New Zealand Arts Review

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Verdi, Il Trovatore

The Trusts Community Foundation

Opera in Concert

Auckland Philharmonia 

New Zealand Opera Chorus

July 16

Auckland Town Hall

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

A couple of weeks ago we heard four great singers on stage singing Verdi’s Requiem in the Auckland Town Hall – Gustavo Porta, Erika Grimaldi, Olesya Petrova and Petri Lindroos. That tremendous concert was only their warmup to last  Saturday’s triumphant performance of Verdi’s Il Trovatore in which they all exceeded expectations.

Central to the story of Il Trovatore is the image of a woman being burned at the stake. This image of flames devouring a human being dominates much of the story and the characters of the opera. The twin notions of the flames of love   and the flames of destruction are ever present.

The opera takes place during a Civil War in Spain and has two intertwined stories. One is centred around Azucena and her quest for vengeance against the Count di Luna for burning her mother at the stake because she had bewitched the count’s infant brother.

The other plot concerns  a love triangle between the count who is pursuing Leonora, who is actually in love with the troubadour and  rebel leader, Manrico, who serenades Leonora. 

The count challenges Manrico to a duel, but Manrico is unable to kill the count despite gaining the advantage. Azucena is revealed as Manrico’s mother and then it turns out he is the infant brother the count believed was dead so when the count executes Manrico, Azucena has her revenge by declaring that the count has killed his own brother.

The imagery of the devouring flame is heard at its best at the beginning of the second act when the vengeful Azucena, sung by Olesya Petrova recalls the fire that killed her mother in the aria “Stride la Vampa” (“the flames are roaring). She describes her drive to see vengeance on Count di Luna, singing that “The dreadful memory torments me -It makes my blood run cold.”

Her telling of the horrific tale would have made  the audiences own blood run cold as well. She also conveyed the idea of the obsessed gypsy being  driven mad by her memories in a vital and nuanced emotional delivery.

Soprano Erika Grimaldi was an impressive Leonora  with a heavenly voice which, along with her facial and body language was able  to express a sense of ecstasy when singing of her love for  Manrico.

Gustavo Porta as Manrico had a commanding stage presence with a robust voice which captured  a sense of the heroic along with that of the ardent lover.

Simone Piazzola as the  Conte di Luna gave a great performance expressing his jealous rage. His sharp looks and menacing gestures were the embodiment of the ruthless, spurned suitor verging on mad man.  His ability to reach and hold high notes without being forced was very impressive.

In the first act when the two men and Leonora sang about love and death, they gave an inspiring and moving account.

In the third act when Manrico and Leanora  sing of their love, the two singers and orchestra merged in a spine tingling display. Then in the final moments of the opera  Leonora’s sweet, anguished voice erupted, soaring above the orchestra, as though in the throes of passion.

The chorus did a splendid job notably in the popular  Anvil Chorus where their singing of “Vedi! Le fosche notturne spoglie” (the sky reveals her nightly garb) reinforced the flame imagery.

In the minor roles Petri Lindroos as Ferrando made his bold entrance from the auditorium, striding up the aisle displaying an elegant manner with precise gestures and a authoritative voice  while Morag Atchison’s Ines was nice foil to Leonora

Throughout the performance conductor Giordano Bellincampi ensured that the orchestra served the needs of the singers, providing them with the necessary emotional emphasis and musical drama.

John Daly-Peoples

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Paul Lewis, The Beethoven Piano Concertos

Auckland Town Hall

August 12 – 14

Beethoven never got to play all of his own piano concertos as he was severely deaf by the time he had composed his fifth concerto. However next month the acclaimed English pianist Paul Lewis will perform the composers entire Piano Concerto cycle in three back-to-back concerts in Auckland with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

The pianist who is highly regarded for his interpretations of Beethoven’s piano works, joins the NZSO directly from the United States just days after performing the Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle at the prestigious Tanglewood festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a separate solo recital at the Aspen Music Festival.

The concerts which will be performed August 12 – 14, exclusively in Auckland, are understood to be the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand that all Beethoven Piano Concertos will have been performed  over three consecutive days.

Beethoven composed the five piano concertos over a twenty two year period between the late 1780’s and 1809 and his  affinity for rhythm and a desire to display a vibrant defiant energy shows in these works, all of which he initially conceived as vehicles for himself to perform. Given Beethoven’s hearing loss, which occurred gradually over two decades, it is no surprise that he connected most viscerally to rhythmic themes, which he could perceive through vibrations.

With these works Beethoven essentially declared the composer’s artistic imperative to make music that reflects the personal rather than the general.

NZSO Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor Gemma New will lead the Orchestra for all three concerts, which are part of the NZSO’s Immerse 2022 festival in association with The New Zealand  Herald (nzherald.co.nz.)

Lewis knows Beethoven’s Piano Concerto cycle well and  was the first pianist to perform all five concertos at the  BBC Proms more than a decade ago when the Financial Times reviewer noted that “His Beethoven is a classy fellow, with considerable stature and depth, but meeting him can be a more soothing experience than one imagines. this fiery, cantankerous composer was in real life. In the Piano Concerto No.1 Lewis’s playing exhibited an exemplary sense of balance and finesse .

His later recording of the cycle with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was hailed by Gramophone magazine as “civilized, musically responsible and vital playing”.

“There’s definitely some kind of journey from the first to the last piano concerto,” Lewis has said. “I think it tells us very specific and valuable things about Beethoven. Each piece is completely unique.”

For Reverence, the second of the three concerts, New also leads the Orchestra for New Zealand composer Tabea Squire’s work Variations. For the third concert, Emperor, the programme finale is Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.

Orpheus

Auckland Town Hall, Friday 12^th  August, 7.30pm

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4

Reverence

Auckland Town Hall, Saturday 13 August, 7.30pm

TABEA SQUIRE Variations

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3

Emperor

Auckland  Town Hall, Sunday 14August 7.30pm

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade

John Daly-Peoples

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

Paul Lewis, The Beethoven Piano Concertos

Auckland Town Hall

August 12 – 14

Beethoven never got to play all of his own piano concertos as he was severely deaf by the time he had composed his fifth concerto. However next month the acclaimed English pianist Paul Lewis will perform the composers entire Piano Concerto cycle in three back-to-back concerts in Auckland with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

The pianist who is highly regarded for his interpretations of Beethoven’s piano works, joins the NZSO directly from the United States just days after performing the Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle at the prestigious Tanglewood festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a separate solo recital at the Aspen Music Festival.

The concerts which will be performed August 12 – 14, exclusively in Auckland, are understood to be the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand that all Beethoven Piano Concertos will have been performed  over three consecutive days.

Beethoven composed the five piano concertos over a twenty two year period between the late 1780’s and 1809 and his  affinity for rhythm and a desire to display a vibrant defiant energy shows in these works, all of which he initially conceived as vehicles for himself to perform. Given Beethoven’s hearing loss, which occurred gradually over two decades, it is no surprise that he connected most viscerally to rhythmic themes, which he could perceive through vibrations.

With these works Beethoven essentially declared the composer’s artistic imperative to make music that reflects the personal rather than the general.

NZSO Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor Gemma New will lead the Orchestra for all three concerts, which are part of the NZSO’s Immerse 2022 festival in association with The New Zealand  Herald (nzherald.co.nz.)

Lewis knows Beethoven’s Piano Concerto cycle well and  was the first pianist to perform all five concertos at the  BBC Proms more than a decade ago when the Financial Times reviewer noted that “His Beethoven is a classy fellow, with considerable stature and depth, but meeting him can be a more soothing experience than one imagines. this fiery, cantankerous composer was in real life. In the Piano Concerto No.1 Lewis’s playing exhibited an exemplary sense of balance and finesse .

His later recording of the cycle with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was hailed by Gramophone magazine as “civilized, musically responsible and vital playing”.

“There’s definitely some kind of journey from the first to the last piano concerto,” Lewis has said. “I think it tells us very specific and valuable things about Beethoven. Each piece is completely unique.”

For Reverence, the second of the three concerts, New also leads the Orchestra for New Zealand composer Tabea Squire’s work Variations. For the third concert, Emperor, the programme finale is Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.

Orpheus

Auckland Town Hall, Friday 12^th  August, 7.30pm

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4

Reverence

Auckland Town Hall, Saturday 13 August, 7.30pm

TABEA SQUIRE Variations

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3

Emperor

Auckland  Town Hall, Sunday 14August 7.30pm

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade

Reviwed by John Daly-Peoples

Eugene O ‘Neill, Long Day’s Journey into Night

Auckland Theatre Company

Q Theatre

Until July 30

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Eugene O’Neill in his detailed notes describing the living room of the Tyrone family in “Long Day’s Journey into Night” requires that in the centre of the set above a bookcase is a portrait of William Shakespeare. The image of Shakespeare is an indication of the language O’Neill is aspiring to but also pointing out  that the Tyrone family is another in the list of great tragic families – the Lears, the Macbeths, the Montagues and the Capulets. *

Shane Bosher’s latest production of the work is a skilful probing of a messed-up family. We live a day and a night with the members of the Tyrone family: James, the brash celebrated alcoholic actor-father, Mary the opium-addicted mother who has just returned from a sanatorium, the rebellious, aspiring alcoholic older brother and Edmund the poetic, sickly younger  brother. Through them we explore the self-delusions, lack of communication, guilt and  accusations that bind the family together and that threaten to destroy them.

The play draws heavily on O’Neill’s personal history with the three male characters named after his father and the two brothers in a family where  death and misery were constant – his own suicidal impulses, and the fact that his father, mother, and brother all died within a four-year period.

Much of the tension in the play is around the family’s suspicions of Mary’s relapse into drug taking and the anticipation of a serious prognosis on Edmunds ailing health.

Each of them characters is self-centred and self-pitying. None seem to know what they want from life but blame the others for their position. They are each in their own cocoons and tip toe around each other. None of them can avoid dragging up the past to try and understand their present as they constantly deny the reality of the tragedies that beset them.

Theresa Healey’s performance as Mary is a remarkable exploration of addiction coupled with a mental condition  which means she is unable to connect with the problems of her sons and husband. Mary’s  flights of fancy are conveyed by Healey with an almost ethereal presence as she wanders the stage her eyes and hands only tentatively connecting with reality. Her second half soliloquy was tour de force, full of emotional energy

Much of Stephen Lovatt’s performance as James is filled with wry wit and clever observations. He does an exceptional drunken tirade where he includes the incisive and relevant Shakespearean quote from Julius Caeser “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.

He manages to portray the belligerent former actor who desperately tries to hold onto  his patriarchal position as he loses the respect of his children and wife    His position in the household  is continually being subverted, though he frequently succeeds at holding together his collapsing world by sheer force of will as well as a trace of violence

The dying Edmund who Simon Leary interprets as some late nineteenth century Romantic has an interdependent relationship with his mother in which death has links to the past and present. There are some fine scenes of the Mary and Edmund as they explore their tenuous connections.

Edmund and his older brother (Jarod Rawiri) also have some taut exchanges exploring their love / hate relationship which is brought into sharp relief in Jamie’s alcoholic ramble

John Verryt’s set works well sitting on what appeared to be crumbling foundations, this and the  mismatched chairs are all metaphors for the disintegrating family. The revolving stage presumably maps out the course of the day and night of the play but it seems to rotate in a random manner and without reason.

There are a couple of  fairly potent bits of symbolism – some white lilies  displayed on a central table symbolising the funeral state of the family and right near the end Man y dons her old wedding dress which James then cradle like a sleeping / dying infant.

*O’Neill was specific about the books displayed in the bookcase – novels by Balzac, Zola and Stendhal, philosophical works by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche Mark and Engels, plays by Ibsen, Shaw, Strindberg and poetry by Swinburne, Rossetti, Wilde and Kipling.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Giuseppe Verdi. Requiem

Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

Conductor Giordano Bellincampi
Soprano Erika Grimaldi
Mezzo-soprano Olesya Petrova
Tenor Gustavo Porta
Bass Petri Lindroos

With
New Zealand Opera Chorus
Members of Voices New Zealand
The Graduate Choir NZ
Chorus Director Karen Grylls

Auckland Town Hall

July 7

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Verdi’s Requiem was initially composed in memory of  Rossini but not performed until some time later when it was dedicated to Alessandro Manzoni the Italian poet, novelist and philosopher whose  novel The Betrothal was a symbol of the Italian Risorgimento.

The work is a Celebration Mass for the dead and is filled with themes of the wrath of God as well as words of mercy and forgiveness. It is the contrast between these two aspects of sustained drama and calmer moments which helps give the work its  power conveying turbulent emotions and  grand gestures.

Conductor Giovanni Bellincampi made sure the full range of emotions and tones were explored while maintaining a bracing tempo throughout.

He ensured that both the intimate moments as well as the grand panoramas and  explosions of sound were captured.

With the opening bars of the “Introit” he kept the strings to just a whisper, barely audible, adding warmth through the soft sighs of the chorus.

This opening was followed by the dramatic and terrifying  “Dies Irae” where the massed power of orchestra and chorus gave the work a sense of both the resurrection and the apocalypse.

The remarkable choral and orchestral forces were complemented by four soloists.

The Italian soprano Erika Grimaldi showed off a colourful voice with a luscious tone and her often piercing voice provided some moments of drama. Her rendition of the “Libera me” was flecked through with urgency, describing her terror in broken phrases.

Mezzo Soprano Olesya Petrova’s voluptuous voice expressed a sensitivity and intensity of emotion and when the two female voices combined they produced some splendid souring moments.

Bass Petri Lindroos intoned with a majestic sound, often touched with a sense of mystery while tenor Gustavo Porta who gave a fine rendering of ‘Ingemisco’ often seemed to struggle.

Next week the APO will be presenting Verdi’s Il Trovatore featuring many of the soloists form the Verdi performance including Erika Grimaldi as Leonora, Olesya Petrova as Azucena, Gustavo Porta as Manrico  and Petri Lindroos as Ferrando.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Collected Stories by Donald Margulies

Plumb Productions

Pitt  St Theatre

Until July 10

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Playwright Donald Margulies 1997 work Collected Stories is a brilliant piece of writing for  a couple of actors with its musing on the mentor- pupil relationship. Here we find Ruth Steiner (Elizabeth Hawthorne), a gifted New York writer (she must be important as she gets calls from Norman Mailer and Susan Sontag) and university lecturer with a keen sense of humour who lives by herself.

She has private sessions with aspiring writers and one day encounters the  lively , ambitious student writer, Lisa Morrison (Michelle Blundell) who so captivates Ruth that she takes her on as student and hires her as her personal assistant.

Over the course of several years, we listen to their conversations, learning much about the processes and perils of writing with Rath explaining and expounding on her own writing career including her time as a poet in Greenwich Village and her affair with one of  the great Beat poets. She talks about various approaches to writing including the concept of taking inspiration and ideas from any and all sources.

Over time the pair become close in a symbiotic relationship with  Lisa growing in stature as a writer with the publication of her collection of short stories and eventually a novel. Ruth is both impressed and happy with the book of poetry but when she reads the novel, she is appalled by the fact that Lisa has used Ruth’s Jewish background, her experiences of becoming a  writer and her affair with the poet as the basis of the tale.

The relationship becomes tense with Ruth seeing Lisa as a parasitic and Lisa unable to comprehend why her mentor’s  advice which she has taken is seen as some form of identity theft.

The play traverses notions of who should and can write about other people’s lives – is there a need for consent, how far does appropriation go, whose voice can be used.

But at it heart the work is about relationships and both characters have to deal with issues around  trust, loyalty, and mutual needs in a complex web of circumstances.

It’s a superbly written play and director Paul Gittins  has managed to bring together designers and actors who make the work immensely enjoyable and satisfying.

Elizabeth Hawthorne is it her best moving from the sharp academic to offended and hectoring ex teacher while  Michelle Blundell’s developing character gains in confidence and understanding. She is particularly spirited in her book-reading scene standing in front of the audience.

The two women create a nuanced, layered relationship and our sympathies are divided with the two characters laying out their lives and motivation.

Designers John Parker, Elizabeth Whiting and Michael Goodwin have done a remarkable job with the set, costumes and lighting to capture the period  and the location. The back projection of black and white film of late century New York are particularly  effective.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Gilbert & George

The Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Exhibition 2022

Auckland Art Gallery

Until September 11

Reviewed by John  Daly-Peoples

I had spent an hour with Gilbert and George talking about their work and a range of art issues. They were affable and measured in all the comments and views, genteel in their demeanour.

But as we were leaving the exhibition space a group of school children filed past and George heard one of the attendants say something to one of them. For the first time, George raised his voice and became agitated. “What! you’re not letting children into our exhibition“. It was quickly explained that this was a paying exhibition and that children didn’t automatically get admission. But George was still furious. This was an offence against his notions of the democracy of “art for all”, that culture which is the main driver of Western society was somehow being denied to a young child.

The idea of being denied  access to culture was something that troubles the two artists who often rail against cultural institutions. They know that there are too many artists and not enough spaces and walls to show all the art but the cultural gatekeepers wield too much power. But the are also aware of the contradictions of their stance in being feted by the institutions they criticise.

They know that the Tate in London has twenty-three of their works but rarely shows them. They also believe there has been a lot of hostility directed towards them and were  never perceived as being part of the art world. It is why they in the process of building the four storey Gilbert & George Centre in  London’s East End as part of the  Gilbert & George’s Art Foundation, and which will display their works  through changing exhibitions.

They like to think that they are enabling people to change, letting them see the  liberalism in the conservative and the conservativism in the liberal. They want people to change but will not tell them how to. For them the only way that society will change through, is by engaging with culture.

They believe that the greatness of Western culture has been achieved through culture, not wars or politics, that Western culture with its art, books and music has given us the freedoms we have from oppression of religion and tyranny.

Their work is generally anti-establishment, either gently mocking or offensively savage in rejecting the constraints of authority and giving the underbelly of society a voice. With the “Beard Paintings” they include the small advertisements which are found on lampposts and telephone boxes exposing the often-hidden world of sex escorts, fetishes and desperate aspirations.

These stand in contrast to the newspaper billboard works which show the media’s preoccupation with certain words such as “Death”, “Knife”, “Kill” and “Terror”.

Many of their works take anti-religious position with works such as “Jesus Jack” and “Carry On” with a medieval Christ dismissed with a red cross. There are also  anti-Islam images such as “Mile End” and “Puttee” with burqa clad figures.

But when I note that in one of their works, “Bag Day” a reclining Gilbert looks like an ecstatic St Cecilia by Bernini he is almost offended as they have a distaste for religious art and religious thinking. George does say however that they would probably change their stance if the religions would apologise for all the wrongs they have perpetrated

While expressing many conservative views, their main concern is what they refer to as the world outside their door, the people of Spitalfields and their daily lives and environments. They look on their local area as part of their studio and walk through the area every day. Walking is their research method and where they gain inspiration. They photograph graffiti, unusual images of street life, newspaper billboards,  figures in burqas. They also use the things they find on the street – the small nitrous oxide capsules, balloons, rubbish and they photograph themselves with landmarks like the local bus shelter – all of which make their way into their montage prints.

The newspaper agent’s billboard which are used in a number of their works such as  “Knife Straight” are stolen when they go for their walks and currently they have a stock of more than 5000 of them.  .

These collections of objects, people and events build up a portrait of East London as well as documenting the pairs journey through their suburb and lives.

They made the decision to become living works of art shortly after leaving St Martins Art school, announcing their relationship by painting their faces silver and posing like two robots. From that time on they turned their very existence into works of art

They consider themselves something of outliers in the art world. They don’t have all that many friends and  don’t go to many of the art exhibitions.  Some of their contemporaries from St Martins Art School have gone on to be successful in other areas notably Richard Long and Barry Flanagan who I point out to them has a show currently on at Gow Langsford just across the road.  In 1969 they hosted The Meal, an elaborate dinner party that included thirteen people with David Hockney as the guest of honour.

Early on they were entranced on hearing Flanagan and Allen singing the music hall standard, “Underneath the Arches”. This idea of living under the railway arches and dreaming of being artists suited them perfectly and the song has become part of their persona, creating the idea of a “singing Sculpture” in which they sing the song besuited and blank-faced. The exhibition features them singing the song.

They produce all their work from taking the photographs (they take photos of each other), manipulating the images, experimenting with colour and even the  printing. They are now fully digital having given up their old cameras, dark room equipment and enlargers

“A lot of modern artists are not doing what we are doing. For us, the centre of our art is a human being. The others have a formalistic attitude, of nice colours and nice shapes. We have a moral dimension: what is good and what is bad in people.”

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

The New Zealand Herald Premier Series

Winter Magic 7.30pm,

Thursday 30 June

Auckland Town Hall

Conductor Giordano Bellincampi

Sofia Gubaidulina, Fairytale Poem

Schubert, Symphony No.8 ‘Unfinished’ 

Tchaikovsky, Symphony No.4

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Its interesting how music can take on a political dimension. Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture celebrated Russian nationalism but after the Russian Revolution the finale of the work which features a quotation of “God Save the Tsar” was replaced with one more  aligned to Soviet thought: namely, “Glory, Glory to You, Holy Rus”, taken from Glinka’s opera “A Life for the Tsar”. 

Listening to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 4 the political nature of the work becomes apparent seeming very relevant to the present day with its menacing and fateful tones.

In a letter to his patron, Nadezhda von Meck, Tchaikovsky had outlined the central concept of his Symphony No. 4  explaining that the ominous opening fanfare represented fate hanging over one’s head like a sword.

While the composer may have intended the work as a depiction of his own psychological state it can be seen as a depiction of the tragic history of Russia both then and right now with the disastrous war engulfing Ukraine

The APO’s horns and bassoons delivered the necessary strident sound of the work brilliantly with echoes of the 1812 Overture. Here also was the sweep and grandeur of the Russian landscape and the following themes suggested an all-consuming gloom interspersed with  glimpses of happiness, indicated by some lighter dance melodies. But then the  movement ended with some brash militaristic sounds

The second movement also provided a contemplation on the composer’s melancholic state as well as an uplifting portrait  of an idyllic Russian landscape.   

The unique third movement was tour de force both for the composer and the orchestra with its pizzicato strings along with similar sounds from the woodwinds and brasses conveyed exhilaration of a peasant style dance theme.

The dramatic and colourful finale was devoted to the development of three themes and at times recalled the composer’s ballet music with an affirming energy

Replacing the scheduled Shostakovich’s cello concerto the orchestra played Schubert’s two movement unfinished Symphony No 8 with the music sounding its distinctiveness from the very beginning. There was a weight and expansiveness to the music  and  we seemed to be in the midst of  a dream state filled with mystery, verging on the  mystical. the music sounding as though on the edge of encountering a dramatic event

This state of reverie was well  conveyed by the  oboe and clarinet floating over the nervous shimmer of  the strings. The music also gives a nod to Beethoven’s 5th in his use of the trombone to convey a spiritual dimension

The first work on the programme was  the  92-year-old Sofia Gubaidulina’s Fairytale Poem was a fantasy written in 1971 for a radio broadcast of the Czech fairy tale called ‘The Little Chalk.’ who dreams that someday it will draw wonderful castles, beautiful gardens with pavilions and the sea.

The various instruments conveyed the various period of the chalks journey from boring classroom to  being used to create the beautiful drawings. There was the, pizzicato strings opening the nightmarish sounds of the xylophone, then the lovely celeste and  abrasive piano through to the scratching violins and fierce percussion.

Conductor Bellincampi directed the various instruments expertly in a work which was both accessible, experimental and satisfying.

Forthcoming Concerts

July 7

Verdi Requiem

Auckland Town Hall

Soprano Erika Grimaldi
Mezzo-soprano Olesya Petrova
Tenor Gustavo Porta
Bass Petri Lindroos

With
New Zealand Opera Chorus
Members of Voices New Zealand
The Graduate Choir NZ
     Chorus Director Karen Grylls

July 16

Il Trovatore

Auckland Town Hall

Leonora Erika Grimaldi
Azucena Olesya Petrova
Manrico Gustavo Porta
Ferrando Petri Lindroos
Conte di Luna Simone Piazzola
Ines Morag Atchison
Ruiz Andrew Grenon
Messenger Lachlan Craig
Old Gypsy Sashe Angelovski
with the New Zealand Opera Chorus
Chorus Director Claire Caldwell

Stage Direction Stuart Maunder

July 22

Auckland Town Hall

Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Bartók Piano Concerto No.2 (Pianist Piano Jean-Efflam Bavouzet)

Brahms Symphony No.4

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Philippa Blair

A Diary of Events

Orexart

Until July 7

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

“ In the Beginning how the Heavens and Earth
Rose out of Chaos”

John Milton, “Paradise Lost”

Philippa Blair latest exhibition at Orexart “A Diary of Events” evokes many of the notions that Milton touched on in his depiction of the creation of the world, the  idea of life  surrounded by or emerging from unrest and disorder.

At the heart of her work is the uncertainty and contradictions between chaos and order. This contrast can be seen in both the ideas which pervade the work as well as the physical making and arrangement of the paintings themselves. Even the fact that that all the works are diptychs speaks of a duality which exists between the physical and the  spiritual, between the random and the deliberate.

The works in the exhibition can be read in a variety of ways – as  images relating to events in her personal life, those of the wider world or of abstract conceits.

“Weather Report” ($12,000) with its aerial view of  a cloud covered landscape with the  coloured lines of air fronts, isobars and other abstract symbols of weather mapping could  be addressing issues around the impact of  climate change and rising water levels on our lives.

“The Swan Plant and the Butterfly” ($12,000) is a meditation on  the links between the various parts of the natural world – the symbiotic  relationship between the  caterpillar feeding on the swan plant and its evolving into the butterfly. Are those the forms and colours of the plant? Are those the lines tracing out the butterfly’s flight?

The works all have an inherent  volatility and tactility, not so much the artists applying paint but rather the colours and forms erupting out of the canvas to envelop the viewer

While there is a tension between the notions of order and chaos implicit in the works there is also  the physical tension between the both the myriad colours  she uses and the various techniques she employs which sees areas of colours resisting, merging and colliding.

The worlds she creates out of colour, form and gesture are both the macrocosmic and  microcosmic views. attempts to comprehend a large-scale view of the world as well as a study of the intimate detail of the microscopic world.

There is a vibrancy to the artist’s work implied by “Salsa/Salseros” ($12,000) and the idea of the dance. Her paintings dance with colour, shape and movement  and at the microscopic level it is the dance of the atoms and at the wider view they are the dance or trajectories of the cosmos.

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Scenes from a Yellow Peril

By Nathan Joe

Auckland Theatre Company

Auckland Waterfront Theatre

Until July 3

Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples

Nathan Joe’s “Scenes from a Yellow Peril” is the latest in a very short list of plays about the experiences of contemporary Chinese in New Zealand. The playwright, Nathan Joe notes that for some time he had avoided writing about being Asian but there had been an underlying need for him to write something and so the play is, as he says, “the result of all those feelings of internalised racism slowly being corrected.”

The result is a thoughtful snapshot of clashing cultures – alternately comic, poignant, anguished and angry in a condensed contemporary history of assimilation, along with the complexities of communication.

The sub-title of the play is “Scenarios for the Assimilated Asian” and the work consists of fourteen scenes in which five actors address issues around ethnicity, racism, colonisation and cultural displacement.

They explore the personal, social and cultural dimensions of these issues under various  titles such as  “ A Short History of Humiliation”, “Love in a Time of Colonisation’, “How to End Racism” and “They Shoot Chinese Don’t They”.  

The  actors speak of the European perspective of Asians and the  comic aspects of being Asian in New Zealand today. They also speak of the bewilderment and hurt of everyday events and the pressure to adapt and conform. But, at the heart of the play is the anger against the system and the oppression. Here, pure rage is distilled, displaying the anger of reacting to the stereotypes.

The play opens gently enough with the Director of the  play Jane Yonge interviewing each of the cast in a game show format where we learn about the range of their East Asian ethnicities – Chinese, Korean Singaporean, Japanese Fijian/Indian, along with their various careers. After that the cast embark on a dissection of the issues.

The dozen scenes are delivered in a  range of styles – panel discussion, poetry, polemic, stand-up comedy, cabaret and  game show. This all creates something of a Chinese banquet – a mix of sweet and sour, some spicey morsels as well as  some  bland bits

Each of these scenes explores a different dimension so that in “You Often Masturbate”, the characters muse on looking for Asian porn and the fraught feelings and reactions of engaging with it, the confusing sense of liberation and guilt at  finding Asian porn and the reflecting on whether this is “exotic”.

One of the standout performances is Louise Jiang in the ”Decolonise The Body. We are All Meatsacks” segment where she  gives a scorching delivery with her long poetic monologue of almost operatic dimensions, culminating in a ferocious dance routine.

Nathan Joe gives some eloquent deliveries notably his ”sorry for being sorry” speech about making the audience feel guilty as the huge red curtain slowly descends on him in the final  moments of the play. Amanda Grace Leo does a fine comic turn in “I Cannot invite my Parents to My Play.”

Uhyoung Choi, and Angela Zhang all give spirited performances and the three-piece band of  Rhohil Kishore, J Y Lee and Daniel Mitsure McKenzie provide  a well-judged accompaniment composed by Sound Designer and Composer Kenji Iwamitsu-Holdaway.

The cast are dressed in  strangely enveloping costumes which are  a combination of traditional Asian monks, and straightjackets and they seem to be constrained by what they are wearing so they seem to be metaphorically limited by both historical and contemporary cultures.

Production Highlight from Scenes from a Yellow Peril at

(Video Credits: Videographers Julie Zhu & Isaiah Tour, Editing/Postproduction Calvin Sang, Eyes and Ears)