Music and mayhem…while Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts, actors will liven up the atmosphere.Photo: Steve Christo VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY’S first gig as the principal conductor and artistic
adviser of the Sydney Symphony will be anything but a staid and dignified affair. Titania, the queen of the fairies, sleeps in a double bass case and the young guns Lysander and Demetrius fight with a trombone and a bassoon. The Concert Hall may never be the same. Stephan Elliott admits the international premiere of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert: The Musical could have been better timed. “It could be the worst time to open a big budget show &133 things are very dire there financially,” said Elliott, who wrote and directed the 1994 film The Adventures Of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. Critics in Britain have not been so kind, however, about Elliott’s latest film venture, an adaptation of Noel Coward’s Easy Virtue. “The original Coward play was ruthlessly Pommy bashing but I didn’t realise I was Pommy-bashing when I made the film. Needless to say it was very well received when we opened in Canada and Europe but the UK critics hated it.” The film features period-film old-hats Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas alongside US actor Jessica Biel, the partner of US singer Justin Timberlake, who taught Elliott a few things about working with a Hollywood “it” couple.
Last year Vincent Fantauzzo won the Archibald’s People’s Choice Award with a triple portrait of the late Heath Ledger. This year he has chosen another popular young star, Brandon Walters of Australia fame. A life-like close-up of the 13-year-old stares down from a wall at the Art Gallery of NSW.