Category: Arts & Culture
Oliver Hall immerses himself in nineties nostalgia as the world’s biggest selling boy band take over Auckland’s Vector Arena. The minute it was announced that the late nineties pop juggernaut the Backstreet Boys were including Auckland in their tour schedule, I knew I had to go. It’s interesting how the music you are listening to when you […]
Luke Alexander Wilson gets a behind the scenes look at NZ Opera’s upcoming production La Cenerentola – Cinderalla with a whole different kind of magic. La Cenerentola is Rossini’s operatic retelling of the classic Cinderella fairytale, adored by audiences since it’s premiere in 1817. New Zealand Opera’s upcoming production promises a lavish and extravagant Dickensian […]
Top South African Musical performer Grant Almirall plays the lead role of Don Lockwood in the massive internationally touring production of Singing In The Rain, which has wowed audiences in Wellington and debuts on Auckland’s Civic Stage tomorrow. Oliver Hall caught up with the star. How does playing Don Lockwood compare to playing Frankie […]
Sam Te Kani takes a look at the new Kurt Cobain documentary everyone is talking about. I missed Nirvana. I was a nineties child, literally, void of hormone-induced angst which saw the band’s meteoric rise as a fairly content, if painfully naive kindergartener. My own self-defined period of rebellion would be piggybacked by other bands […]
Puccini’s exotic masterpiece Turandot is this year’s Opera in Concert for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Express spoke with Italian-Brazilian tenor Thiago Arancam about taking on the demanding tenor role of Calaf, who sings the world’s most famous aria; ‘Nessun Dorma’. Why is Turandot an important opera, and what does it mean to you to be […]
Sam Smith rewards his audiences’ enthusiasm at his first NZ show. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of artists considered to be great singers perform live. Whitney Houston, Cher, Elton John, Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, John Legend, Dionne Warwick, Rihanna, Damien Rice, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Meatloaf, Elaine Page, KD Lang, – but none […]
Ricky Martin was in Auckland on Friday night to premiere his One World tour. Levi Joule went along and filed this review. The 10,000 who packed Vector Arena may have been half of the crowd that last saw the pop prince play at Mt Smart in 2000, but those who did show up on Friday […]
Jenny Rankine hails from Adelaide in Australia but has lived in Aotearoa for more than half her life, and identifies as Pakeha. She has worked as a public servant, a print journalist, in Auckland Rape Crisis, and as an editor of Broadsheet, New Zealand’s long-running feminist magazine. She and her partner have 12 nieces and […]