BF10 Day 9: Shutter Speed, Jazz On Sunday, Symphony At Sunset and Old Man River

I knew that the Festival Conversations series with Douglas Kirkland, Shutter Speed, was going to be really fascinating knowing his celebrity subjects.  To read my thoughts on this talk, please check out the entry on Brisbane Creative Industries.

I dropped into The Edge to attend a zine meeting before making my way to The Spiegeltent for another dose of Jazz on Sunday.  Last weekend, it was raining quiet a bit so this was the first time where I have experienced The Spiegeltent in good weather.  The sun shone through the glass and it was fairly interesting to take that in while watching the fantastic jazz singers (male and female) for today’s Brisbane Jazz Voices programme.  I have to say that this was the first time that I have been exposed to so many different wonderful jazz voices and I have a few favourites.

We left a bit early to go to Eagle Farm Racecourse for Symphony at Sunset with the Brisbane Symphony Orchestra.  I ended up not attending Opera Under The Stars (and looking at some of the photos that I have seen online, I regret it as it looked amazing!) and was just wowed at the setting that was on The Racecourse for that afternoon’s event.  612 ABC Brisbane’s port-a-cosy (part of A Close Knit) was near the entrance (attracting surprised glances), we walked underneath the grandstand and into the grounds where a stage is set up and a large crowd either relaxing on the grass with picnic blankets or fold-up chairs or set up on the grandstand.  The event started earlier than Opera Under The Stars as well – after an introduction by the conductor, Brisbane Symphony Orchestra started with Symphonic poeme #3, a short break, and then finally Wagner’s Der Ring ohne Worte (the Ring without Words).  It was a great idea to have an introduction about the story of this work…actually, just realised that I should have Wikipedia’d it so that I can read more about the work.  After the performance, my friend commented that there should be more open-air performances for opera and symphony and I definitely agree with him – in fact when I saw Baroque Tarantella (a special performance by Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and L’Arpeggiata at QPAC) I was thinking that they would also be really suited for an open air performance, preferably by the river or near a lake and during Spring…!

After Symphony At Sunset, we made our way back to The Spiegeltent for me to catch Old Man River which is part of the 7.00 Show.  I haven’t spent long listening to his music but soon had my foot tapping and smiling at their fantastic show!

Make sure to catch Brisbane Festival which runs until September 25 2010.