Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Terracini and arts funding

"If any arts organisation is receiving $20 million per year in funding from government, then it is not acceptable in a democratic society for that company to only play to a small number of people who are members of an elitist club. In fact, any arts organisation which is in receipt of public funds is obliged to justify that funding by doing its utmost to be inclusive of all members of society."

Some more good "long form" journalism from the Global Mail:
http://www.theglobalmail.org/mobile/feature/what-is-opera-anyhow/150/

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Hipsters, hoons and Ennio Morricone

imageAdelaide gets quite interesting in March.  Between the Festival of Arts, the Festival Fringe, the world music festival, writers’ week, the Clipsal 500 car race and the Adelaide Cup horse race there’s something for pretty much everyone, sometimes all at exactly the same time.

Tonight proved to be such a case.  The Festival’s opening was a gala concert featuring the Italian film composer Ennio Morricone conducting the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, outdoors at Elder Park on the Torrens River.  They managed to sell out the 5000 seat venue (not to me mind you – call me tight but I balk at $150 a ticket for an outdoor concert), the threatened rain didn’t eventuate and the evening was perfect, but what wasn’t quite perfect was the ear splitting din from the nearby Clipsal car race (or a night time “shoot out” derivative thereof), nor for that matter the sound of an 80’s knock-off band further down the river (and we all know how well sound travels across water).

This all made for an interesting melange of sound.  Schoenberg would have been proud.  I was stretched out on a picnic rug nearby, able to appreciate the subtleties of what was on offer, no doubt in a way not possible if I was sitting the other side of the fence $300 lighter.  Fortunately the cacophony didn’t last past the intermission but nonetheless it stands as a fine example of culture clash.