Reviews

Spinifex Gum is music with a message. Composed and arranged by Felix Riebl, it has been sung around the country since 2018 by Marliya, an all-female choir of seventeen young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island singers led by conductor Lyn Williams.

‘Truth is a very complex thing,’ says Sir Robert Chiltern in Oscar Wilde’s play, and Matthew Chapman’s interpretation does more than entertain in this study on truth. This drama set amongst the changing London society at the end of the nineteenth century shouldn’t have much to say 128 years later, yet it still gives 2023’s Adelaide a number of sharp pokes. There are debates on corrupt politicians, observations on differences in young and old, and commentary on living both public and private ‘truths’.

Beauty and the Beast has been given a digital makeover, which prompted an almost unheard of (in Australia) standing ovation during the middle of the musical.

The catalyst for the eruption of appreciation was the rendition of “Be Our Guest”, when the humans trapped as furniture put on a lavish extravaganza of appreciation for the Beast’s prisoner Belle.

Giuseppe Verdi rose from humble beginnings to become one of the world’s greatest composers. His “big, beautiful melodies and expressive dramatic orchestral music” are performed continuously in opera houses around the world. He composed 26 operas and his famous Requiem – all of which led to him being so loved and respected that 200,000 ‘fans’ lined the streets at his funeral in 1901.