the best looking, best sounding and generally one of the best sung Ring Cycles that you will find. The high-definition picture is breathtaking in its clarity, while the sound is beautifully engineered to give a wide, natural perspective. The singers have clearly all been miked and every word comes over loud and clear, regardless of stage position or volume of orchestra. The conducting is of a high level, too, with James Levine’s 40 years of experience paying dividends in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, while Fabio Luisi is a solid substitute in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Lepage’s brief was to produce something traditional enough to satisfy the Met’s conservative support base while utilising his reputation for visual wizardry to realise Wagner’s dream for the…