Sydney Opera House

Vivid Sydney 2024 Program Unveiled

Retrieved on: 
Monday, March 11, 2024

SYDNEY, AU, Mar 11, 2024 - (ACN Newswire) - Vivid Sydney, the Southern Hemisphere's largest multi-artform festival, today unveiled its captivating program for 2024.

Key Points: 
  • SYDNEY, AU, Mar 11, 2024 - (ACN Newswire) - Vivid Sydney, the Southern Hemisphere's largest multi-artform festival, today unveiled its captivating program for 2024.
  • Australia's largest event will transform Sydney with mesmerising light installations and 3D projections from Circular Quay to The Goods Line; genre-spanning music performances and creative showcases; a formidable Vivid Ideas program featuring experiences that will open minds; and a mouth-watering Vivid Food program.
  • Staged across Sydney, Vivid Sydney festival locations and venues include Circular Quay, the Sydney Opera House, The Rocks, State Library of New South Wales, Walsh Bay, Walsh Bay Arts Precinct, Barangaroo, Darling Harbour, University of Technology Sydney, The Goods Line, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Carriageworks, and more.
  • Vivid Sydney 2024 will engage audiences across four pillars: Vivid Light, Vivid Music, Vivid Ideas and Vivid Food.

Big Ben Is the 7ᵗʰ Most Visited World Wonder according to the Travel App, Visited

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, March 3, 2024

TORONTO, March 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The travel app Visited , which was developed by Arriving In High Heels Corporation, has published a list of the top 25 most visited World Wonders.

Key Points: 
  • TORONTO, March 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The travel app Visited , which was developed by Arriving In High Heels Corporation, has published a list of the top 25 most visited World Wonders.
  • World Wonders can be found around the world, and include natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon ranked 12th or man-made such as the Eiffel Tower which is the most visited wonder in the world.
  • The top 5 most visited World Wonders include: the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, Venice, La Sagrada Familia, and the Empire State Building.
  • The list is based on over 2,000,000 users who are avid travelers, that use the travel app, Visited.

Climate change will strike Australia’s precious World Heritage sites – and Indigenous knowledge is a key defence

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 6, 2024

We developed a climate change “toolkit” for World Heritage properties with site managers and Traditional Owners.

Key Points: 
  • We developed a climate change “toolkit” for World Heritage properties with site managers and Traditional Owners.
  • To our knowledge, it is the first time such guidance has been co-developed and tested with World Heritage property managers and Indigenous experts in this country.
  • Bringing climate science and Indigenous knowledge systems together promises to produce better results for heritage protection as the climate changes.

Mounting climate threats to heritage


Our new research explored climate impacts at three very different sites:

  • Tidal flats, floodplains, lowlands and plateaus provide habitat for many rare or endemic plants and animals.
  • The region is also experiencing more extreme temperatures and heatwaves, changing fire regimes, more intense cyclones, and increasingly intense extreme rainfall events.
  • Hot and dry conditions are causing erosion of topsoil, increasingly exposing Aboriginal cultural heritage.


Read more:
Climate change must be a catalyst for reform of the World Heritage system

Tapping into deep knowledge

  • An Indigenous Reference Group of Traditional Owners from a number of World Heritage sites in Australia contributed their expert knowledge.
  • Effectively addressing climate impacts on World Heritage values requires the deep knowledge, values and worldviews of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
  • Tapping into this deep understanding of connections between nature and culture can help support the management of spiritual, living landscapes.

Adapting to climate change

  • World Heritage site managers can take a broad range of practical actions to adapt to climate change.
  • In cases where climate change is likely to lead to changes in the values of a site, there may be a need to reevaluate management objectives and strategies (such as accommodating new groups of organisms or “ecological communities”, letting some populations decline, and managed retreat of shorelines).
  • In some cases, managers may aim to retain certain values across a wider landscape while accepting local change.


Read more:
Climate adaptation projects sometimes exacerbate the problems they try to solve – a new tool hopes to correct that

Looking ahead

  • They can focus on the parts most useful to them, depending on their capacity and needs.
  • Ultimately, this resource will help protect Australia’s cultural and natural heritage.
  • Jess Melbourne-Thomas received funding for this work from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
  • Brenda Lin received funding for this work from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
  • Mandy Hopkins received funding for this work from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Campy, playful and funny: Opera Australia finds the joy in The Magic Flute, Mozart’s most-performed opera

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 5, 2024

The sheer familiarity of The Magic Flute, Mozart’s most-performed opera, can blind one to its inherent oddness.

Key Points: 
  • The sheer familiarity of The Magic Flute, Mozart’s most-performed opera, can blind one to its inherent oddness.
  • Librettist Emanuel Schikaneder has created something that is part allegory, part dream and part fairy tale.

Embracing silliness

  • In the recording I first got to know, Klemperer’s legendary version from 1964, only the sung portions were included.
  • A new production by Kate Gaul for Opera Australia does not shy away from pantomime silliness from the start.
  • The translation by Gaul and Michael Gow has some chortle-worthy lines.
  • “Am I hard of hearing, or is no one volunteering?” sings Papageno as he vainly seeks a woman – any woman – to satisfy his romantic urges.


Read more:
Barrie Kosky's The Magic Flute is a contemporary spectacle, despite the opera's outdated attitudes

Campy costumes and an ornamental set

  • It is a relief to hear it in full in this production, directed with sureness of touch by Teresa Riveiro Böhm.
  • The orchestra provides a fulsome sound and crisp articulation over the evening, with just a handful of uncoordinated moments between the pit and stage.
  • Weirdly, Tamino held his on-stage flute up in the air instead of miming, creating an odd disconnect between sight and sound.
  • Outdoing even this for connoisseurs of camp is the late appearance of Papagena (Jennifer Black) in a Brazilian-carnival-style bird costume.
  • Michael Yeargan’s set has a three-sided exterior surrounding grass, with ornamental entrances on each side.

Spell-casting performances

  • But for me, the standout voice belongs to Alleaume, who brings a burnished legato to Pamina’s arias, but also playfulness in the ensembles.
  • Smallwood has a pleasing light lyrical tenor as Tamino – less forceful than some exponents of the role, but tuneful and exemplary in his diction.
  • Breen brings his trademark comic gifts to Monostatos who, like the other villains, is welcomed into the fold at the end.
  • It may not have solved all the conundrums of the work, but at least one gets to appreciate Mozart’s genius uncut.


David Larkin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Acquia Unveils 2023 Engage Award Winners

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Acquia , the digital experience leader, today announced the winners of the 2023 Engage Awards, honoring organizations that bring together marketers and technologists to imagine, build, and deliver the most productive digital experiences.

Key Points: 
  • Acquia , the digital experience leader, today announced the winners of the 2023 Engage Awards, honoring organizations that bring together marketers and technologists to imagine, build, and deliver the most productive digital experiences.
  • “The Engage Awards showcase outstanding marketing vision and technical execution that come together to power world-class digital customer experiences,” said Jennifer Griffin Smith, Chief Market Officer at Acquia.
  • “We’re inspired by each one of the stories shared and congratulate all of the winners for creating innovative digital experiences that deliver results for their customers, employees, and communities.”
    The winning stories are featured at Acquia Engage , currently taking place in Boston.
  • Congratulations to all of this year’s Acquia Engage Award winners and partners.

Correction: Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Names Quay Quarter Tower 2023's Best Tall Building Worldwide

Retrieved on: 
Saturday, October 28, 2023

Chicago, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced the winner of its annual award for best tall building worldwide: Quay Quarter Tower , in Sydney.

Key Points: 
  • Chicago, Oct. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced the winner of its annual award for best tall building worldwide: Quay Quarter Tower , in Sydney.
  • “But carbon is only part of the equation here; we also focused on connectivity and the community,” explained Liann Lim , Senior Development Manager of Quay Quarter Tower.
  • The project's heritage laneway development, Quay Quarter Lanes , was recognized with CTBUH's Urban Habitat Award for its imaginative urban design, which enhances social sustainability and city life.
  • CTBUH is best known to the public for developing the international standards for measuring tall building height and is recognized as the arbiter of the “World’s Tallest Building” designation.

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Names Quay Quarter Tower 2023's Best Tall Building Worldwide

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, October 26, 2023

Chicago, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced the winner of its annual award for best tall building worldwide: Quay Quarter Tower , in Sydney.

Key Points: 
  • Chicago, Oct. 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced the winner of its annual award for best tall building worldwide: Quay Quarter Tower , in Sydney.
  • “But carbon is only part of the equation here; we also focused on connectivity and the community,” explained Liann Lim , Senior Development Manager of Quay Quarter Tower.
  • The project's heritage laneway development, Quay Quarter Lanes , was recognized with CTBUH's Urban Habitat Award for its imaginative urban design, which enhances social sustainability and city life.
  • CTBUH is best known to the public for developing the international standards for measuring tall building height and is recognized as the arbiter of the “World’s Tallest Building” designation.

Patrick White was the first Australian writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature – 50 years later, is he still being read?

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Did you know that 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Patrick White winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Australian writer to be so honoured?

Key Points: 
  • Did you know that 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Patrick White winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Australian writer to be so honoured?
  • Until last week, neither did I.
  • As a lover of White’s writing, I was shocked by my own lack of awareness, which was quickly overshadowed by the realisation that seemingly everyone had overlooked it.

Cultural cringe

    • There should have been conferences and celebrations – a festival that would leave the Opera House in the dust!
    • The 50th anniversary of White’s best-known novel Voss in 2007 was marked with a two-day symposium.
    • The cringe, Phillips wrote,
      mainly appears in an inability to escape needless comparisons.
    • The Australian reader, more or less consciously, hedges and hesitates, asking himself ‘Yes, but what would a cultivated Englishman think of this?’ When it comes to White’s reception, especially post-Nobel, the cringe is everywhere apparent.
    • Here were signs, at last, that Australians could produce real literature – at least, according to Europe and Britain.

A writer unread?

    • He infamously chastised mainstream Australian writing as little more than the “dreary dun-coloured offspring of journalistic realism”.
    • A.D. Hope’s similarly infamous review of The Tree of Man judged the novel to be “pretentious and illiterate verbal sludge”.
    • White’s uneven reception reflected an anxiety about what Australian literature actually was.
    • The preeminent questions asked in undergraduate Australian literature units are still: What is Australian literature?
    • That Watts and Tsiolkas are both novelists themselves might explain their fervour for White, a writer who fits well under the moniker a “writer’s writer”.

Reputation

    • The question that is asked of White is not just “should we read him”, but should we study him.
    • White’s reputation as a canonical writer, and more specifically as a “difficult” modernist author and a “writer’s writer”, is a disaster when it comes to getting people, including students, to actually read him.
    • He is not only the kind of writer one would expect to study at school and university; many people assume he can only be read in those contexts.
    • Of course, White is a difficult writer, though it is often overlooked that he can also be funny, especially in his depictions of suburbia.
    • She had noticed seed at Woolworths and Coles; it was only a matter of choosing.
    • So far departed from the rational level to which she had determined to adhere, her own thoughts were grown obscure, even natural.
    • Vain or not, it would seem, maybe until now, that the award has been the crowning achievement.

Wartime hijinks, wilderness survivors and contemporary dance: what we're streaming this October

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, October 1, 2023

If you’ve made your way through our September picks and are looking for something new, this month’s streaming picks have something for everyone. There is a classic romantic comedy, some British crime drama and even some contemporary dance. The weather might be turning, and the sun might be shining – but these picks will have you wanting to spend some more time on the couch. Yellowjackets season twoIn season one, a high-school girls’ soccer team survive a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness.

Key Points: 


If you’ve made your way through our September picks and are looking for something new, this month’s streaming picks have something for everyone. There is a classic romantic comedy, some British crime drama and even some contemporary dance. The weather might be turning, and the sun might be shining – but these picks will have you wanting to spend some more time on the couch.

Yellowjackets season two

    • In season one, a high-school girls’ soccer team survive a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness.
    • Season two introduces Lauren Ambrose and Elijah Wood to the cast.
    • Central to this season is the power Lottie (Courtney Eaton/Simone Kessell) has over the group.
    • – Stuart Richards

      Read more:
      Cannibalism, mutilation and murder: the Australian calamities that rival Yellowjackets for survival horror

The Way Home

    • The Way Home tells the story of three generations of women coming to terms with their trauma and how it has shaped their past and present.
    • If you enjoy Christmas movies where a pretty, white heterosexual woman returns home to be conveniently reunited with a lost love, then The Way Home is for you.
    • Ultimately, The Way Home is more enjoyable than the sum of its parts.

Am I

    • The dancers are all in black with only their feet, arms and faces visible, accentuating the shapes made by their upper bodies.
    • The backdrop is a wall of golden white light bulbs, which light in different patterns: at times a pixelated digital screen, other times an exploding sun.
    • They move through sequences using silver rods to produce line drawings in two dimensions, then three-dimensional clusters and networks.

While the Men Are Away

    • Well-meaning Gwen falls instantly for Frankie; the intense Esther is soon exchanging meaningful looks with Robert.
    • The costumes and production design have a soft-focus, Women’s Weekly glamour – a far cry from rationing and making do.
    • While the Men Are Away is a fantasy of queer visibility and acceptance, but the uneven script, churning plot and the often-didactic tone undermine its ambitions.

Annika season two

    • Neon (New Zealand); season one is available in Australia on iView and BritBox The second season of offbeat BBC police procedural Annika stands apart in a genre that usually veers towards silliness or misanthropy.
    • Season one followed the establishment of Glasgow’s specialist Maritime Homicide Unit, a small and unflappable team, which spends its time fishing bodies out of Scottish waterways and solving odd coastal crimes.
    • This is all while Annika navigated the prickly relationship with her teen daughter Morgan.

INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED TENOR ANTHONY KEARNS TO MESMERIZE AUDIENCES IN CENTRAL FLORIDA

Retrieved on: 
Monday, September 25, 2023

Anthony Kearns, who embarked on his professional journey with The Dublin Grand Opera Society, has risen to international acclaim as both a tenor and record producer.

Key Points: 
  • Anthony Kearns, who embarked on his professional journey with The Dublin Grand Opera Society, has risen to international acclaim as both a tenor and record producer.
  • Anthony Kearns has graced some of the world's most prestigious stages, from the iconic Carnegie Hall to the majestic Sydney Opera House.
  • Now, music enthusiasts in Central Florida have the extraordinary opportunity to witness Anthony Kearns' artistry in person.
  • Don't miss the chance to experience the magic of Anthony Kearns, the Irish tenor whose voice has touched the world.