Adelaide Festival’s The Magic Flute heads 25 Helpmann Award nominations for South Australia
South Australia’s charge at the national Helpmann Awards is being led by an Adelaide Festival opera production for the third year running.
Arts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Arts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Find the perfect Cabaret Festival show for you
- Paul Capsis captivated by Spiegeltent rock
- Chaotic cat who got the cabaret cream
An Adelaide Festival opera production will lead South Australia’s charge at the national Helpmann Awards for the third year running.
The Magic Flute, presented with State Opera and created by Komische Oper Berlin, Barrie Kosky and UK company 1927, has received six nominations including best opera, best music direction, best direction and best male, supporting male and supporting female performers.
They are among an impressive 25 total nominations for SA, the most outside Victoria and NSW and the state’s highest tally on record.
Late Adelaide actor Paul Blackwell, who died in February after a long battle with cancer, is nominated as best supporting actor for his role in the Belvoir/State Theatre production Faith Healer.
The Magic Flute follows the success of Adelaide Festival artistic directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy’s decision to program the operas Saul, which won six Helpmann Awards in 2017, and Hamlet, which won four categories last year.
Other SA nominations include Australian Dance Theatre’s The Beginning of Nature (for best dance, choreography, regional touring and male dancer), Windmill Theatre’s Baba Yaga (children’s presentation), Emma Pearson for State Opera’s Carmen in the Square, and Womadelaide for best contemporary music festival.
The 2018 Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s Ali McGregor (Yma Sumac – The Peruvian Songbird), Libby O’Donovan (Kate Leigh – The Worst Woman in Sydney) and Michaela Burger (A Migrant’s Son) are all nominated for best cabaret performer.
Melbourne’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Parts One and Two) and the Belvoir/Co-Curious production Counting and Cracking, which was also part of the Adelaide Festival, received the most nominations with eight each.
Three special awards will also be presented. Tasmania’s midwinter Dark Mofo festival has been named best special event, indigenous singer-songwriter Kev Carmody won the J.C. Williamson Award for lifetime achievement and the artistic director of Melbourne’s La Mama Theatre, Liz Jones, will receive the Sue Nattrass Award for service to the industry.
The Helpmann Award winners will be announced at the Arts Centre Melbourne on July 14.
New Adelaide Biennial curator
A new curator has been named for the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art exhibition, as attendance figures for this year’s event were released.
Tilda on the write track
Adelaide actor Tilda Cobham-Hervey, who stars as singer Helen Reddy in the new film I Am Woman, has turned her hand to writing screenplays for two features which just received funding.