Australian Brandenburg and Circa pull out all stops in new show
Last-minute dramas failed to scuttle a show that had everything when the Australian Brandenburg musicians and Circa acrobats got together again.
Did you know that one-third of the world’s acrobats are Australian? It was just as well for Yaron Lifschitz, artistic director of Brisbane indie ensemble Circa, that he has so many names in his phone when two of his star tumblers had to pull out at the last minute on opening night of the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s English Baroque tour.
The concert was delayed for 15 minutes while the two substitutes — who had been doing a strenuous children’s show in Victoria that afternoon — were given a three-hour run-through.
Lifschitz asked the audience to have this in mind if the action was “not as precise as we would have liked it to be”.
But he need not have worried — any hiccups were minor and taken in good part by the packed-out house and there were plenty of “wow” moments to compensate for the occasional dropped juggling prop.
And Paul Dyer and his magnificent band, joined by Australian soprano Jane Sheldon, were in top form, performing a pastiche of works by Henry Purcell, John Dowland and George Frideric Handel, interspersed with some Arcangelo Correlli and traditional English airs.
The ABO-Circa collaborations are coming along every two years now and all three of them have been palpable hits. It started in France in 2015, moved to Spain for a fiery 2017 offering and this time the setting was one of those magnificent statue-studded gardens that became popular in England in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Sheldon’s singing was clear and radiant — even when she had to sit in a “swing” being pushed out over the audience
Dyer and Lifschitz divided the straight-through 90 minute performance into four parts — The Court, The Bedroom, The Chapel and The Fairground. The seven members of the Brisbane-based indie circus tumbled, contorted, juggled and performed amazing feats of strength and balance throughout the evening, with a high point (literally) being a two-man, three-woman pyramid.
Sheldon’s singing was clear and radiant — even when she had to sit in a “swing” being pushed out over the audience — and her duet with soprano Lauren Stephenson, Handel’s Gentle Morpheus, son of night, was a melting moment.
There was even some good-natured audience participation to provide light relief in this show that had everything.
The concert is repeated at 7pm on Friday, May 10; Saturday, May 11; Wednesday, May 15, and Friday, May 17, and at 2pm on Saturday, May 11.
DETAILS
● CONCERT: Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Circa
● WHERE: City Recital Hall Angel Place
● WHEN: Wednesday, May 9
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