Southern Cross Young Achievers Awards 2011

On April 9 in Hobart, Michael was selected as the winner of the Academy of the Arts: UTAS School of Visual and Performing Arts & Tasmanian Polytechnic Arts Award as part of the 2011 Southern Cross Young Achievers Award. Selected from a very strong field including the very talented Duncan Meerding Michael is very humbled but this award and encourages anyone who can to support these excellent awards.

Congratulations to the other category winners and the the Tasmanian Premiers young achiever of the year Stanislav Shabala.

Lists No.1

So, as many people who know me will know… I am a list maker. I think it is a sign of all my most frustrating traits rolled into one. I am super anal, a little obsessive compulsive and a massive nerd. I don’t care what anyone says… I don’t mind all of this.

In saying this, I thought I would use this blog to give you a few of my lists, as much as it will bore you. The obvious place for me to start would be with opera, favourite singers or operas or what ever, but, as I they would be no brainers, I thought I would start with movies and actors. The easy thing to do would to write a list of what I think are the best five movies I have seen, and the worst five, but as we easily forget the bad movies we see, what I thought I would do is provide a list of what, in my opinion are the most over-rated movies I have seen. I will also write a short sentence about why these movies have made the lists. Please remember, this is a list of MY favourites, from movies I have seen, many recently.

Top 5 Movies

1. Shawshank Redemption
This movie always blows me away. Awesome script great acting and totally timeless.

2. The King’s Speech
While only very new, I love the relationship between the characters. So dependent on each other. Also, great script and loved the design. (Plus, I’m a sucker for history)

3. The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins. ‘Nuff said. 13 minutes on screen make this movie unforgettable.

4. Cast Away
I think Tom Hanks is probably the most versatile actor of the last 30 years. This movie relies on his ability to embody a character and I don’t think any one else could  have done it.

5. Team America – World Police
An odd choice, but, I am sucker for this sort of comedy. I love that the movie makes fun of itself and everything else. Good mindless movie watching.

Honourable Mentions: The Hangover, The Truman Show, Iron Man, There’s something about Mary, and I am Sam.

5 Over-rated movies

1. Social Network.
This heads this list loudly and proudly. BORING. It felt about 45 minutes too long, and I am sorry, but there is nothing dramatic about building a website. I have done a few myself… and it bores me while I am doing it. A couple of party scenes can not make up for mind numbing scenes of litigation and website talk. The script was banal, the design was boring, the score completely forgettable and the acting some of dullest I have encountered. I am sure the book was great, but a movie requires something to happen. I totally missed the point of this one.

2. Avatar
Looked lovely, but everything was very cliche. It was Pocahontas set in Pandora with blue people instead of brown people. (Also, check out the comment on No.5… pretty much works for this too)

3. Moulin Rouge
Over designed, badly edited, dodgy singing. As an opera fan, I found it offensive to La Boheme.

4. Get him to the Greek.
Does anyone actually like this film? Where did the good reviews come from. I hate Russell B. and think this movie was an excuse to show him partying, getting drunk and acting like a total knob.

5. Titanic
You the line from ‘Chicago’ that goes: “Give ‘em the old razzle dazzle… and they’ll never catch wise”? Well, for me, that line sums up this movie. Too long, bad acting, bad script, terrible songs but looked amazing. Initially I was like… WOW… how good it this… hang on, no this is crap. With such as massive budget you can afford to roll a turd in glitter.

Dis-honourable mentions: Mystic River, Dirty Dancing, and everything Twilight..

Okay… so while I am here I am going to do male actors as well… I’ll name the female ones later. This is just a list this time.

Top 5 Actors:

1. Tom Hanks (versatile and totally believable)

2. Anthony Hopkins (So intelligent and in the right role completely chilling)

3. Kevin Spacey (One role gets him here… Lester Burnham in ‘American Beauty’. Simply awesome)

4. Jim Carrey (I love silly comedy)

5. Robin Williams (Who else can go from Mrs. Doubtfire to Good Will Hunting with such ease?)

Honourable mentions: Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Robert Downey Junior  and Sean Penn

Top 5 Over-rated Actors:

1. Seth Rogan (I hate everything he does – period)

2.  Will Ferrell (I love his movies, Anchorman in particular, but the guy is a terrible actor and I dont think anyone would argue this)

3. Ben Affleck (You only need to see Daredevil to know that he is not worth what he gets)

4. Tom Cruise (Isn’t it funny that after all his work, the only role I thought he played well was Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder?)

5. Adam Sandler (While I like his movies and think many of them are very funny, I am getting a little tired of the same roles being forced down our throats.)

Dis-honourable mentions: Christian Bale, Hugh Grant, Jack Black, and Jude Law.

So, the next list blog, will be female actors/actresses which ever way you go, and TV shows. Stay tuned.

Ciao

Wedding Photos

So, Kala and I got a disk of our amazing wedding photos a week or so ago. We love them so much, so I am going to share a few here. They were taken by the amazing Alan Moyle (Photo bat). Check out his website: www.photobat.net. Obviously these are much smaller and lower res then the photos we got… but they give you an idea.

Current projects

So, these last few weeks have been rather strange. I have been busy, but really haven’t got a lot to show for it. It has been a period of calm before the upcoming storm if you will.

It was my birthday a couple of days ago and I had the pleasure of having a nice quiet day with my wonderful wife and then heading out for mini-golf with our great friend Pia and then heading to dinner at Burger Got Soul in Sandy Bay for an awesome dinner.

I have been doing a lot of study and research for a number of projects I am working on, both performances and new compositions.

The performances I have coming up include a recital with organ at St. David’s Cathedral in Hobart. This performance will include Vaughan Williams’ “Five Mystical Songs” which I have sung many times before, but this is the first time with the organ (which will be played by St. David’s Organist Craig Doherty). I am wanting to approach them in a new way, and am looking at the text from a new perspective. They are amazing songs, full of the typical late 19th century wonder and mystery that made the Victorians so unique. I am also working on preparing the new works of Matthew Dewey‘s to be recorded for our CD. He is a wonderful young Tasmanian composer who has written many works for me, most recently “Il Tempo Passa” which I premiered at the MonaFoma festival this year. As well as “Il Tempo Passa” the CD will include the chamber opera “Buzz of the Sea” as well as songs from “Isolated Sates”, “Southern Ocean” and “The Moon Flower”. We are hoping the CD will be available to purchase by spring.

Oh, and always, working on preparing my operatic roles… I have 4 operas booked in for the 12 months… The first being Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in August. I can not wait for this. Papageno is a dream role of mine. So glad to (finally) be performing this.

The other things I am working on are some of my compositions. I have a few smaller works on the go at the moment including a small piano sonata and a few songs, but I am doing some work on a song cycle, 2 operas and a theatrical work. The song cycle entitled “Between the Silence” is based on the letters of Douglas Mawson to his love Paquita when he has in Antarctica between 1911 and 1913. This work, for baritone and piano is being composed for myself to perform in early 2012. It is shaping up nicely and is a mix of recitative like movements and proper structured songs. It will be performed on a program with Scott McIntyre’s “The Ice Barrier” which I premiered earlier this year, and the Australian premiere of American composer Laurie Altman’s song cycle “Three Antarctic Songs” which should make for a lovely little recital.

My theatrical work is a dramatic song cycle for high baritone/tenor, percussion and pre-recorded manipulated piano. The work based on the idea of water and it’s power is a reflection of the devastating floods in Australia in recent months. It incorporates live video feeds, lighting, mirrors and water. It is going to be presented in mid 2012, with all the details still to be worked out.

The operas are all long term projects. As well as the works that have been put on the back burner like “The 39th” and “Like a Lamb” I am working on a piece called “Missing the Mona Lisa” which is a largely aleatoric opera about the theft of the Mona Lisa and it’s eventual recovery. This is in that awkward stage of sketches and libretto revisions. It will be a really exciting production if it comes off, I just need to get the funding required… It’s expensive to stage an opera, even on this small scale with an ensemble of 5 singers and 4 musicians. The other opera is a very new project that I think is going to take quite a while. It will be a large one act chamber opera of about 70-80 mins long with chamber orchestra and between 5-8 singers. It will be my biggest work so far, and is kind of terrifying. I think the dramatic idea (which is still a secret) will be very good. I am working on the book now, and then will find a writer to partner up with to write the libretto… then to settle down for, oh I don’t know, 18 months to compose the score. Should be fun.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and reading my blog… Now it is up and running I will make my presence a little more known here and let everyone know of my upcoming shows and recitals and what else I am up to in this crazy world.

By the way, if you are interested and have a few thousand dollars to spare, please visit the commissions page on my website to see if you would like to support me and one of my composer friends.

Recollections Review

Here is a review for my recital I did recently.

~~~

Recollections
Michael Lampard – baritone
Philippa Moyes – piano
Runnymede House

Runnymede’s music room was the perfect setting for a concert in recognition of the National Trust homes’s timely renovations.

A thoughtfully prepared selection included music dating from 1840, when the home was built.

Program notes matched the periods with the songs, acknowledging authorship of the poems and translations.

The enjoyment of parlour songs depends on a convincing delivery.

Michael Lampard has made this genre his own, conveying the restrained passion and understated humour due in sentimental ballads and cautionary tales.

Britten’s arrangement of The Foggy, Foggy Dew and Wolseley Charles’s Green-eyed Dragon were fine examples.

Lampard added tuneful whistling for  Charles Ives’s odd par [Memories] A & B.

Philippa Moyes’s playing enhanced the performance.

Lampard’s rich tone gave a majestic quality to Sullivan’s The Lost Chord equally matched by Moyes’s arrangement of the piano accompaniment.

Lampard’s expansive voice, which was at times too loud for the confined room, was suitably intense in The Old Superb by Stanford.

Five of Schumann’s Dichterliebe and R. Strauss’s Standchen were all sensitively and expressively sung in concise German.

Gurney’s Desire in Spring impressed, while Butterworth’s Loveliest of Trees was breathtaking.

A heartfelt An die Musik by Schubert ended the afternoon.

-

Article by Elizabeth Ruthven. Appeared in the Mercury on March 1, 2011.

 

Concert for Queensland Review

Here is the review for CONCERT FOR QUEENSLAND

~~~

Concert for Queensland
Hobart Town Hall
Compere, Leo Schofield

Many performers of distinction donated their time for this excellent Queensland fundraiser.
(The) Jan Sedivka Camerata Chamber Ensemble with Justin Beere, clarinet, gave a flawless reading of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A, K.581.

Various combinations provided unexpected pleasure.

Tasmanian Emily Burke, now with Opera Queensland, demonstrated awesome power in Vissi d’Arte by Puccini, before a Mozart Duet with Michael Lampard.

Jamie Allen amused with Verdi’s Stornello, then joined Burke for Puccini’s O Soave Faniculla. Lampard met the challenge of his pairing with the more experienced Allen in O Mimi tu piu non torni by Puccini. In each song Smithies provided exemplary accompaniment.

A reduced Hobart Chamber Orchestra impressed with Elgar’s Serenade, though lagging in the second movement.

Matthew Dewey conducted the Hobart Chamber Orchestra in the premiere of his enchanting Moon Flower, with Lampard and Allen singing the words by Queenslander Lala Fisher.

Brian Ritchie’s sensitive Shakuhachi teamed with Nick Haywood’s bass and Tom Vincent, piano, for Coltrane’s hypnotic Living Space. Liz Gormley proved the viola’s virtuosity in her stunning version of Enesco’s Concertstuck.

Michael Kieran Harvey Introduced Liszt’s fiendish Harmonies du Soir as a warm-up for Messiaen’s dazzling Ile de Feu 1 & 2.

Money raised included $6000 from auctioning Geoff Dyer’s painting Cockle Creek.

Article by Elizabeth Ruthven for the Mercury. Appeared on March 7th, 2011

 

Welcome.

Okay… so Welcome.

I have tried several times to start a blog… but… with out being particularly enthusiastic about the whole process I sort of, well, never got going.

However… with this one I actually plan on continuing it.

So, stay tuned for things as they happen.

Cheers.