Rich arts menu for 1989

Press, 4 January 1989, Page 14

Rich arts menu for 1989

This year promises to be a rewarding one in all aspects of the arts. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s season opens with its Summer Pops toiir at the Town Hall on February 20, conducted by Leonard Rosenman, writer of numerous film scores. The guitarist, Julian Bream, who played to capacity houses on his 1986 visit, leads the orchestra’s line-up of celebrity guests, performing at the Town Hall on May 8. A highlight of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra’s concert season will be Michael Houstoun’s appearance as both pianist and conductor in an all-Beethoven concert on April 13. Canterbury Opera’s two big productions for 1989 are to be Verdi’s “La Traviata” from July 20 to 29, and Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” from October 26 to November 4, at the Theatre Royal. In March the Christchurch Operatic Society presents its musical extravaganza “Stage Door 2” at the Theatre Royal. It will be an amalgam of the best of the well-known musicals, with many favourite songs. That will be followed in April by “The Sound of Music” from the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. An updated version of the well-known musical, it will emplo’y a new process of back projection which does away with the traditional sets. Also at the Theatre Royal will be the successful Australian version of the “Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby,”

opening on February 22, and running for Bi/> hours (in two parts). It is described as a rowdy, boisterous production, full of suspense, incident, and humour. After the Christmas production of “The Three Musketeers,” the Court Theatre will present two American plays. One is “Steel Magnolias,” an award-winning comedy by Robert Harding, set in a beauty salon in the Deep South which six women use as a refuge from the outside world. The other is “Glengarry Glenross” by David Mamet, a “whodunnit” set in a real estate office. The Tennessee Williams classic, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” is also on the calendar, plus “Tristram Shandy,” a rumbustious costume comedy by Laurence Sterne, and the musical “Blood Brothers,” by Willy Russell, author of “Educating Rita.” A new group, the Theatrecorp Production Company, launches itself in May with a school holiday production of the musical “Annie,” at the James Hay Theatre, directed by Olwyn Spensley. High point of the year for craftspeople will be the second New Zealand Crafts Biennale, to be held at the Auckland Museum in September. It will be a selected exhibition of craft from New Zealand and overseas, with an award of $lO,OOO. The Arts Centre will present its fifth Festival of Fringe Theatre from February 3 to 10, comprising a week of tuition

in physical theatre, dance, circus skills and drama; a two-week performance season; and an outdoor concert The American blues singer and guitarist, John Hammond, is to perform at the Town Hall on March 3.

“Real People,” an exhibition of Duane Hanson’s life-like sculptures, will be on show at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery from February 3. On February 8 an installation called “Icons for Birdlings Flat” by the controversial, local artist, John Cousins, will open in the Art Annex at the Arts Centre. Several exhibitions of work from the McDougall’s own collection are planned, plus the Moet and Chandon Contemporary Art Award in August, and an important exhibition called “Gates And Journeys” honouring the painter, Colin McCahon, in October. The Auckland painter, Brent Wong, is to exhibit his landscapes at the Brooke/ Gifford Gallery on April 3. For dance-lovers, the Royal New Zealand Ballet plans two large-scale productions — “A Servant of Two Masters,” based on the Carlo Goldini play, with music from Vivaldi, and choreographed by the New Zealander, Gray Veredon; and “Le Papillon,” Offenbach’s only fulllength ballet score. They will be presented at the Theatre Royal on alternate nights from June 28. Also this year, the Shanghai Ballet is to appear at the Theatre Royal on November 25 and 27.