Sex and sizzle spices up the program for Opera Queensland in 2014
Opera Queensland today announced a world-first project to give nearly 400 everyday people in eight regional communities the opportunity to perform in the chorus of a new, professionally staged production of La bohème.
‘Project Puccini’ is a hugely ambitious initiative, which will invest $2 million into communities on the Gold Coast and Fraser Coast (Maryborough), and in Toowoomba, Ipswich, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Mount Isa.
Auditions for adults and children to sing and act alongside OperaQ’s principal artists and Queensland Symphony Orchestra musicians start in March 2014, with the La bohème tour running from July to September 2014.
OperaQ will employ a chorus master and rehearsal coordinator from each region and work with local arts centres, theatres, councils and sponsors to ensure the highest standard of performance and personal development opportunities for budding local artists.
An intensive 10-week development program will equip all participants with improved music and drama skills, new social and creative networks, and an increased sense of community, wellbeing and self-esteem.
Arts Minister Ian Walker said the Queensland Government supported Project Puccini and the La bohème regional tour with funding of $399,954 through Arts Queensland’s Playing Queensland Fund.
“Project Puccini offers a unique opportunity for everyday Queenslanders to perform in a professional production,” he said.
“This is an excellent example of our Arts for all Queenslanders commitment in action, delivering more great arts and culture for more Queenslanders.”
Project Puccini is also proudly supported by the Graeme Wood Foundation.
OperaQ Artistic Director Lindy Hume said Project Puccini was the first major undertaking in the company’s Open Stage program, which aims to build creative skills and maintain strong, meaningful relationships with communities across Queensland.
“I am particularly passionate about encouraging excellence in regional arts and we want to seek out and nurture outstanding talent across Queensland,” Ms Hume said.
“We hope our professionally trained local choruses will go on to perform in other cultural and community events, and inter-regional relationships will develop to build artistic collaboration and improve the return on government and private investment in the arts.
“This brand new production of La bohème demonstrates the company’s commitment to excellence in regional Queensland,” Ms Hume said.
Known as the most romantic opera of all time, La bohème appeals to devotees and newcomers alike. Beginning on a snowy Christmas Eve in Paris, it tells the tale of Mimi’s love affair with the poet Rodolfo and their group of rent-dodging flatmates living and loving precariously on the edge of society.
Puccini’s beloved opera will be brought to life by award-winning theatre director Craig Ilott and internationally acclaimed designer Penny Challen.
All Project Puccini participants and supporters can connect online through www.operaQ.com.au/projectpuccini to share their experiences, stories, video and images.
Collaborative artists Wilkins Hill (Wendy Wilkins and Wes Hill) have been working together since 2000, pursuing a shared interest in the phenomenological aspects of communicating meaning between an artwork and an audience.
In Brainal Pipes Confusion Cave, the artists expand upon a series of works developed in Germany between 2008 and 2012, which stage obtuse metaphors through banners and commercial signage material. Previous works have sought to communicate distinctly but indirectly to viewers; heightening the readability of art as well as its resistance to hermeneutical closure. Brainal Pipes Confusion Cave sees the artists employing commercial banners to invoke the exhibition space as a type of cave, and suggests a mode of analytical engagement that is incomplete or has been abandoned.
A Wilkins Hill installation is often conceived around a central theme that the artists then discard, leaving traces of logic in the work but rarely producing coherence. This exhibition has been specially developed for the Metro Arts space, in keeping with the artists’ emphasis on the temporal and spatial dynamics that are at play in the interpretive process.
The Pine Gap facility was at the heart of the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in 1972
There is a tragedy hidden in the heart of Australia. On ancient, remote Aboriginal lands, a cluster of strangely shaped buildings squat in an extraordinarily remote area. For decades these buildings, and those who work within them, have silently been at the center of a killing spree.
I could use different words here, dancing around the facts, acting as though extrajudicial assassination was okay. The Governments and Agencies who commit these crimes use a different language — a softer, easier on the eye, and their conscience, language.
In that media friendly language, there must be no hint, that after decisions made on flimsy evidence, people are being murdered at the press of a button. Drones are the weapons of choice. American military drone operators are the executioners. Military Officers sit in front of computers at Pine Gap in Australia, their rooms cool and air conditioned against the harsh desert heat, supporting the alliance which carries out dispassionate and clinical murders in the name of the “freedom” of the United States of America.
For many years now, Australia has been a useful outpost for Empire. The alliance between the security agencies of Great Britain, USA, NZ, Canada and Australia primarily fulfills the needs of the USA. We are but a commodity here, nothing more. The “Five Eyes Alliance” — also abbreviated as FVEY — was built on a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.
FVEY remains the most powerful espionage alliance in world history. Both United States war, or to be polite, “political”, and economic advantage is the goal. Economic advancement of some of the member states is also a consideration, but to a lesser extent. This alliance circumvents laws in many of its member countries by acting like multinational company or business in some respects.
It is undeniable and widely acknowledged, that Pine Gap — known in the media as a “satellite tracking station” is far more than just a tracking station. For a start, it is part of ECHELON, which you may not have heard much about until Edward Snowden’s revelations. In democracies, we are entitled to know what is being done in our name. Injustice which never sees the light remains. This is the case with FVEY. A secretive, unaccountable machine is growing.
It is only recently with the debate finally sparked through the whistleblower Snowden, we can gain the beginnings of a perspective. In Australia, our media hesitates to speak truth to power where the US alliance is concerned. If they do, the Government of the day will use all means available to shut them down, or dismiss legitimate concerns. Our Attorney General just made the ludicrous assertion in Parliament Question time that Snowden’s disclosures “put Australian lives at risk.” To use an Australian term: that’s utter bullshit. Will he be called out on this? Unlikely.
Whilst a major operating NSA HQ in central Australia expands an illegal, immoral, global surveillance program, potentially making anyone in range the mistaken target for assassination, Edward Snowden receives the same treatment as Australian Julian Assange. The focus is then off the message, but onto the messenger. Where are the international forums, the mechanisms, for exposing and bringing to justice Governments and Government Agencies which break the law and violate the rights of their peoples? They are few and far between.
Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald writing at The Intercept have just written about the NSA’s secret role in the US assassination program. The implications of this must be more widely debated by the citizens of those countries which host the FVEY’s Echelon bases. We are complicit, through our Governments, and a silent media, in allowing war crimes, and illegal surveillance.
Wikipedia is a changing, living encyclopedia. Look up “Five Eyes.” Look up “Pine Gap.” The writers of each article are different — the Pine Gap article is more heavily censored. When one realizes the extent and size of the Central Australian NSA facility, then the questions which are never asked must be spoken aloud. The debate which has been shut down must start up again. What are we allowing in our name? Who has died, in a drone strike, powered by machines and I am alleging here without hesitation, by people here in Australia.
These US military personnel on high intensity rotation through that facility are not just “monitoring” satellites. They could well be, on direct orders from the US President, killing someone they will later name a “terrorist”, not authorized by an international court of law, but by one of the growing regimes which labels any opposing group, even non violent ones, as terrorists. They are, without doubt, part of the US Cyber command engaging in monitoring in depth the communication of innocent civilians. We are all being watched, our data recorded, our images captured multiple times a day.
And we are a world at war. Atrocities become acceptable, as language is manipulated to fulfill the needs of the Generals. “Clinical strikes” are excused as some kind of humanitarian execution. Law has no voice in these wars. International borders have no standing. Governments who oppose are corrupted by stealth, United Nations agreements are held in contempt by the new arbiters of self defined justice.
The evil center of the surveillance machine is the murders and false imprisonments resulting from flawed machine gathered intelligence, assessment and action. The rules of war are imposed on all of us now. Chilling implications are behind many of the extrajudicial assassinations carried out by the USA. You swapped your telephone sim card with an Enemy of the State unknowingly?
Last thing you’ll hear. Boom.
There is no discussion in the public domain on what is actually occurring at Pine Gap. Classified. Top Secret. Hidden. We know this though: it is injustice on a massive scale. It is highly likely to be considered criminal in International Courts of Law. How though, can we find out? War censorship is a dangerous thing. People need truth.
There must not be only “ The Day We Fought Back.” This must be the time we fight back until the changes we want come about. Concerted, clear, non violent popular resistance will bring about change. We cannot allow the dissent within and between activist groups to be louder than the voices we raise together to demand a create a better future.
For what is being created, hidden, in the heart of secret spy bases around the world must be stopped. And it is up to us.
When night falls and the day’s business is done, let the good times roll at Metro Arts’ Pop Up Bar & Supper Club on Wednesday 19 – Friday 21 February, from 5pm til late.
A hidden space, transformed into an engaging and provocative setting designed for conversation, entertainment and some up-close and personal interaction with local performance makers; join us out the back for something to drink, a bite to eat, and a good time
Our tantalising line-up of live music, black cabaret and performance installation, is certain to enthral…
Let the soothing vocals and instrumental brilliance of the likes of Sandro Colarelli, Dom Miller, The Phoncurves, John Rodgers, and Sallie Campbell dazzle your ears and prickle your senses.
Candy B gets some close up audience participation
On Wednesday night take a romp into the Hot Brown Honey Block Party for some sass, dance, politics and humour all backed by the notorious Busty Beatz. (see Westender’s review of the Hot Brown Honey Burlesque)
And in the basement: let’s play touch with Feel Free to Touch Me with the Dance-master Brian Lucas and Six Women Standing in Front of a White Wall, an interactive performance presented by White Dove and Motherboard Productions. Or maybe, take a moment to reflect on why you have made the life choices you have with The Good Room’s sold out sensation I Should Have Drunk More Champagne.
This is one event you don’t want to miss, so throw caution to the wind, step outside your comfort zone (do what you wouldn’t dare), and come party and play mid-week with us at the Metro Arts’ Pop Up Bar & Supper Club.
Scott McDonald has found business owners struggle to maximise the value of their businesses and get out
An online seminar focused on maximising the worth of your business will be held on 26th of February, hosted by PwC partner Andrew Weeden for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland.
Business readers of Westender will remember Scott McDonald of McGarrys identifying that an exit strategy is one of the most difficult and confronting things for most business owners to deal with. Read the interview with Scott last year.
The CCIQ seminar addresses this challenge as follows.
“You’ve spent years building up your business – your great asset and you want to know how you can maximise the value.
“Focusing on the true worth of your business can help you achieve your goals as you look towards realising that value or passing it on to the next generation.
“Hear how you can leave the greatest legacy in the best possible way through valuable insights as we help you successfully find the value in your business today to ensure you can pass it on tomorrow.
“Join PwC partner, Andrew Weeden for this FREE webinar as he helps you discover how you can maximise worth in your business today to ensure you maximise value for tomorrow. “
Cr Julian Simmonds will join more than 60 red t-shirt clad Brisbane Greeters volunteers for a Valentine’s Day second birthday celebration of the phenomenally-successful program.
The dedicated army of 140 Brisbane Greeters volunteers help to familiarise visitors to the city with guided ‘greets’ exploring Brisbane’s sights and experiences.
The Greeters have welcomed more than 12,000 visitors to the city and attracted more than $4 million in publicity in their first two years of operation.
The team will be invaluable during the upcoming G20 Leaders Summit in November, which is expected to attract 4000 delegates and 3000 media from 20 major economies.
