Opera House becomes the circus Big Top; Olley’s generosity honoured in new exhibition
The circus is coming (to the Sydney Opera House). A generous giver is remembered in a new exhibition. And Simone Young will be chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Arts
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OPERA HOUSE CIRCUS
Cirque Stratosphere, December 24-29 and January 14-19, Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House; adult from $59, child from $39, sydneyoperahouse.com
Russian pole artist Pink Puma and a cavalcade of other circus characters will strut the historic Sydney Opera House Concert Hall stage from next week, before the hall’s closure for up to two years.
A major upgrade of the Opera House’s largest venue begins in February 2020, causing resident companies to temporarily relocate. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra for example will appear at Sydney Town Hall until returning to the Concert Hall in 2022 under the baton of globetrotting Australian Simone Young, who was last week announced as the ensemble’s new chief conductor.
But the famous venue will not go out with a whimper. Opera House management has programmed a lively series of summer events including British actor David Suchet in conversation with journalist Jane Hutcheon, the SSO in a musical tribute to Gurrumul Yunupingu, and performances by the American singer Solange.
As for Pink Puma, she will present her gravity-defying pole artistry as one of the acts in Cirque Stratosphere, a new show from the creators of last year’s Opera House production, The Illusionists.
Cirque Stratosphere celebrates this year’s 50th anniversary of the moon landing and is set in a “futuristic space-age utopia”, the Opera House says. So who exactly is Pink Puma? She’s Moscow-born Polina Volchek, who travels with her six-year-old husky, Mavra, when she appears in Europe or America.
“It’s a nice companion to always have someone, a little friend with you. She’s staying with my mum (in Russia) at the moment,” Volchek says. Volchek’s mother breeds huskies, and the dogs have always been part of Volchek’s life.
Volchek transformed herself into Pink Puma in 2011, with her long colourful ponytail as her unmissable trademark. But she remains fundamentally connected to her roots as an elite Russian gymnast from the age of 10. “I describe myself as athlete, artist and producer as well, because I’m in charge of big organisations and big competitions in Russia and the US, so I kind of do it all at the same time,” Volchek says. “I perform pole. This is an artistic and sporting routine of pole and aerial sports.” Like all the other Cirque Stratosphere acts, hers is about five minutes long. “It pretty much takes 25 years of work to perform this five-minute act”, she says.
As a world champion in pole sports, training up to 10 hours a day has been Volchek’s life for many years. Now she is also focused on the goal of pole sports being adopted as an Olympic discipline. “Together with teams in Russia and the US we work on the national recognition for this sport, as well as we work with the International Pole Sports Federation on the recognition of the sport officially worldwide,” Volchek says.
“So it’s a really big global mission but it’s supported by many pole professions and pole lovers from around the world. I think this is a really beautiful sport to be showcased in the Olympics one day. By adding pole sports together with aerial sport, that might bring new audience, more spectacular and even more athletes to the Olympics.”
Other performers in Cirque Stratosphere come from elite sports while some have had other pathways. German-born Felice Aguilar is a former rhythmic gymnast who now performs on a free-spinning platform to transform her body into a gyrating blur. Honolulu-born clown Sal Salangsang started as a breakdancer for the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. In 1997 he worked at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas with such stars as David Cassidy and Rick Springfield.
EXHIBITION
Margaret’s Gift, January 4, 2020 until March 22, 2020, S. H. Ervin Gallery; The Rocks, $12, conc $10, under 12 free, shervingallery.com.au
Few people have given as generously to Australian art galleries as Margaret Olley, the Paddington artist who died in 2011 and left her estate to a trust that continues her passion for giving.
Now the acclaimed painter’s determination to bring art to everyone will now be honoured in an exhibition called Margaret’s Gift at the S. H. Ervin Gallery. Margaret’s Gift showcases pieces that have been borrowed back from the public galleries to which Olley donated them, starting with the Papua New Guinean bowls that Olley collected in the 1960s and gave to the Art Gallery of NSW in 1984.
She would eventually give millions of dollars in art, including drawings and lithographs by French master Bonnard to the AGNSW, Pablo Picasso works on paper to various galleries, Paul Cezanne works to the National Gallery of Australia and the AGNSW, etchings by British modern master Lucian Freud and an Alberto Giacometti lithograph to the AGNSW, and Hollywood costume designs by Kiama-born George Orry Kelly to the NGA.
Margaret’s Gift is the second in the Margaret Olley Art Series, conceived by the late AGNSW director Edmund Capon.
Curator Renee Porter says Olley funded much of her philanthropy with “savvy” Newcastle property investments. Olley lived frugally and also directed profits from her own exhibitions towards giving art. “This exhibition reflects her generosity, which was absolutely amazing,” Porter says.
SYDNEY SYMPHONY
Simone Young to be new Chief Conductor
Almost two decades after controversially parting with Opera Australia, Australia’s brilliant music export Simone Young will return home to take up the baton as chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
The three-year contract will bring the Balgowlah-born beach lover back to Sydney for eight weeks a year, and in 2022 she will lead the SSO back into the Sydney Opera House after a two-year renovation of the Concert Hall.
Young is based in the UK and has lived half her life in Europe. She was the first woman to conduct the mighty Vienna Philharmonic, and has conducted a long list of the world’s most formidable orchestras. But it all began in Manly where both sets of Young’s grandparents lived. The walk to Fairy Bower remains “one of Sydney’s best-kept secrets”, Young said. She also loves her house on Pittwater’s Scotland Island, and hopes to spend more time there.
Young will join the SSO as chief conductor designate in 2021, taking up the full position the following year. Acclaimed American musician David Robertson has just completed his six-year tenure as chief conductor and artistic director of the SSO. But Young said she was too busy in Europe to adopt both roles at this stage.
“It’s quite likely the role of chief conductor simply develops into artistic director,” she said.
She was full of praise for the SSO. “I now work regularly with the great orchestras of the world and I can say, hand on heart, Sydney Symphony is right up there,” Young said.
Young said the forthcoming upgrade of the Opera House Concert Hall, including the installation of state of the art acoustics, was a big factor in her decision to take up the SSO role. “A great acoustic is part of the instrument, and to have the orchestra in that great acoustic will be very exciting,” Young said.
Young expressed dismay that the Federal Government this month deleted the arts from the titles of its new super-ministries. “As an artist of course I’m appalled that art is no longer in the title of a ministry, but I think of far greater significance is to watch and see what this means in real terms,” she said. “I firmly believe the arts should be front and centre, because the cultural identity of a nation develops within its arts culture.”
Young does not recoil from controversy. She was appointed artistic director of Opera Australia in 2001. But the following year, company CEO Adrian Collette announced Young’s contract would not be renewed. “Unfortunately, it is clear that her future visions for the artistic growth of the company are not sustainable by OA in its current financial position and we have reluctantly concluded that we have to seek another path,” Collette said. At the time, Young said the situation was a sad one for the national opera company.