Festival progress
Planning for the annual students’ arts festival, which will be held in Christchurch next month is entering its final stage. According to the festival director (Mr John Page) public interest, particularly in the major rock and jazz concerts, the festival opera, and an all-day multi-media event entitled “Avante-garde Atrocities,” is higher than for any previous festival. The largest single event which will be open to all — whether registered at the festival or not — will be the grand opening on Sunday, May 6, family affair featuring marching bands, clowns, visiting poets, and a craft market, which will remain open for the duration of the festival. The grand opening will also feature a Wellington rock band, Rough Justice., The first performance of the “Concerto for Twenty Car Horns” with a Dusenberg SJ as guest soloist, and the spectacle of Alf’s
Imperial Army in “The Battle of Studass Pass.” The festival opera, Henry Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas,” will be presented as a fully-staged opera, using the Britten-Imogen Holst edition. Gerrit Bahlman will direct the opera, and Philip Norman will conduct. The choruses will be sung by the choirs of Burnside High School and Cashmere High School, and the soloists will be led by two local singers, Judy Bellingham and Richard Cooper. Jillian Bartram, Caroline Arapeta, and Barbara Thompson will appear in supporting roles.
The orchestra is comprised of Christchurch string players, and the Auckland University harpsichordist, Julie Coulson. Sets have been desigend by David Milhouse, and the costumes by Lynda Winstanley. During the interval a recorder consort will perform baroque music in the foyer.
“Avante-Garde Atrocities,” the multi-media production, will use a whole wing of the Students’ Association building . on Tuesday, May 8. The | site will be '‘resculptured’’ into a disorienting environment for the spectators, and a one-way route through the building will lead the participants through a series of exhibits, performances, and ex- I periences designed to explore all the senses. < The events envisaged include a 22,500 cubic foot inflatable sculpture, inside i which numerous perform- j ances and exhibits are ]' planned. The inflatable will I be made of opaque poly- I thene and lit from within l| to remove all . normal i sensory perception. A texture room, light and sound proofed, in which the spectator can experience a range of tactile responses, ; an electronic soundscape, and various semi-impro-visational dance, musica, drama and poetry happenings are also planned.
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Press, 17 April 1979, Page 8
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398Festival progress Press, 17 April 1979, Page 8
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