Arts and culture
Artists of The Australian Ballet, Murphy
An entire dance program honouring the work of a single person is a rare honour. The Australian Ballet has graciously…
My sole desire c1500 from The Lady and the Unicorn series Musée de Cluny
Almost a festival of Prosper Mérimée: at the Opera House we have performances of Carmen which is based on his…
Rinat Shaham (Carmen) & Marcelo Puente (Don José)
There was an intriguing surprise at a fine performance of Carmen last week; the surtitles carrying the translation of the…
Paula and Helen Thomson in Top Girls
Caryl Churchill is getting on a bit; I know because she was born just two days after me. She is…
Railways and the Raj
Many of our acquaintances now rarely watch 7.30, partly out of irritation with the succession of whingers and trade union…
Morning Star, 2017
President Macron is lending the Bayeux Tapestry for exhibition in the British Museum; the medieval tapestry masterpiece The Lady and…
Portrait of William Manning c.1821
The great museums and galleries in Australia do more than acquire, maintain and display their collections; they are also centres…
Rembrandt live
The link between music and painting is not a direct one. The aural and visual impacts of the two art…
Vox Clamantis
For many of us it probably qualifies as ‘a distant country of which we know little’. Estonia, after decades of…
The Enigmatic Mr Deakin
Judith Brett has written extensively about liberalism in Australia. The emeritus professor of politics at La Trobe University, her output…
“The Wider Earth”
It’s predecessor was the quaintly titled Waratah Festival which ran for a few days in October. In 1977 Stephen Hall,…
Xu Zhen Eternity-Buddha in Nirvana
When state governments put money into cultural events they like them to be large and ‘exclusive’. Well, the Victorian Government…
Bronwyn Oliver in her studio 1995
Her life may have ended eleven years ago at the age of only 47, but sculptor Bronwyn Oliver remains a…
Elizabeth Harrower returning to Sydney in 1959
It is a wonderful story in itself. After a self-imposed ‘exile’ of four decades, Elizabeth Harrower became an internationally acclaimed…
Helen Sherman
This year sees the 450th anniversary of the birth of Claudio Monteverdi, a pioneer of opera and a crucial transitional…
Jan de Bray “The governors of the Guild of St Luke, Haarlem” 1675
The Dutch Republic in the 17th century was surprisingly exciting and is now known as the Dutch Golden Age. Newly…
Michelle de Kretser
A multi-award winner, Michelle de Kretser has just published her fifth novel, The Life to Come. Born in Sri Lanka,…
Rachel Podger
The Enlightenment saw orthodoxies challenged and the emergence of radical ideas throughout the latter half of the 18th century. That…
Cressida Campbell Still life with dragonfly 2016-17
Emerging from a gifted family, Cressida Campbell is now one of Australia’s most celebrated artists. She chose an unusual medium…
Xavier de Maistre
Gracie Fields used to sing: ‘I took my harp to a party but nobody asked me to play’. I can’t…
The Merry Widow
Not everyone celebrates a 55th anniversary, but if you are a national ballet company at the peak of its form,…
Terracotta bust of Edmund Barton by Nelson Illingworth (c.1901)
Although they are not especially grand, these houses are arguably the most significant in the country. The four official residences…
Thomas Hampson
Sir Andrew Davis became Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2013 and, happily, will continue until the end…
Vivica Genaux
Founded in 2002, Pinchgut Opera has presented 19 rarely performed works with such distinction that its audience has grown along…
Anne-Sophie Mutter
These are good times for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Chief Conductor Davis Robertson announced a glamorous 2018 Season. The Board…
