The living arts

Press, 25 March 1980, Page 19

The living arts

Fifth time round The soloists in the Royal Christchurch Musical Society’s annual presentation of Bach’s "St Matthew Passion” in the Town Hall next Wednesday will all be familiar faces to Christchurch audiences. For the fifth successive year, Kenneth Cornish will sing the role of the Evangelist and Bruce Carson will sing Christus. Peter Williams, the tenor soloist, has also sung the role four times previously, and Howard Harvey (bass) has sung his role three times. The female soloists, Patricia Middleton (soprano) and Judy Bellingham (contralto), by these standards are newcomers; both sang their roles for the first time last year. However, Judy Bellingham has previously sung the soprano role in 1974. The performance will serve this year as one of the society’s subscription concerts, a move that has been forced on the society by the loss of one of its broadcast relays this year. Without the income from the broadcast the society will be unable to maintain its usual pattern of three subscription concerts plus the Passion. As always, the perform= ance of the Passion will coincide with Holy Wednesday — the Wednesday of Easter week.

The ripieno choir once again will be provided by the boys of St Andrew’s College, under their choirmaster, Clifton Cook, and the boys will also join the chorales and the two large choruses. Orchestral accompaniment will be provided bv the strings of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, led by Paulene Smith and augmented by flutes and oboes, Wallace Woodley will play the harpsichord continuo, and Allison Edgar will be the organist. The audience at the final concert in thie Bach season at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday night will have a preview of the main parts of the Passion, because these will be presented, by the choir with Martin Set- . chell at the organ. Another work based on the Passion,' Bach’s ‘St

John Passion,” will be presented on Saturday night by the chorale of the other large choral society in Christchurch, the Harmonic Society. Another show The Kirwee Players, who presented “Annie Get Your Gun” last year, will put on another full-scale musical during the winter. This time the show chosen is “Okalahoma” Margery Marshall, of Christchurch, will be the producer once again, and Katherine Hales will be the musical director. A cast of about 60 has been chosen, and will be backed by a 13-piece orchestra. The show will have a six-night season early in July. ■ Guitar recital A New Zealand-born guitarist who has been performing and teaching in Britain for six years will give a recital tomorrow night at the Arts Centre. She is Suzanne Court, a founder member of the London Guitar Quartet. Suzanne Court was given childhood lessons in the violin and piano, but did not start to learn the guitar until 1968. when she was 18. She completed a bachelor of music degree at Victoria University of Wellington before going to Europe for further study and training. As well as studying in London, she attended Master classes run by Angelo Gilardino, in Italy. After completing her studies, Ms Court earned her living as a teacher and performer, playing t solo and duo in schools, universities. music societies, and concert, halls throughout Britain. She became ncreasingly interested in the ensemble possibilities of the guitar and in 1977 helped to found the London Guitar Quartet, which plays a wide range of music, from early Renaissance consorts to contemporary works commissioned for the group.The quartet has given performances throughout Britain, and toured the Netherlands last year. Jazz in gallery A jazz group will provide the afternoon concert in the Robert McDougall

Art Gallery on Sunday. The group, the lan Edwards Jazz Ensemble, includes lan Edwards (saxophone, clarinet and flute), Viv Langabeer (percussion), and Denis Vaughan (bass). Jn addition to their experience in the local jazz scene, both lan Edwards and Viv Langabeer attended the 1979 summer school for jazz and improvisation at the Sydney Conservatoire. Their programme will include jazz standards raning from the bebop era of the 1940 s to the present day. and will feature also a number of their own arrangements. The concert is one of the “outreach” activities arranged by the gallery to coincide with the “street” exhibition. The lan Edwards Ensemble will also be heard this week in a programme of improvisations on themes by Bach — one of the concerts in the Bach festival at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. This recital will be on Friday. Theatre job A 24-year-old New Zealander, Debbie Sanders, has become the deputy manager of one of London’s leading West End theatres, the Duke of York. which reopened recently after refurbishing.The first production is the highly acclaimed play, “Rose.” which stars Glenda Jackson. Debbie Sanders has been in London only a year, she says she is enjoying the responsibility and challenge offered by her new job, reports NZPA.

“Because the theatre has just reopened and is under new management I’ve been involved in a lot more aspects of the theatre than perhaps I would normally have been,” she said; “I have been in charge of putting a lot of the finishing touches to the theatre and have had a lot more

involvement with the board.” Before .she left New Zealand her last job was as the lighting and production manager of the touring production of “The Rocky Horror Show.”

Before going to England she spent several months in Sydney and Melbourne, doing production work for two theatres and the Australian Opera. Her first brief job in England, as stage manager for a fringe production in London, was arranged through a friend. She then got a job with a concert promoter, but after 10 months decided to try to return to the theatre. “I saw the advertisement in a theatrical magazine for the job here, and I applied,” she said. “I had to go through four interviews, the last one with Sir Richard Attenborough, who is chairman of the board of the theatre.” As well as being deputy manager of the Duke of York, Debbie Sanders also works as the London agent of a New Zealand producer, and arranges tours by theatrical and music groups. Prize play The Heartache and Sorrow Company, the Lon-don-based New Zealand theatrical group, will produce an award-winning American play, “The Curse of the Starving Class,” in London next month. The play is by a Pulitzer prize-winner, Sam Shepard. The cast features Bar* bara Ewing who won the Feltex award for “best actress” last year for her role in the television drama, “Rachel.” It will be her first appearance with the Heartache and Sorrow Company. “The Curse of the Starving Class” won an award for the best play in the United States in 1977. It;

is about a family living in an isolated town, under the strains of poverty and the outside pressures which threaten to deprive them of their home. Jean Betts is directing the production and the New Zealanders in the cast include Deborah Doole, Erek Ward. Nick Wyatt, Peter McCauley, and Mark Squires. The Heartache and Sorrow Company will also present a. late-night revue with the play. Thisis “Strip.” a feminist cabaret written by company members. The Heartache and Sorrow Company which was formed a year ago, has presented several successful productions in London, and appeared last year at the Edinburgh fringe festival, where it won an award. Filin change Because the scheduled film, “Harlan County U.S.A, “is missing in transit on the film society circuit. The Canterbury Film Society will screen instead next week two films produced and directed by Les Blank. One is “Always for Pleasure” (55 mins, colour), which is about Mardi Gras celebrations, parades, and a jazz funeral in New Orleans. It won the Robert Flaherty Award for best documetnary at the New York Film Festival in 1978. .The other is “The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins” (33mins, colour). a more recent film. Also showing will be two short films, “Generation Gap” and “Kinetic Sculpture of Gordon Barlow.” The programme will screen at Room S2, Lincoln College, on Monday at 7.30 p.m., Room Al at Ham at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, and at the Museum Theatre at 7.30 p.m. on Wednesday-