Top left to lower right: Rokia Traoré, photo Prudence Upton; The Peony Pavillion, photo Jamie Williams; Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, Daptone Super Soul Revue, photo Jamie Williams; Parra Opening Party, photo Jamie Williams; Masi, photo Jamie Williams; Richard Hawley at Paradiso at Town Hall, photo Jamie Williams; Semele Walk, photo Prudence Upton; The Blind Date Project, photo Jamie Williams; Eraritjaritjaka, photo Jamie Williams; Symphony, photo Jamie Williams; Rian, photo Jamie Williams.
“The performances were consistently good and, best of all, whether it was dance, theatre or film, the music was live. Adventurous, broad-ranging, inclusive.” The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 January, 2012
Live Music across all art forms We were delighted to focus on live music across much of the programming in 2013. As well as presenting concerts by internationally acclaimed musicians including David Byrne and St. Vincent, Rokia Traoré, The Waterboys, Orchestre National de Jazz, Archie Roach and Sing the Truth – live music was the impetus for many Festival events. DAY ONE: An Opening in Three Acts included the huge outdoor dance party Daptone Super Soul Revue featuring Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, Charles Bradley, The Budos Band, and other Daptone artists. Russian alphorn player Arkady Shilkloper greeted Sydney with a Dawn Calling from Bondi Beach, on top of the sails of the Sydney Opera House and other iconic sites throughout the Festival. The world’s largest pyrophone, an installation and enormous musical instrument, burst into life at dusk with flames and irresistible beats at the Parramatta Opening Party.
12
Heiner Goebbels’ delicate theatre work Eraritjaritjaka featured music of several 20th century composers played by Amsterdam’s exquisite Mondriaan String Quartet. Shakespeare’s The Rape of Lucrece was spoken and sung by Camille O’Sullivan with original music played by Feargal Murray on piano. Fabulous Beast’s Rian was a celebration of Ireland’s roots and traditions with a beautiful live score by Liam Ó Maonlaí (of Hothouse Flowers fame) mixing Celtic and world music. Raimund Hoghe’s dance work, Sacre – The Rite of Spring marked the one hundred year anniversary of Stravinsky’s composition with music played live by pianists Alain Franco and Guy Vandromme. In contrast, family audiences enjoyed Circolombia’s Urban with its intense live beats and street music of Cali enhancing their extreme physical feats.
We were also excited to bring German conductor André de Ridder to Sydney to work with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs to perform the live score at screenings of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey at Sydney Opera House. De Ridder also conducted Kubrick in The Sound of Kubrick, our 2013 Symphony in The Domain with a selection of scores from other iconic Kubrick films.