Culture Buff

Opera Australia’s production of Otello

17 July 2021 9:00 am

Lockdown must be making me irritable; an article during the week really got me going. It concerns two forthcoming productions…

Jaime Martín

10 July 2021 9:00 am

They’re changing guard at our two major orchestras; the Melbourne Symphony and the Sydney Symphony. A couple of months ago…

The Dictionary of Lost Words

3 July 2021 9:00 am

These days I don’t read many novels although occasionally I have to read one for my book group. Recently our…

Spring Waters

26 June 2021 9:00 am

Recent decades have seen the opening or upgrading of numerous performing arts centres throughout regional Australia enabling the development of…

Divine Vinyl Survives

19 June 2021 9:00 am

Two weeks ago, a fire broke out at the Universal Studios in Hollywood, 13 years to the day after another…

Festival music in Townsville

12 June 2021 9:00 am

For those music lovers who can travel, the prospect of a festival in Townsville in mid-winter is an alluring one.…

European Masterpieces from The MMA, New York at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art

5 June 2021 9:00 am

This is a very active period for the visual arts. The Archibald Prize finalists have been announced, Vivid is returning,…

Brett Whiteley : Drawing is Everything (31 July – 31 Oct)

29 May 2021 9:00 am

Demonstrating excellent timing, the Bendigo Art Gallery has announced a major exhibition Brett Whiteley : Drawing is Everything (31 July…

Sydney Symphony Orchestra concert series

22 May 2021 9:00 am

Last weekend’s sports pages told us that ‘the crowds have not yet been flocking back to the footy with pre-pandemic…

The Truth About China by Bill Birtles

15 May 2021 9:00 am

As news came through of China’s suspension of high-level trade dialogue with Australia, I read The Truth About China by…

Francesco Cavalli’s The Loves of Apollo & Dafne

8 May 2021 9:00 am

Venice in the 17th century was the birthplace of opera.  Its dominant and most successful exponent was Francesco Cavalli.  Once…

Science Gallery Melbourne

1 May 2021 9:00 am

Sydney is still thrashing around with the historic Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, known as the Powerhouse Museum, while…

The 23rd Biennale of Sydney

24 April 2021 9:00 am

Advance notice has been given about the Biennale of Sydney for 2022. No one else should get overexcited about this…

She-Oak and Sunlight: Australian Impressionism

17 April 2021 9:00 am

Art movements and fashions may come and go but Australians love of their impressionists seems only to grow stronger.  The…

Opera on the Harbour: La Traviata

10 April 2021 9:00 am

These days, you’d need to be as game as Ned Kelly to run an opera company. It’s a chancy enough…

Boy Swallows Universe

3 April 2021 9:00 am

It is difficult not to be irritated by the preoccupations of the funded state theatre companies. They seem to be…

A Nation Imagined: The Artists of the Picturesque Atlas at the National Library of Australia

27 March 2021 9:00 am

If you go to Canberra to see the NGA’s exhibition Botticelli to Van Gogh and are mildly disappointed, your journey…

French Impressionism from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Victoria

20 March 2021 9:00 am

While admiring the collections of French impressionist paintings in  American galleries, it is easy to think of them as evidence…

Johannes Fritzsch

13 March 2021 9:00 am

It is hard to imagine a city with a richer cultural history than Dresden or a better place for a…

Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

6 March 2021 9:00 am

Saint Zenobius was a Florentine nobleman who was converted to Christianity and baptised as an adult, ultimately becoming the first…

Australian Love Stories: Celebrating love in all its guises at the NPG

27 February 2021 9:00 am

The National Portrait Gallery seems to be floundering. That may be unfair but the announcement of the next exhibition left…

Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo

20 February 2021 9:00 am

Second thoughts are sometimes better thoughts. The NSW government had second thoughts about closing down the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo…

Robyn Nevin

13 February 2021 9:00 am

The Adelaide Festival program describes her, accurately, as ‘our finest stage performer’. Robyn Nevin is appearing there (2 Feb-14 Mar)…

Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli

6 February 2021 9:00 am

For 60 years, in an idyllic location at Kirribilli, the Ensemble Theatre has been providing entertainment in an intimate format.…

Elijah Moshinsky

30 January 2021 9:00 am

Earlier this month, the opera world sadly absorbed the news of the death of Elijah Moshinsky. Born in Shanghai in…