Reviewed by Annette Jacobs

Images by Branco Gaica

Bliss is an opera by Brett Dean and Amanda Holden, based on the novel by Peter Carey

Opera Australia has long had an interest in developing and performing new operas written by Australian composers. In recent years they have staged Batavia by Richard Mills, Lindy by Moya Henderson and Madeline Lee by John Haddock, all of which were well received. The latest opera commissioned by Opera Australia is an adaptation of Peter Carey’s 1981 novel Bliss. The novel has won several awards and has previously been adapted as a film starring Barry Otto and directed by Ray Lawrence.  The plot of Bliss the opera does not exactly follow the plot of Bliss the novel, but as I have never read Carey’s novel nor seen Lawrence’s film, I will only be dealing with what Dean and Holden made use of, and not with what they left out. After all, every adaptation should be able to stand on its own merits.

The Killing of Dushasana is a rare feast.  Set in ancient India and based on episodes from the world’s longest poem (The Mahabharata), the performance tells a tale of two families at war in the classical dance-drama form Kathakali. The performance is brought to the stage by an ensemble of 17 dancer/actors, drummers, singers and make-up artists from the Kerala Kalamandalam Dance Company in South-Western India.

For these artists, the study and practice of their art-form is not an occupation but a way of life. Students at the Kalamandalam begin their training each day at 4.30 in the morning and continue late into the evening. The performers’ dedication and immersion in their craft are very much apparent onstage. There is a sense that the artists are completely at home within their performance.

When the season of Bliss opened last Friday tonight, Peter Coleman-Wright appeared in the role of his life. Coleman-Wright plays Harry Joy in this new Australian opera based on Peter Carey's novel of the same name. Mid-way into the show's run, Peter will appear as guest of honour with Cheryl Barker, his wife and fellow opera star, at a special, intimate lunch. Here, guests will have the chance to talk with the two singers and hear about their amazing life as Australia's star opera couple.

For those who have seen, or are planning to see Bliss, it also offers a wonderful opportunity to hear about the coming together of the production and gain personal insights into this very special production by Brett Dean. How has Cheryl helped Peter prepare for the most challenging role of his career so far? What has Peter looked to his wife for, personally and professionally, in preparing for this role? How does one household fare with two opera singers practicing for roles on a daily basis and do the neighbours ever complain about the noise?!

Find out the answers to these questions and more when Opera Australia presents "A Celebrity Lunch with Cheryl Barker and Peter Coleman-Wright" 12.30pm Wednesday 24 March at The Victoria Room, Level 1, 235 Victoria Street Darlinghurst.

Enquiries and bookings: events@opera-australia.org.au

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

Seraphine De Senlis died in a mental institution in France in 1942. She was a painter of flowers that held such depth and were so layered in colour they took people by surprise, in fact, as seen here they quite literally took people’s breath away. This film, which focuses on the time leading up to her work being discovered and its aftermath, doesn’t delve into her troubled past though we get a clear sense that there was a moment that affected her so deeply she sustained emotional damage.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

It’s not very often these days that I get to see a film like no other but Bronson is just that. Bizarre, funny, frightening and very real, here’s a biopic to make you sit up straight. Michael Peterson is the most famous prisoner in the United Kingdom. He’s never blamed anybody for the way his life is, he’s just who he is, he’s just the way he is. He addresses us from a stage, bald and with a moustache ready to be twirled. He has an audience, he sports makeup and drifts in and out of various guises, he enjoys the applause and he holds us fast.

Reviewed by Michael Dalton

In as many months, a second film examining fallout from the war has opened in cinemas around the country. The Hurt Locker offered undertones of the stigmatic effects of being a soldier on a tour of duty but director Kathryn Bigelow, while never underestimating the impact, kept those emotions in the background and essayed the terrors of the situation. Now we have Brothers, directed by Jim Sheridan, which essays the horrors, a difference you’ll discover as you watch. While possessing all the trappings of a melodrama, Brothers searches its characters and studies the torment of conflict within and without.

reviewed by Danielle Mulholland 

 

On the the 6th of August, 1945, the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan, effectively bringing the country to its knees.  In his book Hiroshima: The World's Bomb, Rotter examines in well-researched detail the development of the bomb and the reasons behind it, from the discovery of the atom to the devastating effects it had on the Japanese.  Given that the US was involved in a world war, Rotter touches briefly on why Japan was specifically chosen as a target, reviews the ethical opponents and proponents for using such a deadly weapon, and the reasons why the race for developing the first atomic bomb ahead of the USSR was such a key factor in their decision-making.

Reviewed by Samantha Fordham

 

Tony Burgess’s Pontypool Changes Everything charts the disturbing terrain of Ontario as a deadly virus takes hold, turning people into slavering zombie shells of what they once were. The novel, in two sections, follows a number of characters as they witness the horror of the apparently unstoppable virus take hold around them and, then, finally, find themselves overcome. Burgess’s novel has been re-released some eleven years after it first hit the shelves in order to coincide with the release of the film Pontypool—a loose adaptation scripted by Burgess himself.

reviewed by Kimberly Chandler 

 

Clinton Caward is a fresh, contemporary Australian voice whose first novel, Love Machine, is a voyeuristic trip into the day-to-day lives of the people of King’s Cross. We meet prostitutes, drug addicts, schizophrenics, perverts, petty criminals and Spencer, the main character and graveyard shift worker of a standard King’s Cross sex shop.

 

reviewed by Danielle Mulholland 

 

In Below the Styx, Martin Frobisher is on remand in prison for bludgeoning his wife, Coralie, on the head with an epergne, a table ornament used to suspend delicacies or fruit.  Whilst in jail, Frobisher becomes obsessed with the life and writings of Marcus Clarke, a writer who died over a century previously.  Frobisher’s musings over Clarke’s writings and his ongoing references to the weapon of choice, the epergne, throughout the novel, are a philosophical reflection of the evolution of violence.  Fundamentally, he muses on whether he is actually guilty or innocent, despite his acknowledgement that he inflicted the blow, as it was a cathartic act fated to happen.  Marcus Clarke’s works are the instruments he uses to convince the reader.