“The openhearted spirit of this music transports the listener and if you shut your eyes you can almost hear waves crashing in the distance and taste the sea air, fragrant with eucalyptus.” The Saturday Paper

These will be fans first chance to catch tunes from Dope Lemon’s second studio LP, Smooth Big Cat, written and recorded over just three months at Belafonte, Angus’ ranch studio hidden in the wilderness of northern New South Wales and is out Friday 12 July via BMG Australia.

The follow up to their classic debut, Honey Bones, which has pooled over 100 million streams since it’s 2016 release.

Dope Lemon 2019 Australian Tour
2 August – ENMORE THEATRE, SYDNEY
8 August – TIVOLI, BRISBANE
9 August – PALAIS THEATRE, MELBOURNE
15 August – HQ COMPLEX, ADELAIDE
17 August – METROPOLIS, FREMANTLE
www.facebook.com/dopelemon

Exploring freedom, identity and gender with an approach that has become uniquely her own, Hunter arrived in mid-2018 to rapturous critical acclaim.

Pitchfork fawned over it’s “remarkable evolution” which “pushes her artistry to another level” while the Guardian could only sit back and pronounce it as “glorious and triumphant”.

Calvi’s signature vocals, so bold and striking, permeate the record as they dart and weave around her dazzling guitar playing and synchronize perfectly with world class accompaniment supplied by Portishead’s Adrian Utley (keys) and The Bad Seeds’ Martyn Casey (bass).

The third chapter of Calvi’s sparkling career to date, Hunter, joins 2011’s Anna Calvi and 2013’s One Breath as evidence of a generational talent.

A student of the guitar and violin, Calvi first came to prominence after catching the attention of legendary UK label Domino Records at an early gig. Her debut album followed, with the arresting first single Desire providing the perfect bedrock for an ascending career.

Legends like Brian Eno and David Byrne started taking note and it wasn’t long before she could start calling herself a multiple Mercury Prize nominated artist.

Hunter, with it’s singles ‘Don’t Beat the Girl Out of My Boy’, ‘Hunter’ and’ ‘As A Man’ truly allows Calvi the opportunity to explore her myriad gifts. Working with famed producer Nick Launay (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Midnight Oil), Calvi lets loose something wild and passionate that brings the listener closer to her renowned on-stage energy than ever before.

“Being on stage is the one time I feel permitted to be the person I can’t be in my everyday life”, she says. “Onstage I want to test how far I can take the extremes of strength and vulnerability.”

Anna Calvi Australian Tour 2019
15 JUNE, DARK MOFO – HOBART
16 JUNE, FACTORY THEATRE – SYDNEY
18 JUNE, CORNER HOTEL – MELBOURNE
19 JUNE, THE TRIFFID – BRISBANE
www.facebook.com/annacalvi

These highly anticipated performances will give YUNGBLUD a chance to show off hits from his debut album 21st Century Liability like ‘I Love You, Will You Marry Me?’ and ‘Polygraph Eyes’.

He’ll also get the chance to say G’day to a growing fanbase that are falling fast for his fearless social commentary and electric personality. In fact, Australian fans are still reeling from YUNGBLUD’s now infamous Splendour in the Grass set in July.

Appearing at 1pm on a sun drenched Byron day, the somewhat pale but by no means withdrawn Doncaster native put on a show that quickly became the talk of the festival. With limbs flying and lyrics flowing, he coaxed thousands of punters from their mid-morning malaise and produced a plethora of singalong moments.

Describing 21st Century Liability as “an accumulation of all the frustration, the oppression, the suppression, the excitement, every kind of emotion I felt all my life leading up to this moment”, the man known to his friends as Dominic Harrison made an immediate impact when he burst onto the UK music scene with debut single ‘King Charles’ in 2017.

Inspired by heroes Jamie T and Arctic Monkeys while tipping his hat to hip-hop, ska and punk rock the new Londoner locked in with fans Down Under with his second single ‘I Love You, Will You Marry Me’.

A huge triple j hit, it tells the story of a piece of proposal graffiti scrawled in a Northern England council flat that was repurposed by developers to sell gentrification. The artist wound up homeless in a devastating piece of modern irony.

It’s a heavy subject for sure, but one that Harrison wasn’t afraid to tackle as he turned the song into a jumped up mini-anthem for a new generation.

There’s plenty more to come too, as new single ‘Kill Somebody’ picks up steam and punters start getting wise to YUNGBLUD’s antics.

These very special shows will be nothing short of glorious chaos.

YungBlud 2019 Australian Tour
February 8 – CROXTON BANDROOM, MELBOURNE
February 10 – THE TRIFFID, BRISBANE
February 13 – THE GOV, ADELAIDE
February 14 – FACTORY THEATRE, SYDNEY
February 17 – AMPLIFIER, PERTH
www.yungbludofficial.com

With a vision to lead a change in opera, while continuing to enrich the lives of their diverse audience, Opera Queensland’s Season 2019 offers a fearless line up of works, including A Flowering Tree, Tosca, Orpheus and Eurydice and Verdi Requiem, a collaboration with Bleach* Festival – celebrating the classics and bringing to life new works.

In his first season as Artistic Director of Opera Queensland, Patrick Nolan presents three main stage productions, along with regional and school touring works and a collaboration with Bleach* Festival, focusing on exceptional artistry and collaborations.

“There is an intimacy to both our re-brand and Season 2019. I want to bring people closer to the work we do, to reveal the threads that connect us. Our humanity, our fragility and our extraordinary abilities. Putting the artform front and centre – celebrating the music and artists of Opera,” said Mr Nolan.

“There is a tangible thread of love, death and ritual woven through our season 2019 programming, from the beautiful story telling of A Flowering Tree, to the powerful female character that is Tosca, it is our aim that the new-look Opera Queensland and Season 2019 present this magnificent art form in a way our audiences want to connect with in today’s world.”

“Central to Opera Queensland and all that we produce is our audience; we can’t make our art or know its impact without the presence of living, breathing warm blooded people. It is my hope that audiences both new and current will join us for Season 2019 and experience all that Opera Queensland has to offer; celebrating the classics and looking to the future,” said Mr Nolan.

Minister for the Arts Leeanne Enoch said Opera Queensland’s program had state wide reach.

“In 2019 Opera Queensland will continue its strong tradition of creating new musical experiences, vibrant engagement opportunities, and memorable productions,” Minister Enoch said.

“In addition to Queensland Government’s ongoing investment in the company, an uplift this year of $2.16 million is helping Opera Queensland return to a season of three mainstage productions each year from 2019.

“Opera Queensland’s programs continue to engage the whole state, connecting with regional and remote centres through performances and workshops, and providing valuable performance opportunities for local artists,” concluded Minister Enoch.

Kicking off the 2019 season, in the Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) is the Brisbane premiere of Patrick Nolan’s Helpmann® Award winning work, A Flowering Tree from 2 – 6 April 2019.

Commissioned to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, A Flowering Tree is inspired by Mozart’s The Magic Flute and is composed by John Adams, one of the world’s leading contemporary composers.

The 10th Anniversary season will be conducted by Natalie Murray Beale, an Adams specialist and Opera Queensland artist in residence.

This enchanting work is based on folktale from the Kannada language of Southern India and is a beautiful story about magic, transformation and the dawning of moral awareness.

Along with the grand symphonic score, this work features minimal staging giving way to a 12-metre-high video screen upon which Queensland born and internationally revered video designer, Mic Gruchy mixes projections of pre-recorded imagery exploring the themes and ideas of the story with the live action of the orchestra.

Starring Brisbane’s Lyric Soprano Eva Kong, Tenor Adrian Dwyer, Baritone Craig Colclough along with a large chorus, alongside the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, this is opera for a new world.

“This is opera that takes us to a place of wonder. This is opera for those who are willing to give all to the ones they love,” said Mr Nolan.

One of the world’s best-known operas, Tosca, will transform the Lyric Theatre, QPAC from 13 – 22 June 2019, Directed by Patrick Nolan, for the first time in his career.

Conducted by Oliver von Dohnanyi, Principal Conductor of Ekaterinburg Opera and one of the world’s leading opera conductors, with design by Genevieve Blanchett and lighting by Mark Howett.

Tosca, composed by Giacomo Puccini, is one of the great female characters within opera; a strong woman in an entirely male world, refusing to submit to the patriarchal system.

Two internationally based Australian artists return home to star in Tosca; Rachelle Durkin who makes her role debut as Tosca alongside Angms Wood as Cavradossi. Also starring Jose Carbo as Scarpia the Opera Queensland Season 2019 production will shine a light on power, how it oppresses and controls but also its vulnerability.

“This is an opera for a world where women fight for their right to be equal,” said Mr Nolan said.

The third main stage work in the Opera Queensland Season 2019 cannon is the underworld story of Orpheus and Eurydice, by Christoph Willibald Gluck.

With a long history of being directed by leading choreographers due to the number of dance and movement scenes – the most famous directed by Pina Bausch – the Season 2019 work for Opera Queensland will be directed by Circa Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz.

Based on the myth of Orpheus and set to a libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing.

Starring Owen Willetts as Orpheus and Natalie Christie Peluso as Eurydice, alongside the Opera Queensland chorus and the Circa ensemble – simplicity is at the heart of this production.

With a focus on the body as the site of desire, pain and renewal, this work will see Lifschitz using his troupe of phenomenal acrobats as the creators of the physical world that Orpheus has to navigate.

Conducted by Natalie Murray Beale with costumes designed by Libby McDonnell, and video by Boris Baggatini this is opera raw, physical and sublime.

“This unique collaboration with Circa – Opera Queensland’s first ever – is opera like you have never seen before,” said Mr Nolan.

Along with the main stage program, the state’s flagship opera company will continue to deliver opera to all Queenslanders with the 2019 Season also including continued education programs throughout the state, Opera at Jimbour (27 July), Opera in the Vineyards (5 May) and regional touring work, Songs to Die For, which travels across Queensland throughout August and September 2019.

In a special event and for the company’s first co-production with Bleach* Festival, Patrick Nolan will direct Verdi Requiem, at Home Of The Arts (HOTA), Gold Coast in April 2019.

Sometimes referred to as “an opera in ecclesiastical vestments”, Verdi’s gift for dramatic writing will be on full display in this remarkable score for almost a hundred musicians and a chorus of more than 60 singers.

Set in a ceremonial space, designed by Alex Podger (Dark Mofo and Woodford Folk Festival), with video and lighting by Mark Howett and conducted by Natalie Murray-Beale, Verdi Requiem askes the grand questions of life, taking the audience on an intense musical journey from the depths of profound despair to ecstatic hope.

Starring soloists Natalie Aroyan, Milijan Nikolajic, Rosario La Spina and Andrew Collis alongside an Opera Queensland Chorus complimented with singers from Queensland Conservatorium and the
Queensland Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, Verdi Requiem is a transcendent work, once experienced never forgotten.

Opera Queensland’s Season 2019 and re-brand reveals a company that is looking to the future, fearlessly creating memorable works for audiences to engage with across Queensland. Whether an opera aficionado or new to the genre, Season 2019 will excite, enchant and inspire, declaring THIS IS OPERA!

For complete Season 2019 information including productions outside of the main stage season see the full Opera Queensland Season 2019 brochure or go to oq.com.au

The Australian Tour will support the release of Slash’s fourth solo album, Living The Dream released on Slash’s own label Snakepit Records in partnership with Sony Music Australia which debut at #4 on the ARIA Album Chart.

Slash has amassed album sales of over 100 million copies, garnered a GRAMMY Award and seven GRAMMY nominations and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators released the critically acclaimed Apocalyptic Love (2012) which stormed the Australian ARIA Chart at #2 and certified as an ARIA Accredited Gold album, Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart debuting at #4 as the top rock album.

Make sure you become part of the latest chapter in this band’s story when Slash Ft Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators grace a stage near you.

Slash with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators!
SYDNEY – Monday 28 January at Qudos Bank Arena
BRISBANE – Wednesday 30 January at Brisbane Convention Exhibition Centre
MELBOURNE – Friday 1 February at Margaret Court Arena
PERTH – Sunday 3 February at RAC Arena
www.slashonline.com