Arts and culture
Culture buff
If you haven’t yet seen Verdi’s Luisa Millar at the Sydney Opera House you’re already too late; no worry, there…
Culture buff
He was named the first Australian of the Year in 1960; Sir Macfarlane Burnet OM AK KBE had been awarded…
Culture buff
Conde Nast was the publisher of Vogue Australia in 1965. That was the year I started with Vogue but, much…
Culture buff
We played them in the band at primary school but it was several decades before we appreciated the potential of…
Riotously unfunny
Enthusiastically touted as the first Australian sitcom in fifteen years, Channel 9’s highly promoted Here Come the Habibs has a…
Culture buff
It may well be the most stimulating theatre presentation of the year and it is just what the most prestigious…
Culture buff
If your backyard is good enough to have been considered for inclusion in the Open Garden Scheme then I’m sorry…
Culture buff
There’s never been a better time to be… in Canberra. Parliament isn’t sitting, there’s decent accommodation at reasonable rates; best…
Culture buff
An unlikely location for a theatre; the large pre-fab hall, in which I sat for my final exams at UNSW,…
Culture buff
Ceylon was the exotic setting for the opera The Pearl Fishers. It premiered in Paris in 1863; its composer Georges…
Culture buff
It may be the best thing to come out of Belgium after chocolates. Or even the only good thing after…
Culture Buff
Time for a quick glance over my shoulder at the passing year. Culturally it was busy enough but with little…
Culture buff
We are now officially in summer and the beach season. The importance of the beach in our national self-image the…
Culture buff
In 1789, at the beginning of the French Revolution, one of the most popular operas in Paris was Richard Coeur-de-Lion.…
Culture buff
The first performance of King Lear took place in 1606 barely three years after James IV of Scotland had inherited…
Culture buff
James Bond as played by Daniel Craig in the new movie Spectre might have been surprised to find himself sharing…
Culture buff
Melbourne opera-goers are in for a surprise: a production of a masterpiece, set in an appropriate period with naturalistic sets…
Culture Buff
Mark Twain famously said ‘Golf is a good walk … ruined’. Bondi locals possibly think that Sculpture by the Sea…
Culture buff
Edward Albee posed the question in 1962: ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ The answer, it seems, is no one. There’s…
Culture buff
A first novel, written in a ‘gothic’ style while the author was undertaking a creative writing course, published in 2000…
Culture buff
It’s a fairly assertive title: The Greats -Masterpieces of the National Galleries of Scotland. The assertiveness is justified; the galleries…
Culture buff
1989 saw the establishment by Paul Dyer of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra with the assistance of Bruce Applebaum as General…
Culture buff
The popularity of Writers’ Festivals is a growing cultural phenomenon matched by the boom in book groups. Now, book groups…
Culture buff
He may not be a household name, yet, but Peter Boggs is one of our outstanding painters. His works hang…
Culture buff
The Australian Chamber Orchestra is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the appointment of Richard Tognetti as its Artistic Director. That…
