Category: Arts & Culture
Lithe young bodies leapt, bent arms, swayed, ran swiftly, and lay slack on the stage to draw an enthusiastic Royal New Zealand Ballet audience into the premier Auckland performance of Salute, compiled by the RNZB to honour the soldiers of WW1. Salute’s programme presented four dance works: Dear Horizon, Soldier’s Mass, Salute, and Passchendaele. This […]
Cuba’s roving modern ballet company achieved a very rare standing ovation at its opening performance in Auckland’s Civic theatre last night. The 19 dancers and 7 members of the accompanying band started their performance gracefully and slowly built up the tempo over the whole 2 hour show to have the audience totally in their hands. […]
With a swish of the curtain and a dazzle of lights, New Zealand Opera began its superlative 2015 season last night with La Cenerentola – a crowd pleasing fairy tale opera, full of wit and romance. La Cenerentola is performed in two acts and is based on the fairy tale Cendrillon by Charles Perrault. The opera […]
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 […]