Adelaide Festival 2022 is back to being an international festival with an impressive 10 shows with French and francophone links in the program. You’ll find opera, theatre, dance as well as classical, dance and hip-hop music. To find out more, read on.
FRENCH LINK: The opera is part of Adelaide Festival’s partnership with Festival d’Aix en Provence together with Opéra National de Lyon and Komische Oper Berlin in association with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
This is a work by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov which has never before been seen in Australia.
Adelaide Festival 2022’s opera is again directed by Barrie Kosky, who also directed other Adelaide Festival operatic centrepieces: Saul in 2017 and The Magic Flute in 2019.
Of The Golden Cockerel, Adelaide Festival says:
Half surreal fairy-tale, half political satire, it fell foul of Tsarist censors and poor Nikolai died with the voluptuous score of his imagination unheard. Premiering in 1909, it has become a key work of European operatic repertoire.
If you’re transported by Scheherazade, or Flight of the Bumble Bee, you’ll fall in love with this richly melodic, kaleidoscopic work, seemingly tailor-made for Kosky’s inimitable aesthetic.
4 performances: 4 March, 6 March, 8 March and 9 March
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees):
- Adults: $149 (C Reserve) to $319 (Premium)
- Festival Friends: $127 (C Reserve) to $271 (Premium)
- Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card holder, MEAA member): $120 (C Reserve) to $199 (A Reserve)
- Under 30 years old: $75 (C Reserve) to $100 (B Reserve)
- Full time Student): $65 (C Reserve) to $90 (B Reserve)
- For all: $69 (D Reserve)
FRENCH LINK: Solène Weinachter, the actress playing the role of Juliet, and who co-conceived the production, is French.
A production from Lost Dog theatre company in Scotland, Juliet and Romeo tells the tale of the still-living couple as they find themselves in their 40s and the pressures of being the famous couple representative of romantic love. How do they decide to confront their troubles? By putting on a performance about themselves of course- despite the advice of their therapist.
The realities of marriage and mid-life anxieties are examined with tenderness and humour in Juliet & Romeo.
10 performances: 5-7 & 9- 12 March with matinees options on 6 and 12 March
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees)
- Adults: $59 (B Reserve) to $69 (A Reserve)
- Festival Friends: $50 (B Reserve) to $59 (A Reserve)
- Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card holder, MEAA member): $47 (B Reserve) to $55 (A Reserve),
- Under 30 years old: $30 (B Reserve) to $35 (A Reserve)
- Full time students: $25 (B Reserve) to $30 (A Reserve)
The Rite of Spring/common ground[s]
FRENCH LINK: Some of the producers and co-producers are French/from Francophone countries: École des Sables; Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. It was also co-produced by Adelaide Festival 2022 among others.
In addition, the dancers come from 12 nations including francophone African countries such as Senegal where the show was rehearsed.
Two dancers, who met but never worked together, are linked through the score of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Pina Bausch’s 1975 version is well-known. That of Germaine Acogny, dubbed ‘the mother of contemporary African dance’ is not, at least not to Australian audiences. Acogny perceived African foundations in the ancient Slavic rhythms of the score.
Salomon Bausch, son of the famous dancer has initiated a posthumous collaboration with a staging of Pina’s Rite of Spring performed by 38 dancers from 14 nations who rehearsed at Acogny’s École des Sables in Senegal. Its companion piece, common ground[s], is an antidote to violence of The Rite of Spring and is danced by Acogny herself along with Malou Airaudo, a founding member of Bausch’s company.
3 performances only: 4-6 March
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees):
- Adults: $59 (C Reserve) to $149 (Premium)
- Festival Friends: $50 (C Reserve) to $127 (Premium)
- Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card holder, MEAA member): $47 (C Reserve) to $103 (A Reserve)
- Under 30 years old: $30 (C Reserve) to $65 (A Reserve)
- Full time students: $25 (C Reserve) to $60 (A Reserve)
FRENCH LINK: Genesis Owusu is Ghanian-Australian. Ghana is a francophone country
This 23 year-old Ghanian-Australian recently won 4 ARIA awards: album of the year, best hip hop release, best independent release and best cover art (with co-designer Bailey Howard) for Smiling With No Teeth at the 2021 ARIA Awards.
His music fuses jazz, hip hop, no wave and post-gospel soul.
One show only: 4 March 2022
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees):
- Reserved seating: $49
- Under 30s: $34
Alternative Symphony: Daft Punk
FRENCH LINK: An orchestral show in tribute to French electronica duo Daft Punk
“Lose yourself to dance” with a night of Daft Punk hits performed by eclectic modern orchestral group Alternative Symphony. Expect to hear all of Daft Punk’s numerous hits as you’ve never heard them before with trumpets, horns strings, DJs, drums, live vocalists, MCs, and everything that opens and shuts. Plus it wouldn’t be a Daft Punk tribute without an elaborate light show as well, with wild graphics and perhaps an ornate robot helmet or two.
One show only: 19 March 2022
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees):
- Reserved seating $59
- Under 30 years old $41
FRENCH LINK: Features works by French prodigy Lili Boulanger, the first woman composer to win the Prix de Rome for composition when she was aged just 19, in 1913. It also highlights Poulenc’s Gloria.
The ASO, conducted by Benjamin Northey and 100 professional and amateur voices from across Adelaide, will perform some of the most inspiring – and rarely heard – choral music of the past century.
Lili Boulanger wrote her works during World War I a few years before dying aged 24. Her 4 masterworks are rarely performed due to the vast orchestral and choral requirements. 3 are Psalms about exile and oppression whereas Old Buddhist Prayer “extends its gently radiant heart to all living things.”
Juxtaposed against Boulanger’s masterworks is Poulenc’s uplifting Gloria of 1960, which is devoid of posturing religiosity. Adelaide Festival describe Gloria as “[f]eaturing some of the most sublime writing for soprano ever, it’s a refreshingly human take on the Latin mass, mixing blazing optimism with playfulness and heartfelt supplication.”
One show only: 20 March
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees):
- Adults: $79 (B Reserve) to $99 (Premium)
- Festival Friends: $67 (B Reserve) to $84 (Premium)
- Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card holder, MEAA member): $64 (B Reserve) to $72 (A Reserve)
- Under 30 years old: $40 (B Reserve) to $45 (A Reserve)
- Full time students: $35 (B Reserve) to $40 (A Reserve)
French link: Armand Djikoloum, oboist in the ensemble is French and has studied at Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon and with Philippe Tondre at the Hochschule für Musik Saar where he is completing his Masters. He has also taken masterclasses with Maurice Bourgue.
Mariam Adam, clarinettist in Chineke! was born in Monterey, California to an Egyptian father and a Mexican mother. She lives between New York and Paris.
Chineke! is a platform for black and ethnically diverse musicians. It is the brainchild of Chi-Chi Nwanoku OBE, double bassist who has played in the top chamber and period instrument orchestras of London. The idea came to her upon watching a performance of the Kinshasha orchestra from the Congo playing classical music.
Across two different Adelaide Festival concerts, Chineke! ensemble’s wind, horn and string players will perform Schubert, Rheinberger, Martinu, Prokofiev and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor among others. Two new Australian commissions by Deborah Cheetham and William Barton will also be unveiled in world premieres
Chineke! Chamber ensemble has received overwhelming positive responses from their four visits to the BBC proms over recent years.
Two performances only: 16 and 17 March 2022
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees):
- Adults: $69 (B Reserve) to $109 (Premium)
- Festival Friends: $59 (B Reserve) to $93 (Premium)
- Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card holder, MEAA member): $55 (B Reserve) to $72 (A Reserve)
- Under 30 years old: $35 (B Reserve) to $40 (A Reserve)
- Full time students: $30 (B Reserve) to $40 (A Reserve)
FRENCH LINK: Works by French composers: Charles-Valentin Alkan and Gabriel Urbain Fauré
Stephanie McCallum and Erin Helyard take you on a journey tracing the piano’s metamorphosis from a straight-strung instrument of great clarity and transparency to a cross-strung marvel of unified power and tone. An illustrated lecture contrasting short works on the twentieth-century Bösendorfer and the nineteenth-century Érard. Read our interview with Erin Helyard about his Adelaide Festival performances here
PROGRAM
Alkan
Trois grandes études, Op. 76
No.1 Etude pour la main gauche seule
Fantaisie in A-flat major
Etudes dans les tons majeurs, Op. 35
No.5 Allegro barbaro
Esquisses, Op. 63
No.1 La vision
Preludes, Op. 31
La chanson de la folle au bord de la mer
Liszt
Consolations (S 172)
No. 3 Lento placido
Fauré
Excerpts from Dolly Suite
Lambert
Excerpts from Trois pièces nègres
One show only: 14 March
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees): $29 for all
Debussy and Ravel (SOLD OUT BUT WAITLIST AVAILABLE)
FRENCH LINK: Debussy and Ravel are two French composers
Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel’s string quartets have long been compared to each other and for many decades were found on either side of a long-play record. This sold-out concert by the Australian String Quartet allows you to evaluate the similarities between the two works yourself.
PROGRAM
Debussy (1862-1918)
String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
Animé et très décidé
Assez vif et bien rythmé
Andantino, doucement expressif
Très modéré—En animant peu à peu—Très mouvementé et avec passion
Ravel (1875-1937)
String Quartet in F major
Allegro moderato
Assez vif, très rythmé
Très lent
Vif et agité
One show only: 12 March 2022
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees):
- Adults: $69
- Festival Friends: $59
- Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card holder, MEAA member): $55
Four Hands at the Érard (SOLD OUT – JOIN THE WAITLIST)
FRENCH LINK: The works of French composers played on a restored French piano
French rarities and masterworks come together in this concert by Stephanie McCallum and Erin Helyard where they are played on an exceptional French piano. Lovingly restored by Dutch master Frits Janmaat: an original straight-strung 1853 Érard piano, loaned exclusively for performance at the Adelaide Festival by kind courtesy of Judith Neilson and Phoenix Central Park.
PROGRAM
Debussy
Petite Suite [16’]
En bateau: Andantino
Cortège: Moderato
Menuet: Moderato
Ballet: Allegro giusto
Ropartz
“Sons de cloches” from 10 Petites pieces [11′]
L’angelus
Le glas
Cloches du soir
Faure
Masques et Bergamasques [13’]
Overture: Allegro molto vivo
Menuet: Tempo di minuetto: allegretto moderato
Gavotte: Allegro vivo
Pastorale: Andantino tranquillo
Chaminade
Excerpts from 6 Pièces romantiques Op. 55 [8’]
Primavera
Idyll arabe
Sérénade d’automne
Alkan
Sonate de concert Op. 47 (arr. for four hands) [7’]
Saltarella
One show only: 13 March 2022
Ticket prices (exclusive of transaction fees):
- Adults: $69
- Festival Friends: $59
- Concession (Pensioner, Health Care Card holder, MEAA member): $55
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As you can see there are plenty of French and francophone links in the Adelaide Festival 2022 program. Which shows are you going to attend?
KEY INFORMATION FOR ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2022
WHAT: Adelaide Festival 2022
WHEN: 4 to 20 March 2022
WHERE: Various venues across Adelaide including at Mount Barker
HOW: Purchase tickets via the links provided or view the entire Adelaide Festival program at https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/
HOW MUCH: Ticket prices vary depending on the show and the seating chosen
For other events with French and francophone links, take a look at our what’s on in December article.
