The living arts

Press, 28 August 1979, Page 23

The living arts

Mini-festival The Malvern Community Arts Council, the youngest constituent council of the Southern Regional Arts Council, is planning a mini-arts festival for the next week-end. The festival, which will be held in the Darfield High School and the new Trinity Church building nearby, will feature a parade, a hangi prepared by soldiers from Bumham Camp, and a variety of activities ranging from a rock concert outdoors to an art exhibition in the church building.

A “grand parade” to start the festival will ■wend its was through the streets of Darfield at 11 a.m. on Saturday to the high school grounds, where the hangi will be opened up at noon. Weather permitting, a Maori concert party and a martial arts group from Bumham, a gymnastics troupe, and woodchoppers will entertain the crowd outdoors throughout the lunch period, until the rock concert begins at 2 p.m. At the same time, indoors, there will be craft exhibitions and demonstrations (in one sheep will be shorn, and their fleeces will be turned on the spot into handspun yam, and then knitted into garments), exhibitions of work by local artists, a travelling exhibition supplied by the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, and a floral art workshop.

Ar 5 p.m., there will be an “old-time” tea dance, and at the same time a programme of films will be screened in the school’s theatre, to entertain children while their parents are dancing. Later in the evening local musical talent will be trotted out in a concert in the school hall.

The festival will end on Sunday with art and music workshops, films, and an afternoon of outdoor activities, including kite flying and fire brigade demonstrations, but the art exhibitions will continue for a week. Kew voice

An international freelance singer now living in Otago will make his New Zealand debut in November, when he appears as one of the soloists in the Royal Christchurch Musical Society’s performance of Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius.” He is a bass, David Ward. David Ward and his wife, who has relatives in Christchurch, now live in Wanaka. David Ward was bom in Dumbarton, Scotland, and trained at the Royal College of Music Opera School, from where he joined the Sadlers Wells Opera. He remained at Sadlers Wells until 1960,

when he joined the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He was under permanent contract at Covent Garden for four years, and then became an international free-lance singer. Since 1964 he has sung at many opera houses, including La Scala, Milan; the Metropolitan, New York; San Carlo, Naples; the Vienna State; Colon, Beunos Aires; the Beyreuth Festival; and, as often as possible, with the Royal Opera Company in London. He sang at the Metropolitan in New York earlier this year. The choice of the Elgar work for his first concert appearance in New Zealand is an appropriate one, because for manv years, until the death of Sir John Barbirolli, he appeared in annual performances of the irk by the Halle Orchestra and choir, under Sir John’s direction. The other soloists in the performance on November 6 will be two of the "regulars,” Heather Begg and Anthony Benfell. Baton change A new conductor has been chosen for four of the concerts to be given by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Hong Kong Festival in February and March. He is a 35-year-old Welshman, Owain Arwell Hughes. The concerts were to have been given under the baton of Cristoph Eschen•t ch, who is now unable to accept the engagement because of commitments in the United States. The remainder of the concerts will be conducted by Michi Inoue, who has been closely associated with the N.Z.S.O. since 1975.

Hughes is the son of the Welsh composer, Arwel Hughes, and is regarded as one of Britar ’s most important young conductors.

Because of the promise he showed as a teen-ager, when conducting a choral group and orchestra that he had formed himself, the Welsh Arts Council gave him a grant to study with the famous Dutch conductor. Bernard Haitink. After he returned to Britain he became a regular x conductor of British orchestras and choral groups. He has established a close association with the Halle Orchestra, which he conducted during the 1976 Hong Kong Festival. Hughes has not previously worked with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He will come to New Zealand early next year to rehearse.

Eschenbach is also a pianist, and other soloists have been engaged to replace him in the works chosen for the festival programmes. The Chinese pianist, Melvyn Tam, will

be soloist in Beethoven’s Concerto No 2, and Michael Houstoun will join four of the orchestra’s principals in Schubert’s "Trout” Quintet. Pantominc

“Jack and the Beanstalk” is the pantomime selected for this year’s annual production in October by the Christchurch Theatre workshop. It is being both written and produced by Peter Roberts, who produced the fii-t two productions of the group, and !r returning to the pantomine after an absence of two years. The part of the Dame is played once again by Alan cConnell, who was “Mother Goose” last year, and the principal boy is Janice Tweedie. There is a large cast, numbering 16 or more, a chorus and dance group of about 30, and a pit orchestra. Elizabeth Robinson is the choreographer, assisted by Jean Jones, and the musical director is Ivy Penniket. The pantomime will be presented from October 6 to 13. Re-elected

Three members of the Southern Regional Arts Council whose terms had expired were re-elected at the annual conference of the council in Dunedin recently. They are Miss Janet Christie (Southland), Mrs Moreen Eason (Malvern), and Mr Eric Maynell (Greymouth). A new member elected to the council is Mr Peter Barton, of Christchurch.

Play final A production of "Lysistrata” entered by the Elmwood Players is one of six plays selected round the country as finalists in the Theatre Federation’s one-act play festival at the week-end. The finalists are: “A Slight Ache,” by Harold Pinter (Marlborough Repertory Society); “Lysistrata,” by Aristophanes, trans. Dudley Fitts (Elmwood Players); “The Triumphant,” by James Parish (Te Puke Repertory Society); “George the Maa Ad-Man,” by Peter Bland (N.Z.) (Mana Little Theatre); “Auto Da Fe,” by Tennessee Williams (Hawera Repertory Society); “The Faithful Widow of Ephesus,” by Thomas Cruden (Opunake Players). The plays will be performed on Friday and Saturday nights in Hawera, before the judge, Miss Margaret Greenway, of Palmerston North. The winner should be known on Saturday night.

Ballet for Ashburton Ashburton will see the Southern Ballet for the first time when the company performs at the Tinwald Memorial Hall on Saturday, September 15, by invitation from local residents. The programme will include “Concerto,” “La Boutique Fantasque” and “Ballesque,” choreographed and produced by Russell Kerr, the company director. The group will be led by the principal dancer, David Peake, supported by Dianne Honeybone, Glen Harris and Susan Trainor.