Image: courtesy Sydney Festival
Celebrating its 40th year, Sydney Festival 2016 offers a program boasting a range of international and local acts, focused on ambitious scale and collaboration. From 7 to 26 January, the vibrant summer showcase will feature performances and community events across theatre, dance, installations, opera, contemporary and classical music.
In curating Sydney Festival’s 40th incarnation, Director Lieven Bertels has created a program with a strong focus on large scale projects and on fostering collaborations between local performers and top international work.
One example of an exciting collaboration is Passion, a 21st century retelling of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo by French composer Pascal Dusapin, which will be performed by Sydney Chamber Opera under French-Lebanese opera director Pierre Audi.
Now curating his fourth and final festival, Bertels is particularly pleased to be providing this opportunity for Sydney Chamber Opera. ‘When I arrived here they had only just graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium and here they are now ready to spread their wings internationally. They will work with one of the top opera directors in the world, Pierre Audi, who has directed at the Metropolitan Opera, the English National Opera and of course his own opera theatre in Amsterdam; for somebody of that level to work with a small young company here in Sydney was a really thrilling prospect for them and they’ve absolutely picked up the challenge.
‘It’s about creating opportunities for genuine international collaboration. This offers our local companies a chance to be discovered internationally and enriches our local landscape.’ ’ he said.
Sydney Festival 2016 continues the renewed focus on classical music, and performances featuring live music, which have become Bertels’ trademark.
‘One of the things I was passionate about, and I’ve been saying since my first year, was to bring back live music to various forms of performing arts, because I find that contemporary dance as well as theatre and other art forms work really well when the music is performed live,’ he said.
As a personal favourite he nominates the 21st century musical Woyzeck created by Robert Wilson, Kathleen Brennan and Tom Waits. Part of a trilogy of works created by Robert Wilson and Tom Waits, including The Black Rider which was presented at the 2005 Festival, Bertels saw an exciting opportunity to premiere Germany’s Thalia Theater Hamburg in their first Australian performance.
Bertels is also excited about Vortex Temporum at Carriageworks, a contemporary dance spectacular by Rosas, the dance company of celebrated Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, performing with contemporary music ensemble Ictus.
There’s also a strong focus on contemporary music, which in 2016 includes performances by Australia’s Dirty Three, a Mexican take on Morrissey with Mexrrissey, and for cabaret fans, post-postmodern diva Meow Meow will raucously subvert Hans Christian Andersen’s mermaid tale in the world premiere of Meow Meow’s Little Mermaid.
The classical music program – which in 2016 includes a Beethoven marathon on period instruments and a celebration of Dutch music from the 17th and 18th centuries – continues to resonate with Sydney audiences.
‘Whether it’s rarely heard baroque repertoire or newly-commissioned work, we love to take our audiences on a journey. We present performances they might not typically hear in the regular season and that’s exactly the role of a festival, to colour outside the lines a little bit, and to push the boundaries.’
The spirit of free community events is very much alive with the 2016 Festival presenting an impressive 89 free events. A hallmark of the free offerings is the Domain concert series, now in its 35th year, set to feature iconic band The Flaming Lips to mark the 40th anniversary of the Festival in 2016.
The Festival will also present several major Australian works including Cut the Sky by Broome’s internationally acclaimed dance-theatre company Marrugeku and the Helpmann Award-winning family opera The Rabbits, based on John Marsden and Shaun Tan’s haunting picture book.
Another work likely to be particularly popular with family audiences is an interactive installation by French artist Olivier Grossetête, The Ephemeral City, which invites the public to take over the cultural space of the Cutaway to build their own monumental cardboard city. It will also bring audiences to Sydney’s new development Barangaroo Reserve, on the north-western edge of the city.
Festival goers will be lured to more locations than ever in 2016, as events spread themselves across the city into residential areas from Parramatta to Vaucluse, looking beyond Sydney’s traditional harbour orientation.
Sydney Festival
7 -26 January, 2016
