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NZSO performs Stabat Mater compositions by Rossini and Victoria Kelly

John Daly-Peoples

Victoria Kelly (credit: Amanda Billing) and Gioachino Rossini

Stabat Mater

Gioachino Rossini and Victoria Kelly

Michael Fowler Centre, October 2

Auckland Town Hall, October 3

John Daly-Peoples

Opera giant Gioachino Rossini’s breathtaking Stabat Mater will be performed for the first time in nearly 40 years by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Wellington and Auckland—alongside a world premiere. Of a new 21st-century Stabat Mater by New Zealand composer and musician Victoria Kelly.

Rossini’s dramatic hour-long choral work was inspired by the 13th-century ‘Stabat Mater’ liturgy, written by a priest, described Mary’s suffering at the crucifixion of her son, Jesus.

Kelly’s Stabat Mater, commissioned by the NZSO, is a response to Rossini’s interpretation and a contemporary appraisal of Mary, motherhood and women.

To create this unforgettable operatic experience, Rossini’s Stabat Mater features three extraordinary New Zealand singers: soprano Madison Nonoa, mezzo-soprano anna Pierard and tenor Filipe Manu. Talented Australian bass-baritone Jeremy Kleeman has replaced Teddy Tahu-Rhodes, who had to withdraw.

The singers are joined by the internationally lauded Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, which also perform during Kelly’s new work.

For both concerts, the NZSO will be led by renowned Italian conductor Valentina Peleggi, making her New Zealand debut. Peleggi, who won acclaim for elevating the profile of the Richmond Symphony in the US since becoming its Music Director 2020, conducts many leading orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic. She is highly regarded for her direction of bel canto opera. Concerto.com declared: “Peleggi has Rossini in her blood.”

Peleggi’s 2024 debut at Seattle Opera with Rossini’s The Barber of Seville was enormously successful, as was her Paris debut this year for Rossini’s Semiramide at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, where she was praised for “navigating Rossini’s characteristic crescendos with both power and accuracy.”

Her family history has special link to opera. Very early in the last century, her great-grandmother, then a teenager, worked up the courage to audition for a new opera called “La Bohème.” Puccini himself had come to Rome to choose the singers for a production in the Italian capital, and she was offered one of the lead roles, Musetta.

“But she was also engaged at the time to someone in the navy whose superior would not allow him to marry a singer, because that was not considered a respectable profession,” Peleggi explains. “So she got married and never sang again.”

However, her daughter — Peleggi’s grandmother — inherited her love of opera and passed it across the generations, encouraging Peleggi to sign up for a children’s choir that led to a life-changing experience at the age of 13.

“I was singing Carmina Burana… When the huge orchestra in front of me and the adult chorus behind me started, the wave of sound hit me physically,” she has said.

“For the first time, I felt part of something bigger than myself. That is how my passion for music really started — and how I decided to become a conductor.”

Kelly, who has collaborated with NZ Trio, Neil Finn, Don McGlashan, Tami Neilson and others, is delighted that her work will be performed by the NZSO and Voices New Zealand.

“There is nothing quite like the sheer emotional force of an orchestra and choir performing together… not only because of the music, or the astonishing scale of the sound, but also because this vast ensemble reveals—in the most powerful and life-affirming way—the possibilities of creative collaboration.”

Before each performance audiences can learn more in a pre-concert talk with Kelly about her creative journey (5.45pm Wellington and 6.45pm Auckland).

The Wellington concert will be livestreamed for free on the streaming service NZSO+.

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Pop to Present at Auckland Art Gallery

John Daly-Peoples

Andy Warhol. Triple Elvis

Pop to Present: American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 

Auckland Art Gallery

November 8th 2025–March 15  2026

John Daly-Peoples

This year the Auckland Art Gallery  scored a great success with their “A century of Modern Art” exhibition sourced from the Toledo Museum of Art. Not only was it an extensive look at the art of the twentieth century but also included some significant works.

Later this year the  gallery will be looking to repeat the success of that exhibition with “Pop to Present” a major show highlighting the diverse artistic voices from the United States, spanning from1945 to the present day.

Opening in November, “Pop to Present:” will be showing American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,  52 works reflecting eight decades of extraordinary artistic experimentation and cultural transformation in the United States. The exhibition includes abstract paintings, vibrant Pop canvases and hyper-detailed photorealist compositions along with Minimalist sculptures, richly textured pieces inspired by craft and domestic traditions, and contemporary figurative works that explore questions of identity, power and representation.

Showcasing 28 works by women and African American and Indigenous artists, the exhibition places well-known names in conversation with artists from diverse backgrounds to offer a broad and inclusive overview of recent American art. Artists featured in this comprehensive survey include Benny Andrews, Thornton Dial, Roslyn Drexler, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Philip Guston, Barkley L. Hendricks, Norman Lewis, Virgil Ortiz, Howardena Pindell, Jackson Pollock, Martin Puryear, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Mark Rothko, Kiki Smith, Clyfford Still and Andy Warhol.

“Experimenting with new materials while responding to the cultural and technological shifts of their time, the artists featured in Pop to Present challenged America’s social and artistic norms in ways that are still meaningful today,” says Kenneth Brummel, Curator, International Art, Auckland Art Gallery. “The exhibition also presents a large number of works by artists rarely seen in this part of the world”

Alma Thomas. Forsythia and Pussy Willows Begin Spring

Standouts in the exhibition include” Forsythia and Pussy Willows Begin Spring” a vibrant colour-field abstraction by Alma Thomas, an iconic Pop landscape by Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol’s Triple Elvis (1963).

Warhol’s “Triple Elvis” was based on the  singer-turned-gunslinger portrait of Elvis Presley on a publicity photograph for the 1960 western Flaming Star. This public persona was ideally suited to Warhol’s aim to focus on surface appearance rather than psychological interpretation. The overlapping multiple figures suggest individual film frames and cinematic motion, while the work’s metallic background evokes Hollywood’s silver screen.

Barkley Hendricks. Sisters (Susan and Toni)

Barkley Hendricks was an American painter and photographer who revolutionized portraiture through his realist and post-modern paintings of Black Americans living in urban areas in the 1960s and 1970s. “Sisters (Susan and Toni)” is a painting of two stylish women Hendricks met in Boston belongs to a series of works with dark backgrounds, against which the bright shirts and jewellery stands out.

This work and others in the exhibition are an indication of the strength of the museum’s holdings of art by black American artists of the American South.

The museum is among the largest art museum in North America for area of exhibition space and its comprehensive art collection includes ancient art, African art and American art, British sporting art, and Himalayan art. As part of their exhibit of decorative arts the museum has the largest public display of Faberge eggs outside of Russia, owning five. It is one of the first museums in the American South to be operated by state funds.

“We are proud to share the overall breadth of the VMFA collection, and in particular the importance of the Sydney and Frances Lewis collection that anchors it”  says exhibition curators Sarah Powers and Alexis Assam the Regenia A. Perry Assistant Curator of Global and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

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Don Binney. The 1972 interview

John Daly-Peoples

Don Binney. Summer Fernbird II, 1966

Don Binney, A Flight Through Time

Gow Langsford  Gallery

Until September 27

John Daly-Peoples

Gow Langsford (Onehunga) is currently showing works by Don Binney  from the 1960s and through to one of his final paintings which he completed in 2010. A Flight Through Time contains a number of works held in private collections, the majority of which have not been publicly exhibited in many years.

In 1972  I interviewed Don Binney for the video series “Six New Zealand Artists” about his fascination with birds. The following is the transcript of part of that interview.

JDP: Why do you choose birds to use as your visual images?

DB: Well, that’s because I’ve been a bird watcher for a lot longer than I’ve been a painter. In fact I was seriously watching birds by the time I’d turned ten and I was still at primary school, and I’ve only really been seriously exhibiting my own paintings, with or without the bird images, since about 1962.

JDP: Do you treat the birds as the real objects or do you abstract them?

DB: This is not  a simple question to answer. I was thinking this to myself today as I was sitting up at Aorangi Pt looking at a number of the spotted shags hatching their clutches on the rocks, in their little nests on the headland, and I was also, at the time, chewing over what I’d been saying to the local ranger last night at Juliet’s place. It seems to me that birds are a pretty fundamental human image, it seems to me that the human species if you like, has perhaps, twenty or thirty or forty odd, primary image references, perhaps tables may be one, perhaps death may be another, the sun is almost certainly another, stars very likely another, birds I think come well within the short-list of ‘say, very essential human images, and birds mean a hell of a lot, whether you’re a cosmopolitan twentieth or twenty-first century person or an eighteenth century person or a barbaric [person]… a bird is an image, is a life quality, imbued with a great many, I think, tangible references to people. It’s a very sensitive point.

JDP: Yes, so you see them as anthropomorphic.

DB: No, I see them as anthropomorphic, but I see them as a whole quality of existence in themselves, and I see them as forms, recurrent forms in space and in place, reappearing in the world of men as they’ve done in New Zealand, as long as men have co-existed with them, in this country and as they’ve always done over the world-.birds have lived in the world for so much longer than the human species, the hominid species and I think we owe them tremendous respect for this alone.

JDP: Do you see the links between bird forms and the natural forms of the landscape?

DB: Oh sure, this of course carries on, without my sounding presumptuous, but what I was saying is that the birds have lived in harmony and have co-existed with the topography, with the space, with the light, of habitable earth space, so much longer than people, and they have won their place, by means of flight, by means of nesting patterns, by means of migration, by means of their feeding habits, and the whole way that they deploy themselves against this, this land and this life, be it in New Zealand, be it New Guinea, be it Iceland or be it East Africa.

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The Mother of Gothic Horror

Photo Andi Crown

MARY THE BIRTH OF FRANKENSTEIN

By Jess Sayer

Auckland Theatre Company

Director – Oliver Driver

Set – John Verryt

Costume – Sarah Voon

Sound – Leon Radojkvic

Lighting – Jo Kilgour

Choreography – Ross McCormick

With Emily Adams, Timmie Cameron, Tom Clarke, Arlo Green, Dominic Ona-Ariki and Mary Graham 

ASB Waterfront Theatre, Auckland

Until 7 September

Reviewer Malcolm Calder

If you were expecting a history lesson, or a literary feast, at Mary the Birth of Frankenstein forget it.  With only loosely based smatterings of actuality, the mind of playwright Jess Sayerand has really gone to work concocting a remarkable horror story that is pure gothic.

Imagine if you will, five friends sitting around one evening housebound because of a fairly vicious storm outside.  They know each other well and each has a distinct personality.  They are a highly intelligent, articulate and radically argumentative group.  Their idle chat turns to intellectual sparring and rivalry abounds.  There are references to literature and science and to their driving needs to make a mark on the world – individually and collectively.  Alcohol and social drugs are in abundance and, as the evening passes passions grow, each becomes increasingly assertive about their own viewpoint– at best regarding those of others as only partially so.   I fondly recall not dissimilar late-night parties in my own student days a couple of centuries later.  Many of us do.

In this outstanding work however, Jess Sayer turns the wick up a bit.  She casts the well-credentialled, slightly older and highly opinionated literary scion Lord Byron as the prime catalyst.  The most articulate of his protagonists gradually becomes Mary Godwin, the lover of Percy Bysshe Shelley.  Around Byron, and particularly around the rather distasteful and insensitive Shelley there is initially jocular chatter.  But this gives way to friction.  Soon minor differences of opinion appear as each addresses Byron’s challenge to tell a ghost story.  Differences grow and violent disagreements flare.  Mary becomes more and more vehement about women – their place and role in society, and their contribution to literature.  Thus Sayers reveals a dramatic work that is really about anger. Mary’s anger.

And it takes the form of the repulsive figure she concocts that will forever take its place in the annals of literary.

Using a collective and collaborative approach, Director Oliver Driver has knitted together a cast that is strong, dynamic and impassioned.  The laconically supercilious Byron (Tom Clarke) creates a strong and rightly pivotal presence sparring well with the self-admiring Shelley (Dominic Ona-Ariki).  Both establish things well with their counterpoints – the yes-man Polidor (Arlo Green) and Claire (Timmie Cameron), Mary’s sightly dizzy sister and lover of Byron.

However, it is Mary (Olivia Tennet) who becomes the ultimate pivot, growing in stature just as her viewpoints do. Initially fighting for her right to have any voice at all about the role and place of women, her character matures, and her anger becomes overt until she concocts something totally and horrifically outrageous – in the form of Frankenstein.

It is almost as if Mary has said – OK, you bunch of blowhards.  Try THIS on for size!

And, very very importantly, Emily Adams (initially an arthritic a more-than-humble home help Marta), evolves into the slithering sinuosity of a something that can only be described as a ‘thing’ – a kind of conscience or fading last gasp on reality.  Her movement alone remains memorable with her dance training clearly evident.

Despite the occasional accent slip, muddy delivery and balance between the two acts, high ATC production standards and a stunning creative team allow director Oliver Driver to indulge and support this strong cast.

Conversely the second act changes course and presentation completely and quickly becomes an insane exploration of the world she has invented for her Frankenstein and his dastardly deeds.  One might say that the proverbial hits the whirly-gig in second act and that the first was merely a scene-setting precursor. 

The result is a madness and a mayhem that unrolls that becomes, in some ways. the highlight of the show.  And I use the word advisedly because a ‘show’ it certainly is, rather than a mere ‘production’.  The creative team have generated an extravaganza that is mind-boggling in its complexity.  So, production team take a bow.

John Verryt’s set is simple yet complex at the same time.  It has depth and variance enabling changes that are both subtle and nuanced and in your face at others.  Similarly, Sarah Voon’s costumes echo those at the end bearing little in common with the play’s opening.   But it is Jo Kilgour’s lighting and Leon Radojkvic’s sound that truly make this production remarkable.  They must have had a lot of fun dreaming things up.

Mary the Birth of Frankenstein is a highly promising work from a highly promising writer.

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NZSO’s Ascension: three contemplations of Nature

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Jerome Kavanagh Poutama and André De Ridder

Ascension

NZSO

Auckland Town Hall

August 9

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The three works on the  NZSO’s “Ascension” programme featured  the responses of the composers to Nature with responses that ranged from encounters with the  small incident to contemplation of its vastness and complexity.

Ralph Vaughan Williams’ observation and reflection on the simple action of a bird taking flight is turned into a metaphor for Spring and the awakening  of consciousness in his “The Lark Ascending”.

The work opens with both  bird and orchestra being roused from their slumber, the sounds of the orchestra capturing the notion of bird flight while the woodwinds and brass build a picture of the forest and bush

Inspired by the poem of the same name by George Meredith, the poem’s imagery of water and nature conveys a sense of fluidity and renewal, while the bird’s song inspires a profound sense of harmony and contentment.

Lines sauch as

For singing till his heaven fills,
’T is love of earth that he instils,

Show that Merdith and Williams saw their works as metaphors for both the simplicity and drama of Nature.

The orchestra’s brooding tones depicting a landscape blended well with the solo violin of Vesa-Matti Leppänen, the concert master of the NZSO. He managed  to evoke a spirit of celebration tinged with a  sense of the  melancholic.

The central work on the programme was “Papatūānuku”, a joint collaboration by composer Salina Fisher and taonga pūoro   specialist Jerome Kavanagh Poutama. It was a work honouring the Earth Mother, Papatūānuku and featured a number of instruments played by Jerome which produced music  which  replicated sounds of the natural world.

The musical landscape featured an intertwining of the orchestra’s instruments with the taonga pūoro which including pūtātara and pōrutu pounamu. Throughout  the work the two groups of instruments called to each other with both sets of instruments replicating bird sounds. The percussion instruments of the orchestra, including the piano  responded to the taonga pūoro, often mimicking their sounds. As well as bird calls Jerome’s instruments also captured the sounds of sea shore and bush. The work becomes a dreamscape of drifting sounds.

As the work progressed, we seemed to drift further  and further into the bush, some of the instruments sounding like voices enhanced by the breathing of Jerome himself.

Jerome had laid out his instruments on a table covered with a Palestinian keffiyeh so his performance took on a reflective mood referencing Gaza where no birds sing.

The major work on the programme was Schumann’s “Symphony No 1 (Spring)”. It opened with a  dramatic introduction ,something of a welcome to Persephone, the Goddess  of spring, acknowledging her return from the underworld each spring, a symbol of renewal and  immortality.

After the sprightly first movement there was the softness to the second movement which morphed into an heroic sequence featuring a vibrant dance. Here conductor André de Ridder took a few tentative dance steps to the music which flicked between the languorous and the dramatic. This-was followed by the Scherzo with its rapid tempo creating a sense of liveliness. before the  final movement’s farewell to Spring.

Throughout the work the composer celebrated aspect of spring – the blossom erupting, the sounds of birds and animals and the cries of children at play.

André De Ridder has been announced as the NZSO’s next Music Director, and will take  up the position in 2027.

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Aroha Gossage. Into the Light

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Aroha Gossage, Anahera

Aroha Gossage

Into The Light

Artis Gallery

August 12 – 24

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The paintings in Aroha Gossage’s new exhibition “Into the Light” are grounded in her connection to the whenua of Pakiri, north of Auckland where she lives.

They continue Gossage’s exploration of land, light, and ancestry, the paintings serving as links between observation of her environment and reflections on her connections to the land  and to her ancestors.

Several of the works are titled after their subject matter, simple renderings of native trees –  Nikau, Macrocarpa and Manuka. These works follow in the tradition of botanical artists such as Sir Joseph Banks who identified Manuka in 1769 during his time with Captain Cook on his first voyage aboard the Endeavour and many artists have depicted trees and their flowers since then notably Emily Cumming Harris and Shane Cotton.

Aroha Gossage, Manuka

Gossage’s “Manuka” ($2700) is painted in golden tones giving it an enigmatic quality where earth and foliage are connected, creating an image which transcends the physical. ”Manuka” is part of group of four small works which have distinctive colouring, due to the earth pigments the artist has collected from sites around her local environment.

While most of her works are of botanical subjects there are a few which include figures, or at least the spirits or manifestations of figures. Rather than earthly figures they suggest ancestral presence. As the title of the show suggest these figures are journeying towards the light of a new place or a new understanding.

In the  large ”Anahera” ($9800) a caped / shrouded figure inhabits an abstract environment with traces of foligare snaking through the work. There is a sense of another world in which ancestors dwell, the paintings connecting the physicality of this world with the spirituality of the other-world .

Aroha Gossage, Light

This can also be seen in “Light” ($2700) with one indistinct form and “Tupuna” ($9800) with several shapes inhabiting a forest of trees. With the works that include figures it is noticeable that while the trees are painted with  distinctive realism the figures are indistinct and ethereal.

Some of her works such as “Witi” ($4750) have a quiet drama to them like Rita Angus’ “Tree”. ”Witi” is also impressive because of its deep red earth pigment which seems to it refer to bush fires, destruction and renewal.

Works such as “Hine” ($2700)  and “Macrocarpa” with their dark tones seem to be ghost-like images of the trees rather than mere depictions, as though  inhabiting another dimension.

The suggestion of another world is created in many of these painting by veils of overlapping colour where the air around the foliage and figures in infused with earthy tones.

There are a  couple of works which are pure landscape “Pakiri Dunes” ($9800) and “Kaitaki” ($9800).These do not have the same density or richness as the others works being descriptive with fewer  allusions to another dimension.

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The Auckland Philharmonia’s Daphnis et Chloé

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Javier Perianes

Daphnis et Chloé

Conductor – Jun Märkl
Piano – Javier Perianes
Choir – Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Saint-Saëns, Piano Concerto No.5 ‘Egyptian’
Ravel, Daphnis et Chloé  (complete ballet)

Auckland Town Hall

August 7

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

While Camille  Saint-Saëns composed much of his music at the same time as Debussy, he rejected the idea that he was an impressionist composer however, with his Piano Concerto No 5 which is rooted in the romantic tradition he does display some  impressionist ideas.

The work is referred to as “The Egyptian” as he wrote in Luxor during a holiday in Egypt, incorporated some  Impressionist and other exotic elements. These include images of clouds, sky and sea in the first movement, the croaking sounds of frogs in the central movement and the the sounds of a ship’s propeller in the third.

Despite his traditionalism, Saint-Saëns’s use of colourful harmonies provided a foundation that influenced the French Impressionist composers who came after him.

The piano concerto is a  light drenched work with pianist Javier Perianes picking out colour flecked details, contributing ot the sense of landscape and history referencing the French fascination with Orientalism particularly in the late nineteenth century.

Perianes played with an assurance and was also very aware of conductor Jun Märkl. He handled the dramatic changes as well as the many runs and trills without being overly demonstrative playing with a restrained elegance manging to discover subtle nuances in the work.

Many of the passages  were very  descriptive and Perianes handled these effectively notably in the second movement with its changing  exotic tonal qualities replicating the sounds of Arabic  stringed and wind instrument. The orchestra also depicted the gentle flowing Nile with the oriental themes woven into the musical landscape.

The work has many passages of experimental and novel sounds for both the orchestra and piano with some dark and mysterious sounds as well as effervescent and graceful passages.

In the third movement which has hints of a return journey across the Mediterranean both the orchestra and piano were more  energetic with a tranquil passage from the piano before the orchestra’s massive finale.

Leon Bakst. Set design for Daphnis and Chloe

Ravel’s ballet “Daphnis and Chloé” is set  in the rural, idyllic landscape of Lesbos where myth and legend combine.  The original set design by Léon Bakst reflected that setting as well as the idealised Grecian style costumes for the dancers. Ravel’s music has a sensuous flow to suit the ballet as well underscore the lover’s adventures. The music provided elements  of drama and description as well as atmosphere for the evolving narrative.

The work is Ravel’s longest composition, lasting nearly an hour, and includes  a wordless chorus which was sung  by the Sydney Philharmonia Choir as well as a range of percussion instruments – harps, harpsichord, castanets and wind machine.

Ravel referred to the composition as a “choreographic symphony” and it  has a complex narrative built around several recurring themes and a number of dance sequences which gives the work a sense of ritual.

The Sydney Philharmonia Choir which was integrated into the orchestral work gave a sumptuous performance. It performed at the opening of the work and at various points throughout. Its ethereal sounds provided a rich musical texture adding to the expressive quality of the work. They also provided some intriguing, choral work for the Pirate Camp war dance.

Some of the music for the  dance sequences was tense and abrupt while other were more sinuous and graceful. The orchestra also highlighted some of the dramatic moments in the ballet such as Chloes kidnapping  and Daphnis’s despair at the thought of losing Chloe.

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Home, Land and Sea

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The Way Alone Photo credit: Stephen A’Court

Home, Land and Sea

Royal New Zealand Ballet & The New Zealand Dance Company

Kiri te Kanwa Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland

July 31

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Choreography: Stephen Baynes, Shaun James Kelly, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Philip Glass, Shayne P. Carter
Set Design: Jon Buswell (Home, Land and Sea)
Costume Design: Stephen Baynes with RNZB Costume Department, Rory William Docherty, Moss Te Ururangi Patterson with RNZB Costume Department
Lighting Design: Jon Buswell, Daniel Wilson

“Home, Land and Sea”, The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Triple Bill featured three very different works each with a distinctive mood and choreography, all had links to the land with styles ranging from the abstract to the deeply connected.

The opening work, Stephen Baynes’ “The Way Alone” was originally performed in Hong Kong in 2008 for a Tchaikovsky programme and is a response to some of the composers lesser-known music  included some of his choral works. Firmly in the classical tradition the dancing was a direct response to the textures and rhythms of the music. the choreography emphasising the qualities of weightiness, graceful movements and subtle gestures as well as accentuating the dancer’s integration with aspects of light and shadow.

The work owed much to concepts of ritual with an elegance and refinement to the dancing which featured some beautifully articulated pas de deux and pas de trios.

The only problem with this sequence was that the recorded sound lacked the refinement of the dancing and created a disconnection between audio and visual. It was an issue that did not affect the other two works.

Chrysalis, Kate Kadow and Calum Gray Photo credit: Stephen A’Court.

After the first interval was the premiere of  Shaun James Kelly’s “Chrysalis” set to the Phillip Glass music “Metamorphosis” which was inspired by the Franz Kafka short story of  a man who wakes up to find his body has been changed to that of a large insect or chrysalis.

The setting for the dance also gave a nod to Kafka’s other work “The Trial” with various figures, some in trench coats roaming the stage, divesting themselves of items of clothing , an act which provided a clever metaphor for transformation – the shedding of skin and the emergence of the butterfly from the chrysalis.

The music features Glass at his minimalist  best with repeated phrases and  eerie looping sequences. There were also long, enigmatic  silences which were as expressive as the music and emphasised the notions of the dream, the surreal and the transformation.

The musical landscape with its abrupt, stark sounds was echoed by  the dancers with their carefully choreographed movements,  rapid changes and tense interactions.

Home, Land and Sea Photo credit: Stephen A’Court

The  third work on the programme was “Home, Land and Sea” choreographed by Moss Te Ururangi Patterson’s (Ngāti Tūwharetoa), the  Artistic Director of The New Zealand Dance Company. This was the first the Royal New Zealand Ballet has partnered with The New Zealand Dance Company with members from both companies performing.

The stage featured five panels on which were projected images linked to the dance – tāniko, vegetation, clouds and sea.

The work combined contemporary dance and kapa haka suggesting elements of journey, history and tradition.

The music for the work composed by Shayne P. Carter had a harsh quality to it which was emphasised by the dancing where there was much angularity in the gestures and movements, combining the sinuous quality of contemporary dance with the intensity and athleticism of kapa haka.

The  element of sound often associated with kapa hake -was also much in evidence – slapping, stamping and breathing, all adding to the physicality of the work.

In the latter part of the dance when the dancers became more dynamic and  the music more aggressive, the roiling mass of dancers seemed to become a force of nature transcending their human condition to become god-like in their expression.

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Burlesque Satire Drenched With Quality

Photo: Alisha Lovrich

Chicago The Musical

Book Fred Ebb & Bob Fosse

Music John Kander

Lyrics Fred Ebb

Based on the play ‘Chicago’ by Maurine Dallas Watkins

A Ben McDonald Production

Bruce Mason Theatre, Takapuna until 15 August

Then Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, from 17 August

Regent Theatre, Dunedin from 25 August

Director Michael Hurst

Choreography Shona McCullagh

Musical Director Paul Barrett

Lighting Simeon Hoggan

Sound Peter van Gent

Costumes Nic Smillie

Set Chris Reddington

With

Nomi Cohen, Lily Bourne, Jackie Clarke, Joel Tobeck, Andrew Grainger, Rebekkah Schoonbeck Berridge, Hannah Tasker Poland, Sophie Jackson, Hannah Kee, Taane Mete, Amèlia Rojas, Finley Hughes, Ellyce Bisson, Vincent Farane, Geoff Gilson, Joel Hewlett and Vida Gibson 

Review by Malcolm Calder

31 August 2025

Musical theatre is a strange beast. To some it is simply a chance to hear and see some wonderful voices and dancing on a stage set, to others it’s primarily about glitz, glam and fantabulous costumes, while some of the more cynical may even view it as a pale imitation of a classic form packaged in a simpler, more modern and easily accessed way.

Broadway did that pretty well, establishing, delivering and contributing significantly to the Great American Songbook.  Y’know : boy-meets-girl, let’s-all-have-a- rousing-time and aren’t-things-wonderful-in-America.   The focus was on music, singing and dancing with the plot or storyline merely a vehicle.

Towards the end of the 1960s however, and perhaps partly because of a growing social awareness at the time, a new element started creeping in – social commentary.  Two of the earlier exponents or explorers of this were John Kander and Fred Ebb.  They expanded the tradition – perhaps most notably with Cabaret (1966) followed by Chicago a few years later and music theatre found itself with a new dimension to explore.

But there was no sudden leap to this new level. It was a gradual process, perhaps slowed somewhat in Kander and Ebb’s case, through a series of projects jointly mounted by others. The choreography of Bob Fosse in particular saw early productions of both their Cabaret and Chicago pretty sanitised by today’s standards – sort of a middle-class version of sleaze.  And the movie versions too.  Nearly 50 years on and Rebecca Frecknall’s 2021 production of Cabaret now seems a far cry from Fosse’s rather dated movie starring Liza Minelli.  Chicago has followed suit. I mean …Richard Gere as Billy Flynn?

Rather thankfully, Michael Hurst has now delivered a Chicago as it should be done. His sweeping satirical brushstrokes might include a certain obeisance to Broadway tradition, but his production is rough and raw and pushes Kander and Ebbs’s work quite clearly into the world of burlesque.  I think they would be very happy about that.

This Chicago is far more than a rear-view mirror of underworld life in Illinois a hunded years or so back.  It might be phrased that way – and some might still be perfectly happy to do so – but it is also a bitingly allegorical take on contemporary American society.  I was puzzling on this right through to the final scene when a rather bedraggled stripes (minus the stars) flew rather forlornly in.  Then it all clicked neatly into place for me. 

Hurst has created a truly outstanding piece of highly theatrical burlesque finger-pointing at … well pretty much everything in today’s American and how it got there.

Let’s look at some of themes.  This Chicago is based on the media’s obsessively intense version of real life events; there are allusions to self-indulgent lifestyles and lip service to broken or non-existent loyalties; it contains larger than life figures who earn squillions from graft, corruption and from manipulating others; fake news quickly becomes truth, the cheapness to life is highlighted; a longing for long-term goals with no hope of achieving them underpins  life for many;  truth is very very easily re-written to serve venal goals; even the American underbelly of religion gets a whack as a growing seediness envelopes everything.

Does this make it a ‘downer’ of a show ?  Not on your Nellie. Chicago is funny, heartfelt, energetic …  and we know pretty much all of the songs is a bonus.

Hurst’s version is not glamourised and it’s not not about stars.  Yes, there are principal characters but no stars as such – it’s just not that sort of a show.  This is a seedy burlesque so ALL think they are stars of their own little piece of the world.   Yet he has also managed to acknowledge Broadway’s tradition, giving exquisite and delightful framing for each of the non-stars to do their big number without extraneous interference.  This is a throughly professional cast and it shines.

Nomi Cohen (Roxie Hart) and Lily Bourne (Velma Kelly) are a well-matched pair and Jackie Clarke does Mama Morton as only Jackie can – torn fishnets and all. 

Joel Tobeck subtly reveals a tad of humanity under the normally one-dimensional façade of Billy Flynn, and Andy Grainger (Amos Hart) steals the audience … he really CAN sing you know.  But then again ‘Mr Cellophane’ was probably written with someone like him in mind.

Of particular note is Shona McCullagh’s choreography which provides a whirl of activity that manages to highlight and clearly delineate individual ensemble characters while focussing on the emotional outcomes for individuals where appropriate.  Good to see some great circus skills highlighted where appropriate too.

Paul Barrett’s orchestra remains hidden in full sight – reinforcing that this is very much a live performance where the band exists to reinforce the vocals – while his sympathetic arrangement avoids lapsing inappropriately into the regularly cliched brassiness so commonly associated with Chicago.

Having first seeing it in 1976, then the movie in 2002 and several stage productions since, it seems that Chicago has gradually inched towards becoming rawer, rougher and edgier.  And definitely truer.

This Chicago sits where it should and remains theatrically burlesque to the end.

God Bless America – well Illinois anyway.

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Reviews, News and Commentary

World Press Photo Contest: the best of photojournalism

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Image Ye Aung Thu Documenting the conflict in Burma

World Press Photo Contest

Presented by Rotary Club of Auckland

131 Queen St Auckland

Until 24 August,

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples


The World Press Photo Contest is one of the most important photographic exhibitions and has been held every year since 1955.

While the focus is on the major political, social development and changes around the world it also presents aspects of sports and culture along with the drama and humour of everyday life.

The 2025 exhibition has six worldwide regions – Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia & Oceania and four categories (Single, Story, Long Term Project and Open Format). The winning entries from the six regions in each category form this exhibition with four global winners chosen.

The exhibition highlights significant global events and issues through powerful photojournalism and documentary photography. This year’s exhibition, presents a diverse range of subjects, including the human cost of conflict, the impact of climate change (like the Amazon droughts), political events, and stories of human resilience and cultural identity.

The exhibition rarely shows New Zealand work  but this year the Belarusian, New Zealand based photographer Tatsiana Chypsanava is included with her award-winning group of photographs titled “Te Urewera The living ancestor of the Tuhoe people” which includes is an image of Tama Iti.

The top honour for 2025 was awarded to Samar Abu Elouf’s haunting image of nine-year-old Mahmoud Ajjour, who lost both arms in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.

Image by Samar Abu Elouf

The exhibition includes a special display marking 70 years of World Press Photo, offering a look back at the evolution of photojournalism and its impact.

Donald Trump is the focus of a work by Jabin Botsford showing members of the US Secret Service helping Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump off stage moments after a bullet hit his ear during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show Grounds, Pennsylvania

Image by Jabin Botsford

Mosab Abushama’s image of a groom at his wedding in Omdurman, Sudan, where weddings are traditionally  announced with celebratory gunfire. He asked a friend to document his wedding on his cellphone in a city constantly targeted by airstrikes.

image by Mosab Abushama

Gaby Oráa photograph shows Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as she greets supporters during a campaign rally in 2024. She was barred from running and as a result, she endorsed the former ambassador as the opposition’s candidate and led his political campaign across the country.

Image Gaby Oráa

Brazil’s Gabriel Medina was captured by Jérôme Brouillet as he bursts out triumphantly from a large wave in the fifth heat of round three of men’s surfing, during the Olympic surfing at Teahupo’o, Tahiti, French Polynesia  in 2024.

Jérôme Brouillet

The exhibition is brought to Auckland by the Rotary Club of Auckland as a fundraiser for charity. This year the profits will go to Rotary youth programmes, interact and Rotaract, and PHAB an inclusive organisation dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities.