March 2020 - Matilda Marseillaise

Reading Time: 4 minutes

France’s Compagnie Carabosse (read our interview with them here) has provided Adelaide with a transformed Adelaide Botanic Gardens through its fire installation named Fire Gardens at Adelaide Festival, which is on until Sunday night (at time of publishing all sessions have sold out).

Fire Gardens at Adelaide Festival — Image: Matilda Marseillaise

Never have we seen the Adelaide Botanic Gardens look so spectacular and probably most of the crowd (myself included) had never been there at night. Fire showed us a side of the gardens most of us had never seen. Beautiful reflections of the fiery orb on the water, the hanging lanterns that upon closer inspection appeared to be singlets wrapped around a more solid structure that transformed the Palm House into a dim lit oasis.

Paths were lit with tiny pots of fire dotted along them. A set of fire-lit arches proved popular with people posing for photos and allowed an opportunity to get closer to and under the fire lit structures whereas the others such as the sphere on the water, were to be admired from a larger distance. Structures big and small were equally impressive. Small globes transformed into small flame holders dotted the Moreton Bay fig trees beautifully.

We also spotted two classical musicians playing hauntingly moving music from their little fire lantern lit tents which were reminiscent of another time and place. However, we were a little confused by the metal bike like structure that appeared to be operating on its own on one side of the gardens. We were not sure how it fit in with the rest of the installation.

Fire Gardens — Image: Matilda Marseillaise

While you are told that you can go in any direction once you have had your ticket scanned, it would perhaps be helpful to have a map that indicates which sites of the garden have particular things to see. We were concerned that we may have missed some of the installations.

But Compagnie Carabosse are no stranger to transforming public places having made its fire installations across the world from Stonehenge to the Kremlin. Nor are they strangers to Adelaide having transformed a section of Botanic Park at WOMADelaide a few years ago.

Despite all the odds, luckily Fire Gardens at Adelaide Festival went ahead. Firstly there was consultation about whether it was appropriate and safe to proceed after the unprecedented bushfires that destroyed many towns across Australia. Indeed management of safety concerns was evident with the presence of fire trucks around the outskirts of the Botanic Gardens. Secondly, COVID-19 had organisers on edge and had it been scheduled for one week later it may well have been cancelled (as the Australian Government announced a ban on non-essential gatherings of 500 or more people from Monday 16 March).

Unfortunately, though what could have been the opportunity for a meditative reflection and complete escape from daily life was, to an extent, dampened by the crowds. Fire Gardens at Adelaide Festival takes place over 4 nights and has 4 entry times at half hour intervals between 7:30pm and 9:30pm. We arrived shortly after our 8:30pm time-slot and it appeared that people with 9pm tickets were being permitted to enter at that earlier time, which perhaps only added to the huge crowds inside. We were torn though because it is promising to see such large crowds especially as Adelaide Festival decided to donate all proceeds of Fire Gardens to the Lobethal Bushfire Recovery Fund, the KI Mayoral Relief & Recovery Bushfire Fund and the RSPCA South Australia Bushfire Appeal.

🥐🥐🥐🥐 4 CROISSANTS

Matilda Marseillaise was a guest of Adelaide Festival

All remaining sessions for Fire Gardens at Adelaide Festival are now sold out but you may like to check the website in case further tickets or sessions are added.

https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/events/fire-gardens/

There remain just 2 days and nights of Adelaide Festival 2020. Check out the program here: https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/

Want to read reviews of other Adelaide Festival shows?

You can also read our reviews with Adelaide Festival show artists

Compagnie Carabosse – Fire Gardens

Cie Focus – Dimanche

Compagnie Chaliwaté – Dimanche

Michele Anne De Mey – Cold Blood

Nick Power – Two Crews and Between Tiny Cities

Lady Rocks – Two Crews

Siobhan Stagg – recital of French songs

Reading Time: 3 minutes

France’s Lyon Opera Ballet presented three different interpretations of Beethoven’s contemporary score, Grosse Fuge at Adelaide Festival 2020.

Composed in 1825, when Beethoven was almost completely deaf, Grosse Fuge is widely considered to be “inaccessible, eccentric, filled with paradoxes and Armageddon”. Said to be “fiendishly difficult to play” according to violinist and composer David Matthews. Grosse Fuge is the final movement of Beethoven’s Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major. As one would expect from a score which has been described as mentioned above, it is very open to different interpretations and in Lyon Opera Ballet’s performance at Adelaide Festival we saw just that.

Opening the evening was American choreographer Lucinda Childs’ more classical interpretation of the piece with dancers dressed in grey tights performing movements normally associated with classic ballet such as arabesques and déboulés. The dancers danced in pas de deux. While this was a classical interpretation the female dancers were not dressed in the typical bun and tutu.

Lyon Opera Ballet — Image: Bertrand Stofleth

After a short interval we regrouped and were greeted with men and women in suits who danced the next piece in a move to contemporary dance. Belgian Anne Teresa De Keersmaker’s choreography works in parallel with the musical composition. As the music became more frenetic, jackets were taken off, shirts loosened and sleeves rolled up. The dancers ran and rolled across the stage. Dancing in a suit must be so restrictive so an extra appreciation must be given to their talent in doing so.

Ballet de l'Opera de Lyon — Image: Bertrand Stofleth

The third and final interpretation was that of French dancer and choreographer Maguy Marin who created the dance in 2001 and which entered the repertoire at Lyon Opera Ballet in 2006. It saw 4 women dressed in red skirts and tops. This was by far a more disturbing dance. The women all seemed tormented, puppet like with jerked movements and repeated difficulty pulling themselves up from the floor.

All in all, Childs, De Keersmaker and Marin presented three distinct but each impressive interpretations of Beethoven’s difficult score. Lyon Opera Ballet’s Trois Grosse Fugues was a wonderful evening and we hope that the company returns to our shores again soon.

🥐🥐🥐🥐 4 CROISSANTS

Matilda Marseillaise was a guest of Adelaide Festival

The season of Trois Grandes Fugues from Lyon Opera Ballet at Adelaide Festival 2020 has now finished.

Adelaide Festival has just 3 nights (and two days) left! Check out what’s left to see here.

You can also read our other reviews:

Requiem

Dimanche

Cold Blood

If you’re interested in other Adelaide Festival shows, read our other interviews with the artists:

Christophe Bricheteau from Compagnie Carabosse re Fire Gardens (which starts tonight)

Nick Power re Between Tiny Cities (season ended) and Two Crews (currently on and running ‘til Saturday)

Lady Rocks re Two Crews