~ THE ZIMBABWE ACADEMY OF MUSIC ~
&
~ PERFORMING ARTS BULAWAYO ~

March at the Academy

Friday 1 March

Puccini: Il Trittico

6.30 p.m.

Thursday 7 March

The Italian Job

7.00 p.m.

Friday 8 March

Verdi: Attila

6.30 p.m.

Thursday 14 March

Get Carter

7.00 p.m.

Friday 15 March

Two Ballets by August Bournonville

6.30 p.m.

Thursday 21 March

Student Concert

5.15 p.m.

Eroica

7.00 p.m.

Friday 22 March

Skyfall

6.30 p.m.

Saturday 23 March

Academy Busking

10.00 a.m.

Thursday 28 March

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

7.00 p.m.

Friday 29 March

Good Friday : Academy Closed

———————————————————————————————————-

Before the details…

… a couple of other items:

We intend to show a film with- we hope! – wide appeal on the occasional Friday evening and move the music to Thursday evening. Part of the idea is to attract older schoolchildren on a night when they won’t have to do homework and can stay up a bit later! We’ll see how it works and begin this month on Friday 22 March with the new Bond film, Skyfall. Eroica will follow the Academy Student Concert the previous evening.

Red Carpet Subscriptions are now due. Details have been circulated but please ask for them if you either didn’t receive or can’t find them! Concert subscriptions will be offered when we have some concerts to offer…

The Peterhouse Concert promised for March has now been postponed to next term.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Friday 1 March Puccini: Il Trittico
Robert Sibson Hall at 6.30 p.m. Carriages: 10.15 p.m.

Il Trittico – the triptych – consists of three one-act operas, and death is central to all three! In Il Tabarro [The Cloak] there is a murder, in Suor Angelica a dead child and in Gianni Schicchi death is the springboard for a deception and an excellent joke. In contrast to the seriousness of the first two operas, Puccini raises the curtain on Florentine sunshine in the last and ends this thoroughly satisfying threesome with his only comedy. This production from La Scala “brings a fairly traditional approach, and the casting does not disappoint either, with Piero Cappuccilli as the vindictive Michele in Il Tabarro, Rosalind Plowright in the title role of Suor Angelica and Juan Pons portraying the artful Gianni Schicchi.”

Admission: $3.00 [free to Red Carpet members]
Supper available during the interval : Stuffed roast fillet with roast potatoes, rice and cauliflower cheese; Pineapple cream cake

———————————————————————————————————————–

Thursday 7 March The Italian Job

Robert Sibson Hall at 7.00 p.m.

Michael Caine turns 80 on 14 March and to celebrate a much-loved actor, there will be two very different films this month and more across the rest of the year.

The Italian Job has been described as “the greatest Brit-flick crime caper comedy of all time… Michael Caine is the hippest ex-con around, bedding the birds (several at a time) and spouting immortal one-liners (‘You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!’). The inheritor of a devious plan to steal gold bullion in the traffic-choked streets of Turin, Caine recruits a misfit team of genial underworld types including a lecherous Benny Hill as well as three plummy public-schoolboy rally drivers and uses the occasion of an England-Italy football match as cover for the heist. In his final screen appearance, Noël Coward joyfully sends up his own patriotic persona, but The Italian Job’s real stars are the three Mini Coopers, patriotically decorated red, white and blue, that run rings round every other vehicle in an immortal car-chase sequence…”

Admission: $3.00 [free to film members]

———————————————————————————————————————

Friday 8 March Verdi: Attila

Robert Sibson Hall at 6.30 p.m. Carriages: 9.30 p.m.

Verdi’s ninth opera concerns the Huns’ invasion of Italy at the end of the Roman Empire, and Riccardo Muti conducts a fine cast in “this outstandingly dramatic performance from La Scala. It helps that the chorus takes a vital part, and the relative brevity of the piece, with one key number following promptly on another, makes a strong impact in a production with traditional costumes and atmospheric sets. Samuel Ramey in the title role and Giorgio Zancanaro as the Roman general Ezio, both at their peak, are ideally cast and Cheryl Studer is equally outstanding as Odabella.” [Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music]

Admission: $3.00 [free to Red Carpet members]

Supper available during the interval : Chicken with honey and soy sauce served with rice and mixed vegetables; Milk Tart

————————————————————————————————————————–

Thursdays 14 March Get Carter
Robert Sibson Hall at 7.00 p.m

In this acclaimed 1970s British thriller, shown on his 80th birthday, Michael Caine is a hardened gangster returning to his hometown in search of the truth behind his brother’s death. Though originally from Newcastle, Jack Carter (Caine) has made his name as a tough enforcer for a London crime boss. On hearing of his brother’s death, he returns to Newcastle for the funeral and to investigate his suspicion that his sibling may have been murdered. After visiting a local gangster (played by John Osborne!), Carter is threatened and advised to head back to London. He refuses and descends further and further into the city’s underworld as his investigations begin to pay off. His search is merciless, unrelenting and fraught with danger and it becomes clear that he will stop at nothing to exact his own brand of justice…

Admission: $3.00 [free to film members]

————————————————————————————————————————–

Friday 15 March Two Ballets by August Bournonville: Napoli & La Sylphide
Robert Sibson Hall at 6.30 p.m. Carriages: 10.15 p.m.

August Bournonville was a remarkable dancer and choreographer who created many ballets for the Royal Danish Ballet which regards its interpretations of these classics as being in the most faithful and pure tradition. La Sylphide and Napoli are the best-known of his works and the former, created for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1836, is the oldest ballet to survive in the regular repertoire, a tale of love, rejection and dreadful revenge.

Napoli, by contrast, is the result of a trip to Italy made at the instigation of Bournonville’s friend Hans Christian Andersen. He was inspired by his stay in Naples to create his happiest masterpiece which, against a colourful Italian background, tells the story of the young fisherman Gennaro and his beloved Teresina who is lost in a storm and falls prey to the sea-demon Golfo. “The ballet has everything – plot, humour, stage tricks, fairies and realism, enjoyable sets and costumes, and a final divertissement which demonstrates superb technique in solos, pas de deux and varied groups alike.”

Admission: $3.00 [free to Red Carpet members]
Supper available during the interval : Rump steak with a red wine and mushroom sauce served with sautéed potatoes and peas; Apple crumble and custard

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Thursday 21 March Student Concert
Robert Sibson Hall at 5.15 p.m.

With the end of term approaching, the Academy’s usual Student Concert will present a wide range of performers and music including the debut of the Saturday School.

Free Admission
———————————————————————————————————————————

Thursday 21 March Eroica

Robert Sibson Hall at 7.00 p.m.

On 9 June, 1804 Beethoven and his pupil Ferdinand Ries assembled a small group of musicians to give the first performance of his Eroica Symphony for his patron Prince Lobkowitz and his guests, including the hypercritical Count Dietrichstein. This 2003 film with Ian Hart as Beethoven is based in part on Ries’ recollections of the event and ends with a performance of the symphony in its entirety by the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Admission: $3.00 [free to Red Carpet members]
N. B. Supper available during the interval : Sausage casserole served with rice, broccoli and gem squash; Granadilla tart
————————————————————————————————————————————

Friday 22 March Skyfall

Robert Sibson Hall at 6.30 p.m.

The new James Bond! When Bond’s latest assignment goes gravely wrong and agents around the world are exposed, MI6 is attacked, forcing M to relocate the agency. These events cause her authority and position to be challenged by Gareth Mallory, the new Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee. With MI6 now compromised from both inside and out, M is left with one ally she can trust: Bond. 007 takes to the shadows aided only by a field agent, Eve, to follow a trail to the mysterious Silva whose lethal and hidden motives have yet to reveal themselves.

“A full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon. 4 out of 4 stars.” [Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times]

“Everyone connected with this brave, wholly successful enterprise deserves congratulation. Whether or not it triumphs at the Oscars – and I hope it will – I don’t see how anyone can deny that this is a cracking story, very well told. There hasn’t been a more entertaining picture this year.” [Chris Tookey, Daily Mail]

Admission: $3.00 [free to film members]

——————————————————————————————————————————–

Saturday 23 March Academy Busking!
Zonkizizwe from 10.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon

Academy students, the ZAM Band and Girls’ College will provide music and entertainment throughout the morning. There will also be a cake sale so come prepared!
———————————————————————————————————————————

Thursday 28 March Beethoven: Missa Solemnis
Robert Sibson Hall at 7.00 p.m. Carriages: 10.00 p.m.

“In a sense, this DVD is as much about the gala reopening of the Dresden Frauenkirche that had been totally destroyed in the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden on the night of 13 February, 1945 as it is about Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. After the bombing, the Frauenkirche stood for a day, then collapsed spontaneously and the building’s ruins lay largely untouched until 1974 when the reconstruction was begun. That effort took thirty years and the new church, built as closely as possible to architect George Bähr’s original 1743 plans, was consecrated in late October 2005, sixty years after its predecessor’s destruction. This concert took place the following week, and what could be more apt that to present Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis?- especially as Dresden gave the first performances of the work in Germany, partially in 1829, and completely in 1839.”

The programme will also include a suite from Beethoven’s ballet music, The Creatures of Prometheus and the Choral Fantasy, both conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Admission: $3.00 [free to Red Carpet members]
————————————————————————————————————————————–

April – provisional as always

Best wishes as always,

Michael Bullivant

2013 Diaries and Newsletters

March at the Academy

Leave a Reply Cancel reply